FanEx Portland and Emerald City Comic Con 2023 Recap

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network You're listening

to the geek cast radio network Unleash the Geek

in You. Overall awesome guy, I guess for the

most part as far as far as I can tell he's one

of the few rescuers that hasn't really gotten

into any trouble I'm of course TfU and Mike and

joining me for another con roundup is Matt mr.

Funko lover. Yes And of course, it's the moose

man himself, it's Christopher a Morton. Hello,

sir Yeah, we're here to give you the exclusive

of two Northwest cons live what we thought, what

we've seen, and what we come back to expect next

year. Hey, brother. Is that my best wrestling

intro there? Probably, considering he's now NDA,

I think, or none. I don't know. I don't know

what's going on with the good old Hulkster these

days. I haven't paid attention to what's going

on with him lately, but yeah. So they did...

We were gonna do these as two separate podcasts

and then Chris was like, why don't we just do

it as one? I'm like, okay fine. It's because

he doesn't want me to be too negative. Oh, believe

me. We don't even have to start this episode

yet and I'm already like, motherfucking read

pop, fix your convention websites, damn it. They're

not broken, but like, If you're going to do a

con recap, you want to be able to see the people

that were at the con that literally just happened.

You don't want to have to, you know what I mean?

Like at least have a section for it. Like I'm,

you know, like come on. All right. Positive,

positive, positive. Yes. We are here to talk

about Fan Expo Portland, formerly known as Wizard

World. So if you don't know wizard world as whole

as a company folded on itself It just after years

of mismanagement or decisions I'm very good because

really we haven't been We usually avoided wizard

work comic cons because they commercialize it

so bad I mean you'll walk in there is like 16

year old cheerleaders have nothing to do with

a con They throw their main stage like did in

this one on the main floor. So and they don't

really have panels. So it's It's a very short,

small floor with a lot of guests that come there.

And that is a double -edged sword. Well, actually,

it's a full -edged sword on this one because

it's just... Alright, so we'll talk about Portland

first. Portland was the world. This is the one

of the first. This is the first year where the

Fan Expos have become independent. Portland,

for some reason, kept the moniker of formerly

known as Where's the World? Honestly, I have

no clue people have asked that why why are you

still trying to be attached to something? It

was such a failure and they're quiet about it

So just a failure like con men in the night like

trying to rob you of money Like it wasn't even

just a bad business model. They were just crooks

Yeah So this one's laid out same place at the

appalachian convention center and The layout

alone was we already knew from the first pictures

of it. It was just not going to be laid out now

This con took place in first of all in January

Um, uh, well, no, sorry february 16th 17th. No,

no 17th 18th 19th having a con that close to

the new year It's just simply not a good idea

and next year is even closer to the start of

the year. It's like january million in january

So it's it's really not people don't have the

money after Christmas So we already expected

a low turnout now the official turnout was about

50 ,000 people For the three days and we really

did not see that for the three days. We were

there Nope, that was being there for Friday.

We popped in Saturday I took care of the Sunday

and of course, we're working the booth with a

good old friend artist James Stark and It was

a very Slow -paced con it was later day people

purchased off the layouts were terrible. I mean

was it Friday? Would nobody who showed up for

Katie Sakoff and she just left. Yep She left

two hours early during her signing period because

nobody was standing in line for her Wow Now we

had a lot of starboard people there the big draw

here. There's kind of two three big draws here

First big draw is you have the four main characters

of back to the future show up It was probably

one of the first Michael J Fox actually been

out which blows my mind really their lineup.

It was beautiful. It was a beautiful lineup celebrities

for celebrities Star Wars several Star Wars characters

including Jonathan Frank's Oh dude, you're losing

your nerd card That's Star Trek, not Star Wars.

Star Wars, sorry, because we just got done talking

about Katie Sakoff and the Mandalorian folks.

Yeah, Star Trek. So we had four major Star Trek

people, and then, of course, three major Mandalorians

were there. Trailer Park Boys. And the Trailer

Park Boys were there, and a lot of voice actors

for My Hero Academia. Actually, only three of

them. There was two and then the guy who plays

Deku's voice he was sick. So he cancelled Yeah

now the big draw about this is the way they ran

this out most of the voice actors Ran on the

edge of the main floor and there wasn't much

room for the line So when Michael G Fox line

formed it wasn't just a few people it was like

a 200 and went right into the alleys of the artist

which one didn't have a lot of room in the first

place So now you have this this autograph line

going into the con and you simply can't have

that It was all locking booze like you couldn't

even look at their stuff because there was just

this massive wall of people That's major fail.

Yeah major fail Second part was again main stages

on the main floor. They didn't have moderators

half the time when you went up there like three

different panels walked up there and no one to

moderate so the voice actors or the celebrities

did their own So that was terrible planning on

their part and the ticket prices were really

high For how small the con really was it was

only you know, what? three quarters of the main

convention floor Yeah, and there was a dance

competition for like 10 year old girls going

on at the same time Yep So it was just poorly

left We're not gonna dwell on this as much as

I mean, those were my main complaints not worth

seeing really foe reentry Oh, yeah, once you

walked out you couldn't reenter for the day.

