Today the costumed conventioneers started showing up, but it’s not as big as the big event. The Saturday night costume contest that brings out a freak show of innovation and geekdom. I don’t know why but there are always a lot more Boba Fett costumes than Darth Vaders. Perhaps because the isolated nature of grown men who would wear a costume gravitate toward the go-it-alone ethic of a bounty hunter.
In a convention first, I ended up in a meeting at the Warner Brothers booth where I pitched a prime time TV show. The best thing about the convention is that instead of me having to scatter fifty meetings across the year to catch up on the usual folks to whom I pitch, they’re all in one room. Okay, it’s a big room, but somehow we’re managing to find each other.
At the Gotham Group/Darkhorse lunch party I met pals from Sony animation, Disney, Tyler Perry’s company, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks and Universal. Now we’re talking convenient, we got em’ all in a 30′ x 30′ room. I made my way through the mosh pit in front of the bar and ended up having three beers. They were free, and I left pretty wobbly. A few hours later I met with some executives from an unnamed family entertainment company that also has a theme park and rhymes with Schmalt Schmisney where they bought me two more drinks. So now I’m returning to my booth hammered.
I had a backlog of people waiting for me to sign my posters and I was hoping they didn’t notice my obviously slurred speech. I was hoping they just thought I talked like a normal idiot. As I document my slow descent into alcoholism this just became my inadvertent attempt at gonzo journalism. Enough of that.
Getting back to the Boba Fetts… I remembered hanging around with Jon Heder at the con two years ago when he got mobbed by a bunch of girls and fanboys. I mean they were tearing his clothes off and suddenly he didn’t like going to the convention any more even though he’s probably the most comic-video-game-cartoon savvy kid in Hollywood. But I’ve got your solution, Jon. You need to dress up like Boba Fett and you could walk the floor with only Boba Fett fans tearing your clothes off. Hey, I’m a problem solver. It’s what I do. I didn’t ask for this gift.
I ended the night by attending the Eisner Awards where my pal Ethan “Eef” Nicolle got robbed of an award. Don’t worry, pal, these awards are all fake and meaningless and a complete shame until we win one. Then they’ll mean everything. Patten Oswalt did a set announcing a few categories and he got some decent laughs. “Reno 911’s” Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant did a set and picked up an otherwise academic night of comic history and tributes.
Many of my Big Hollywood readers came over to play and it was great to meet you all. It was great to see a certain editor named John Nolte hang out as we swapped convention stories. Good people. Good times. Goodnight!
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