You were done. No returns, which was terrible

So you couldn't leave and go get food. You had

to stay there and buy their crappy overpriced

food. $14 for a small pizza? Yep. For a cheese

pizza. What? Yeah. Cods have not figured out

how to do good food. We're going to talk about

Emerald cities. Uh, first attempt at it in the

new building, but this one was obviously in road

city has the same problem is they just don't

have a lot of good, uh, food vendors and they're

so short on coffee vendors. It's ridiculous.

There should be a dozen coffee stands in these

cars because they will be busy, but they're simply

not the case. And this one is that show that

in, in great excess or plan floor planning was

terrible. Any answer yet there, Thor? Oh, oh

yeah. Yeah. So not only did Katie Sakoff leave

two hours early on Friday, people folded up their

booths Saturday at three o 'clock because they

hadn't made a single sale in one and a half days.

We're talking like creators as well that folded

up their booth and left on Saturday not to return

Sunday because of how garbage it was. I would

probably never return to this convention again.

Oh, we won't. I would cross this off our list.

Like, done. Done and dusted. I was already at

that with Wizard World, but Fan Expo is like

a Canadian company. I've gone to Fan Expos up

in Canada when I lived up there, and they were

great. So I wanted to give it a shot. This is

the worst con that I have ever been to in 15

years. Yikes. The worst. We managed to break

even on Sunday. We were still in the deficit

come Sunday morning. One of the reasons that

I did not go Sunday, one, I was sick of the con

and three, Chris is just a better salesperson

than I am. So we brought out our big guns and

we basically made a hundred bucks for the weekend.

Profit? If that I mean like we broke even in

the hundred bucks a little bit more and this

is one of our cheap cause because James doesn't

have to pay for hotel rooms because he just crashes

here in tap topia Yeah, so I mean we're saving

ourselves or he's saving himself hundreds of

dollars. Yeah, just by that So the only reason

why you need just so the audience remembers listening

to the sound of our voices here Chris and Matt

are local to the Oregon, Portland, Oregon area,

et cetera, et cetera. So they are not flying

in. They're not doing hotels. Like Chris just

said, he's got his place in, in, in Oregon, uh,

his little moose headquarters there and, uh,

there you go. Uh, and yeah, so this is local

for them and really this James is from Vegas,

so he has super cheap airfare, too. Yeah. Yeah.

Flying in. Yeah. I mean, airfare is always good.

I mean, that's great that he has cheap airfare.

That's amazing. But airfare is always expensive.

It really, really is, no matter what's going

on. So yeah, I mean this is local for them as

far as like not having to have the hotel room

kind of thing or putting up James or whatever

kind of thing So it's not like it's not your

standard This is why I get these guys on to do

these con recaps is because they're not not just

it You know having the adventure of the con they

are or lack thereof in this case apparently they

are also working the con with James and And all

that good stuff. And it's just an interesting

side to conventions to see. I was not expecting

this to wasn't expecting like a home run, but

I wasn't expecting like a ground rule single

at this point either. I mean, the, the Michael

J Fox thing was really cool because I've gone

to cons where he was supposed to be, and he might

do a day, but then he doesn't feel well the next

day. And he was there for his full time. Two

days, right? Yeah, he was there for us Friday

and Saturday. Friday and Saturday. And the line

was ridiculous, like Chris said. It blocked off

a whole bunch of booze and then wrapped around

into the cafeteria area. And the photo op for

all four of them was like $600 to get Christopher

Lloyd, Biff, the chick who plays his mom, and

Michael J. Fox. So all the money in the con was

going to the celebrities. Yeah, so I'm Lloyd

so Doc Brown Marty McFly Michael J Fox Leah Thompson

was his mom and then like you said Thomas F Wilson

was was Beth Yep, they have like someone had

different member real cars like The first movies

the the Toyota truck replica was there this car

wash was there. Yeah, it's cool The Studebaker.

Yep, Studebaker was there. I mean, I'm surprised

you even noticed anything, Matt, because you

were staring at Geith McFadden like the whole

time, weren't you? Oh, my God. Yes. Oh, so, so

hot. And she's like 73 years old still. It's

just like, oh. Yeah, she's still this week on

the Geocast Radio Network True Crime podcast.

Another restraining order, we'll just add it

to the queue. Kind of like our con badges, restraining

order, con badge, restraining order. Alright,

we're gonna stop talking about the horrible and

terribleness of that fan expo. Let's just jump

over to what we really wanna talk about. One

more thing though, because this is two weeks

before Emerald City, most of the vendors and

the artists were the cast -offs. from ECC as

well. It was the people that couldn't get into

ECC that did this show. Yeah. That sucks. Yeah.

Yikes, that really sucks. Alright, Emerald City.

What do we got for 2023's Emerald City? ECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

So, February 28th to March 3rd, Emerald City

Comic Con returning back to its original... almost

schedule. I've got it should be more the end

of March instead of closer to the start of March.

Now this is all the heels of its 2022 release,

which came out in November. So they did a quick

return round to get it back on schedule, which

works really well for Rose City because it really

hurt Rose City where it dropped right before

Rose City and everyone spent the money up there

and out Rose City. Now being at the other end

of the year, it helps Rose City a lot more. This

is also in the brand -new Seattle Convention

Center that they just spent, gosh, it was like

900 something million dollars to build. And they

rushed build it, too. Beautiful building. And

there's complaints of that we'll talk about.

But this is basically six floors. One's not really

usable, but it's six stories. And it's fairly

large. It's almost two city blocks long, a block

and a half wide. It sits right along the freeway.

A lot of access into it off the main bus lines.

So there's a lot of pros and cons of this. Now

for us, being a vendor spot, we come in at floor

number two off the side road and it kind of dips

down to floor number one in the front of the

building. Floor two, we come in through our security

check there and right down to our convention

floor. So we're like right to our booths. Our

floor had artist alley, a little bit of vendors

and all the signatures on one end of it. which

was a really good layout and The only downside

was one of the rows in artist alley was like

half the size of other rows And we had a friend

on there and it was really hard to navigate that

aisle when it got busy And trust me it did get

busy. The I think the final numbers were 92 ,000

people at this con So we are right near breaking

back into pre -pandemic levels. Well the expo

which Really was a really good turnout. We saw

most of that on Thursday We didn't make it up

Thursday Eddie Nunes and James was up there for

Thursday and they actually did really well They

said that was the best Thursday that they have

ever seen like period for cons So the layout

of this con was where four zero was the basement

level that's where most of the Vendors the big

sellers the corporate and smaller vendors all

sat on that level Everyone approached the level

one now in this building level one goes to the

multiple escalators Up and down and then right

in the middle is all concreted off. It looks

kind of ugly, but technically that's actually

three level parking garage They have in there

that sits on level one, which I thought was really

weird Um, and then level two was artist alley

and all our stuff level three was uh convention

rooms Four was convention rooms and level five

was main two main stages, uh with a lot of smaller

vendor stuff up there Hmm now the right side

of the building on the main street goes from

level two to level five on this like scaling

escalator There's up a little stops up a little

stops, you know, we'll step off and there's staircase

to go all the way down That was actually big

seating areas. I really like that. I thought

that was nice You have a lot of seating on that

side of the building But they put a lot of pressure

for everyone to be on that side of the building

Which caused a lot of traffic jams now. There

was three escalators. They could rotate They

were rotating them based upon main stage It was

a main seats You don't have a lot of people to

the escalators were going up and it was everyone

leaving that to the escalators were coming down

so They could rotate that that turn now. That's

good. Just did break down a couple of times I

saw some really bad backups and people forgot

there's escalators on the other end of the building,

but there was a lot of stuff over there to attract

people. People forgot that they had feet too

and could go up and down the normal staircase.

There was a huge line because they refused to

not use the escalator. Well, they'll wait forever

for an elevator who are more than capable of

walking the stairs. EDA should be using the elevator

and they weren't there. All the normal people

were using, which was, we actually had my buddy

Carrie. Uh there and he's in a wheelchair and

it was hard to get up and down on the floors

because people there were so many people that

didn't need to use the elevator Using the elevators

and there was only six of them. So Jesus It is

an improvement from from the old Convention Center

because at least this one, it was one elevator.

The other one at the old Convention Center was,

OK, you got to use the elevator to get to the

second floor. Then you have to wheel yourself

over to this elevator to continue on to go up

to the upper floors. So it was kind of nice that

it's all combined. Get in the elevator, go to

whatever floor you want. Yeah, that's good. One

building over three buildings where it was before.

Yeah. So there's a little bit of organizational

change people complain on the lower level because

as people came in to the security checks on the

first floor a lot of the people were just directing

people up to the second floor without giving

people the choice to go down below where all

the vendors were no cheese and that her a lot

of vendors down there because one Vendors down

there are paying $10 ,000 a booth. Yeah Two found

out that the union, because this is a new building,

stuck their nose into this. And since they're

freight elevators to move the freight down to

the basement, they were getting charged if they

had a pallet to unload and load a truck by the

dollar a pound. Yeah. Oh my God. You know how

much a long box weighs? Yeah. So I it was yeah

a lot of vendors say me if that keeps up there's

no way they're coming back to easy They're not

coming back you you should not be involved with

this. This is one of the reasons why I'm against

unions This is just one little thing people may

be mad at me. You can send me if you're union

I understand there's positives to it. But this

union should have took a step back. This was

BS. All you did was hurt your economy by screwing

over these smaller vendors trying to just make

a dollar in sales. You're getting your state

taxes from your sales. You don't need union people

in there charging a dollar a pound for free.

And it was ridiculous. Some of the vendors are

paying $1 ,500, $1 ,600 to do a pallet. It was

stupid. That's crazy. So the actual booth space

in the vendors was $2 ,500. But of course, most

of these vendors have big egos and need to have,

you know, size matters. So they would get like

two or three, four booths. Why? And so it would

be a $10 ,000 booth. And then the stuff that

some of these vendors were selling was trash

anyway. I hardly saw any high end books, anything

that like, I don't know how they're making their

money back. Unless they just really needed to

like move products for whatever reason Yeah,

I don't I don't get that that's crazy Now there

are a couple of vendors there that we really

appreciate and like There's a bag vendor which

and I feel bad for not Remembering to get her

name here so I can plug but these little canvas

bags. She is a fantastic job She doesn't charge

enough. We have $65 in this canvas bag, and it

should have been at least 90 minimum, not 100.

They're good quality bags. Matt got them last

year from her, and this year I couldn't resist

because they were wonderful. So I picked that

up there. I got a lot of small stuff this year.

It's probably the most I spent at a con. Oh,

for sure. The short of it is I didn't have to

work this con very much this year, because when

I get up there, out of nowhere, Kerry shows up.

A complete surprise. And uh carry who's from

the indeed podcast. Um, yeah just he goes screw

it. I'm going to a con. I don't care how Chances

are of getting sick there. I don't care. He just

shows up out of the blue on saturday So I spent

my day saturday and sunday with him just wandering

so I get to see a lot of panels this year And

i'll tell the panels some of them were really

good There's like northwest some introduction

of art Some writing panels. The only one I didn't

like was the doctor who the celebration of 25

years or 40, 35 years of Doctor Who. I didn't

like it because they didn't have a moderator.

So the people were lost on the panel. And you

really need a moderator to keep you on track.

So it was the only one I didn't like. But the

rest of them were great. And there's not enough

though. There simply is not enough panels going

over the diversity of just literally pumping

the energy and the creativity of people that

want to create. And there was a couple of them

there when we were up there talking about image.

There's image panel one all about because it

was big here in Portland. So they have a lot

of their artists there and a couple of writers.

So there was people there with notebooks taking

not in that field, but I like listening. I like

seeing people. And I actually talked to a couple

of the artists. I'm like, listen, there's another

con coming up here, Washington State Summer Con

in a few months. You really need to go to that.

There's going to be some good panels there, too.

Some great people to make contact with. And they

were like, oh, thanks. Good to know. Right. So

we you know, I get to see all that so it was

one of the first times in a couple years I got

to do a lot of panels and not just one or two

when I could sneak away from the booth I'm sorry

Eddie and James. I know I didn't worth it all

this weekend. I sat there for maybe a cumulative

two hours But um, yeah, I just I was able to

get around there and meet a lot of people get

to meet a couple artists like Ben Lantino Who

I've seen at like a lot of the Northwest cons

in his wife do great work It's really cute and

I get to really connect with them on this con

So hopefully I be they forgot about Washington

State summer con he was making his contacts to

get up there I'm hoping to see him up there when

I go to that con on coming up in June But they'll

be on Road City because they're actually based

out of Troutdale. So they're one of the local

area artists. Oh, very cool. Very cool. What

else was at Emerald City this year? Let's briefly

talk about food. Okay. So, one of the biggest

problems with comic cons is the idea of food

and coffee. We are a coffee society. No one should

doubt that. That's who we are. I mean, from high

school, shoot from middle school, you people

are raised on coffee. So when you get these comic

cons and there's only one or two coffee shops,

I don't know why that's such a business failure.

It's a little goldmine. It's money printing.

It's all it is. Very little overhead, a lot on

the profit side. People are paying $6 a cup.

Isn't that all Washington has is coffee and rain?

Like, come on. And they're not coffee. Starbucks

and rain. Whatever. Overpriced coffee and rain.

Yeah. So they had a couple of coffee vendors

there now they instead of having a true food

court at this con they've elected to go with

Carts and there was like what four carts per

floor. No, no every other floor. No, there's

no There was four down on the vendor floor. Yep

There was one on artist alley and there was one

on the sixth floor with the beer garden. Oh Jesus.

Oh, that's right. That's right There might have

been one on the fourth floor to know there was

one. Oh, that was gaming I was gaming but they

had a little spot where you can buy food on the

gaming area Okay. Yeah, so they had a little

they had like snacks, but nothing big But the

food wasn't bad for the price maybe $12. You

got a good size little pizza Or you think of

like chicken strips and fries? Yeah, so the pricing

was actually more reasonable at this one you

I said the pizzas look great I didn't get one

myself, but Carrie ate it. He loved it And for

$12, I mean, it was it was a good deal So it

was a definitely improvement on the quality of

food and how much was there and the lines weren't

super horrible I saw them get kind of long a

few of them, but they could also leave and come

back Well that yep, there are a couple of restaurants

nearby that were great little spots to sip in

on We get a place a place right down the road.

That was fantastic So it's a definite improvement.

And granted, they should have more on the first

floor where everyone entered. That's where a

lot of the food carts should have been, because

there was a lot of wasted space there. That just

wasn't new, because it's all parking garage there.

And they could do that. Now, I will talk about

another thing on the unions we got busted for

was there's a new rule that we couldn't have

a power pack that was over three volts and have

plugs. And we have a power pack to run our lights.

And we got busted for already had to turn it

off because it was like a three days before the

car they released it Because you'd rules or regulations

we couldn't supply power Yikes damn that sucks.

Even though the vendors downstairs they had lights,

but for whatever reason an artist Sally We weren't

allowed to have lights. Yeah Did it kind of feel

like spider -man turn off the dark No, actually

I have to admit one thing is the lighting in

the new convention is primo and they have both

sides of the would be the West side and east

side of the building. It's all glass So when

this sun comes out those halls light right up

now except for the basement, of course uh floor

two three four and five all just Lit up when

the lights come out and most of that building

is windows. It's all Just straight out window

And the little there's a garden area off the

third floor Yeah, three sides surrounded by the

convention. So it doesn't get very breezy down

there But there was a like a lot of LARPers that

were playing down in the garden area They have

like LARP competitions and actually watched a

few them. There was pretty good any Adam Reeves

Garden Adam Eve. Yep. No, no, no, no Those gardens

are down the street Poison Ivy, I mean, you could

mistake Ivy on parts. Matt, I will let you tell

the story of the prom. Oh, so last year you might

have heard me and Chris talk about the after

the cosplay. They have their little after party

on Saturday and we walked into it last year and

we were like, whoa. We're going to end up on

the 10 o 'clock news if we walk in here because

there's alcohol and 13 year old girls and like

30, 40 year old men, uh, all in the same room

together and there's no security. So the only

idea was happening as you were buying the drinks

after you buy the drink, they don't care what

you do with the drink. Well, somebody said, hold

my beer. We can, we can outdo this. And me and

Chris didn't go to it this year. We were kind

of tired after the con. He was walking or he

wasn't walking. He was pushing carry around the

con. So he was a little tired. We went back and

just went to bed. But, uh, yeah. Uh, they had

a lap dance circle. I'll let that think sink

in for a little bit. Yeah. They used to be folks.

No, no, there was a bunch of complaints, uh,

on the, on the. on Sunday when I checked the

Facebook forums of adults being aghast by how

this the they called it the 20th anniversary

prom and there was a lap dance circle of people

sitting around just grinding on each other they

didn't give specifics if it was like appropriate

of like at least the 13 year olds were hanging

out with other 13 year olds. So I don't know

if we have like stranger danger going on over

there, but I just I couldn't help but just laugh

because I guarantee the union bosses didn't say

a goddamn thing. Nope. Emerald City comic -con

people piping up on that forum saying oh That's

crazy. I'm gonna look into this like they do

on some other complaints No that the thread however

is hilarious of how people are commenting on

it. It's gold, but yeah I'm really surprised

that it didn't end up on the 10 o 'clock news

They are gonna get busted hard If they try to

pull something like that again, yeah, I bet they

will once again true crime Like seriously like

I I'm expecting one of these true crime shows

that I love watching I'm expecting in a couple

of years. Oh and by the way in Portland way back

when in 2020 Yeah, exactly like oh my god like

Cause I'm a, I've been a true crime junkie for

years and I'm not trying to detract from, from

the convention talk, but every time something

in Oregon happens, like I did this recently to

Chris, I was like, Oh, Hey, by the way, the episode

of forensic files about which Oregon it is, like

I just saw that and I'm like, Holy crap. That

was only like a decade ago. Yeah. Murder in Hillsborough,

Oregon. Yep, that's that's what it was. Oh, God.

One of the things that I had problems with with

this con was seating. There were nowhere to sit

except the floor. I don't understand that. OK,

and I can speak to this. I know, Chris, you can

kind of speak to this because you help carry,

you take care, you know, but you know what I

mean? Like, you know, I'm a disabled person.

Yeah, I don't. I don't need to be as fat as I

am, but it's a huge issue of me losing weight

anyway. The point is I am a disabled person.

I was born with brain damage and cerebral palsy.

I can't walk. The last time I walked anywhere

like long -term, like a convention or a theme

park or whatever, I was six years old. It was

1986 and it was Disney World and I swore off

of it. as a six -year -old when I had a fit in

front of Magic Kingdom because I was tired of

walking for nine hours. So yeah these places

need to have some sort of seating or some sort

of accessibility type thing just not just for

people like like me but just in general like

come on. There are some old people that love

doing it they're cute old couples that that cosplay

and like They can't sit on the ground granted

the carpeted areas were padded So it wasn't that

bad sitting on it, but then getting my fat ass

up off the ground afterwards. That's a struggle

Yeah, okay. And again, I'm not trying to detract

from that but I met like literally lately here

in my apartment. I've had to Get on the floor

and act like Chris Rock from lethal weapon for

back on that fucking floor To look for a few

things that might have gone under one of my shelves

or whatever Like getting up for me as a disabled

person who can only really use one arm like I

have to basically either grab a chair or Balance

myself to a point where I'm okay. Yeah, but no

Oh god, just no. No, the floor is evil. There

was lava There was like eight chairs in the beer

garden And I think on one of the floors, they

actually had benches. I think it might've been

the third floor. There was benches along the

hall hallway there, but all the other floors,

there's no chairs, nothing like that. There was

no cafeteria area where you could like sit down

at a table and eat. There was a couple of standing

tables downstairs by the vendors, but guess what?

I've already been standing. I want to sit down.

There's a lot of ways to space fish on floor

one where they could have put tables and chairs

and benches So people can sit relax go over things

there were two quiet rooms, but you had to be

part of a Cosplay group to use those rooms because

that group paid for those rooms as a quiet area

There were some benches on the fifth floor But

they could have been a much more because there's

an area that protruded outward. It was all standing

area They should have had benches in there so

They've gotten better, but they're long ways

to go for seating During the con so you can actually

sit and and build up the energy because there's

a lot of walking. Yeah Now to finish up some

of this the touch bases we had to talk about

celebrities for the comic -con. Yeah Celebrities

now this one Terry the guest of honor was Mark

Russell and his panel was amazing They did such

a wonderful job and I will have to give credit

to the people asking him questions Because I

don't know who they were but they hit on theories

that made Mark Ruffalo Stutter because they were

probably gale on of upcoming events that he can't

talk about can't talk about yep And he wasn't

the only one because I went to the panel the

Mandalorian's which had Kenny Sakoff Mercedes

from WWE mm -hmm and oh what's the other guy's

name waiter boy Simon yeah no no no no it's the

the pretty boy Mandalorian that doesn't have

a lot of lines lines They're all through that

those two mercedes and him didn't talk much and

they weren't very interesting. It was all katie

katie is a showgirl. She's Amazing to listen

to she's amazing to talk with and actually she

talked about her journey like when she had to

go through being starbuck and Where she come

up on day one being this person and she's I don't

i'm trying to wonder how i'm going to play this

because everyone's already going to hate it and

Uh, oh shoot brain fire doesn't play originally

played starbuck Dirk the dick Bennett Benedict

walked up to her and was really encouraging He's

like listen, I know which I know it's tough what

you're gonna do. Just do it your way I'm gonna

support you. Don't worry about it. She was that's

all the company Otherwise, yeah, he's not the

greatest person, but he was really supportive.

It was it was a nice story and again she also

got some questions about Mandalorian and Uh,

there were nailed on questions that all she could

do is put her fingers underneath her chin and

do a little smile. I wonder can't nail on the

head, which was, and I'm sure the cosplayers

would have really appreciated her piece stories

of making costumes piece accessible. She talked

about, yeah, her first costumes were not P accessible.

That took like five minutes on dome. She goes

on the second season. I got a costume. I had

a zipper on there and needs to say, I didn't

change costumes because that didn't work too

well. Yeah. No, as of this recording, even though

people won't hear this until March 16th, but

as of this recording, I just finished episode

two of Mando and wow. Yep. We did too. Episode

2 of season 3 of Mando I should say just in case

anyone is is confused with that that may be listening,

but yeah, no, I'm loving Mando Clone Wars is

Amazing right now if you're watching the series

of Clone Wars, right? Both of them give so much

more details in the back You know the full story

and hole that fill in little hole is perfect.

That's exactly where you need to put these because

Tryhard fans are going to be like, oh, I know

what that's all about. Well, Mando is like after

everything. It's after Jedi. It's after all this

other stuff. So it's nice. That's why I love

that show so much is because it's refreshing

that we have little hints here and there about

what we have known over the last 40, 50 years.

You saw the Warp Beast, right? Oh, yeah. Uh -huh.

Mm -hmm. Yeah sexy war beast, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh Yeah other people that were Fun to watch ray

wise was there. I loved him. He is an amazing

actor The the reunion for Clone Wars voice actors.

Apparently that was a big hit. That was a huge

line To go to that and I actually was there wasn't

she who? Actually, Eckstein was there, wasn't

she? Yes. She was the headliner for that voice

acting troupe, but there was like six or seven

voice actors from Clone Wars, and they did a

panel that had a huge line on Friday, I think

it was. Nice. You know, we might be able to tell

you when these events actually happened, folks,

if the website didn't automatically jump to the

next convention year. I think there's still Emerald

City still caught up behind There's still work

on catching up, but FedEx was already jumped

forward But overall I give this one a B grade

for it was a F grade for FedExpo, but Emerald

City I give a B grade Yeah, it was a good show

there was things that I like the price this is

from like A vendor's side of like the tables

and the vendor prices were absolutely ridiculous

The fact that they were selling tickets to the

show Before they even told the artists that oh,

yeah, you've been approved for a table spot Things

like that I'd probably drop it below a B and

the ticket prices for a four -day for that four

-day show to like go as a person are getting

ridiculously high. I understand that we're going

back to what conventions, you know, before everything

happened and whatever else and before Comic -Con

at home and all that and everything else, but

like. How do they expect anyone to show up for

these things? Like how do they expect normal

people who have jobs that save up money and whatever

else but just because they save up money doesn't

mean that they don't have house payments or car

payments or whatever and like just the cost of

everything is just You're talking like Disneyland

prices to get oh god. That's ridiculous. Nobody

wants to go to Disneyland But like if you're

going to Disneyland, you're getting free rides.

What free are you getting at the con? No, you're

going you're you're giving them money so that

you can spend more money there. Yeah see I this

might I usually don't do the hot take thing because

opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one.

I think conventions should not charge you to

attend. They should let They should have things

there that you can purchase like, you know the

food or whatever, you know Just whatever and

then if they if they the convention is throwing

like a specific panel with a specific Act or

whatever then that's what they make their money

on But that could just be me. Well, it's a business

So anything that I can charge you for I'm wanting

to charge you because I want the money I don't

want other people to have that money I'm all

right with a higher cost of the badge as long

as it's the value you get in the show And for

me, it's the panels. I want to see good panels

good vendors and get accessibility I don't want

to be stressed out about the direction of flow

I don't want to be cut out of the you know, make

sure panels are spread out good enough I did

like Emerald City spread them out on a 15 -minute

basis So a lot of panels you could jump that

15 -minute gaps give you enough time to jump

to the next room, which means made it a little

bit easier to catch more panels and everything

wasn't cut off all at, you know, two o 'clock,

three o 'clock, four o 'clock. There's everything

within the 15 minute mark. Yeah, that's a, that's

a, but again, I guess maybe what I'm saying,

maybe, okay, maybe not, maybe not not charge

admission or whatever, but maybe make admission

like lower price and then tailor the experience

to like what you want to go to. My problem is

if I am going to go anywhere to a convention,

whether it's here, local in Indiana, or whether

I have to fly somewhere and, you know, hole up

in somebody's dog house or something. You know,

if I'm spending, let's say, well, what was the

price for the four days? The full price, four

days. Does anybody remember off the top of their

heads? $125 for the - No, no. Sorry, that was

- Like, maybe like - eight years ago no it was

like uh i think it was like 175 or 180 for a

four -day pass okay well that's okay that's my

problem is paying a higher price for whatever

it is is what if it's not like we just said holy

wizard world idiots in portland that wasn't a

good convention i would feel ripped off if paying

them that money to attend something that was

horrible Yeah. It was 150, by the way. 440 passed

there. Seriously? Yeah. Oh, no, I must have been

thinking of the VIP one. Yeah, VIP one is a little

bit more. There's 150, which again, the prices

are horrible. I mean... Well, I watched it or

two FedExpo was much worse for three days They're

like a hundred bucks and you had nothing off

that This one for the 150 wasn't a horrible price.

Now you are looking for it was nearly a thousand

dollars for my room for the the days we were

up there We drove so, you know, there's another

60 dollars gas, you know three hours. Yep. Yep,

so There's costs associated going up there I

wouldn't I don't mind the ticket prices. I think

vendor booths need to come down a little bit

So the vendors can adjust some prices to make

it more affordable for people vendors are having

to charge more just to make the booth and that's

Shouldn't need that pull down the ticket prices

for the building or for the booth prices to help

the vendors out a little bit and The vendors

compete with one another on the better goods

so with fan expo Uh, first day that we were there,

this just kind of sums up how the show was for

us and for everyone. First person that came to

our booth really liked one of the prints that

James had out. And he asked him how much it was.

James said $20. That's the normal price for,

for prints. Uh, he said, Oh, that's out of my

price range. First day. Of the con the con has

just opened. It's not Sunday where you've already

spent your wad and you're like Running on fumes

and trying to scrape pennies together. Hey, how

much money do you have on your Venmo? You know

trying to get stuff together first day first

customer $20 is too much because they spent so

much money Getting in buying celebrity signing

passes or whatever else that they don't have

any money For the vendors because really you

don't get much cheaper than $20 at a booth unless

you just want stickers and a keychain Yeah, that's

that's standard. I mean like $20 is like an opening

bid for something kind of like, you know most

most artists I know most of the Take livio remandelli,

for example a lot of his sketches or a lot of

his prints are like Anywhere from 150 to 300

dollars depending on what it is Yeah, but that's

you know some and I'm not I'm not bringing him

up to take away from James at all I'm just saying

because of who he is and what he's worked on

and whatever else Oh, yeah, he can charge those

kinds of amounts and if somebody thinks 20 bucks

is too much then You shouldn't be at that convention.

You should have spent that money to see that

so to potentially even though it may be a VIP

thing and you may get to shake the Celebrity's

hand or you may not you may just whatever it

is. I don't know like I don't know conventions

to me. I don't mind like reading about the stuff

online or seeing pictures or seeing video or

us obviously doing this kind of thing is I love

how we do these kinds of things on the podcast

or whatever else but like Don't ever want to

go to a convention. I have zero interest in going

to conventions anymore Look for small town ones

like yeah, we have e3 gaming con in Corvallis

And there's a couple of the smaller ones Boise

has the Boise State State con but anything done

at a fairgrounds usually is pretty small time

and those can be fun Which we're coming up here

as we're wrapping things up is Washington State

summer con which is June 23rd to 25th And it's

in a fairgrounds and this is like the fifth year

Yeah, yeah, I think so It'll be our fourth year

going to it. It's phenomenal. It's great. They've

really improved as outdoors. The National Guard's

there with shoppers and all this other stuff.

It's a good con. We're probably going to do a

show about it, but this one looks like we're

not going to do a booth this year. The artist

we worked for basically decided not to. to be

at this con. He double booked himself. He double

booked. So he's just going to go to Austin for

the time being. So what's great is, I mean, Matt

and I can go up on Saturday. We can actually

join the con and watch the panel. So we can give

a straight visitor point of view. Probably one

of the first ones we'll do is a straight visitor

point of view, which is going to be nice. Yeah.

Interesting. Yeah, that's cool. But it's just...

It's just, I don't know. It just kind of. Well,

also, uh, something that we experienced at this

con. Um, so you said Livio earlier, he is really

good friends with Eddie, uh, one of the artists

that we represent. And both of them were doing

whatnot auctions from the guy's hotel room. They

didn't even have a booth at ECC, but they were

doing ECC auctions of their material. So. Really?

You could have saved money and like cuz levio

goes by himself He doesn't have like a booth

babe or anything else to help himself. So his

booth is empty he could have just gone and Got

in a hotel room and not even done the con and

still made a buttload of money doing auctions

on whatnot Hmm like it people are finding ways

to like try to attach themselves to cons without

actually ever going into the con. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. It's just, it just seems

like there's more. I mean, yes, you guys did

talk about a bunch of positive stuff with ECCC

this year, but half the time it's like, this

was a nightmare, that was a nightmare, this was

this, that was that, they didn't do the right

things or whatever else, or they didn't space

things right, or they didn't plan this. It's

like, why would you wanna go, unless, you know,

unless there's a way to, you know, have influence

to improve the stuff. Well, my tinfoil hat. Okay.

Is that there, like the housing market bubble,

there's a con bubble, and I feel like it's about

to pop. A lot of people that loved cons and started

cons. We used to go to one in Eugene called EU

con. He sold right before the pandemic. All these

people sold their cons that they loved and built

up and sold it to like read pop corporations

that treat it like a business instead of like

a passion. And so they are trying to eke out

as much money as possible and they'll just keep

raising prices until it stops. Yeah. So until

that market pops and people it goes back to the

way it was of having cheaper tables and Easy

access food or unique foods like Rose City at

one year they had food carts parked outside Along

the street so that people could just easily walk

outside of the con go to the food cart and then

go back into the con like unique things that

that really kind of Make it different from San

Diego or New York or, you know, stuff like that,

that really stand out. It's very corporate right

now and you can feel how corporate it is. I almost

expect EA to do one and then they'll charge you

for chairs. You got to rent a chair to sit down

or, you know, something. That wouldn't surprise

me. I mean, after all, it is EA. Yeah. Yeah.

Alright folks, we're gonna go to a quick ad break,

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Triple Takeover Toycast. All right folks we are

back here on geek cast radio episode 3 16 Chris

and Matt you guys mentioned Washington Whatever

con it is coming up in June. What else you guys

got going on? Besides Rose City not much else

in that area There's some projects for indeed

podcast going on that'll be worked on right now

with Carrie and Keith But really, there's a lot

of work has got me on the just pushing. 12 hour

days. 12 hour days. And Matt started his own

independent clinic. I guess you say clinic? Independent?

Yeah. Yeah. He's independent now as a massage

therapist. He has been working on building that

clientele up. So we're personalized. We're pretty

busy still. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. So when

is Rose City this year? September. Oh, okay,

so Yeah, we'll probably do one for that most

likely. Oh definitely Exactly September 22nd

to the 24th Which is great. It's a good honestly.

It's a great time for Khan here in the northwest

And the the layouts always been good. I like

Portland. They still do a lot of Panels, I really

like to push them to do more panels again. I'm

a panel guy. I like to see more panels But yeah,

it's a great medium -sized con and they already

have a really good amount of people coming in

there a lot of voice actors this year, too, so

Working people here indeed Chris Well, you can

check us out at indeed podcast com. We're still

there a little old on some of the clientele We're

moving servers right now, but you'll be seeing

some new stuff come out Down the pot if you are

one of the old folks and use Twitter still you

can look for us at indeed podcast Very cool.

Very cool. Matt anything you want to promote

anything you want to mention about social media

or anything like that? No, I don't do that Uh,

blue tiger massage goes, if you're in the Portland,

you want to, okay. Yeah. If you're in, if you're

in Beaverton, uh, the clinic that I'm working

at is blue tiger massage. Uh, I'm an independent

contractor there. Uh, we do a lot of good deep

therapies. If you're super broken, like all three

of us are. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. All right,

thank you for listening to us here on geek cast

radio If you'd like to get in contact with us

to leave feedback for the show There are several

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Twitter Yes, we are old at geek cast radio for

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still use Twitter. I don't know if you don't

know system. Okay I shall use that twit twit

bird. Yeah, I haven't been banned yet Yeah, that

should be our moniker haven't been yet. Mm -hmm

must be all that musk sniffing I'm a fan of Facebook

go to facebook .com slash key cast radio network.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of geek castry

I wish you'll join us next time. We'll be talking

about something I think It's either gonna be

St. Patrick's Day since it's episode 317 or it's

going to be an album review of Theory of a Dead

Man's new album, Dinosaur, releasing on St. Patrick's

Day this year in 2023. That's right. They did

a new version of Just the Two of Us in an A to

Love song, ladies and gentlemen. It's amazing.

It's hilarious. Oh, Lord. For now, I... TfU and

Mike with Chris and Matt. Thank you for listening.

Until next time. Anyway, enough of that BS.