Toronto Comic Con Special Report

or listening to Geekcast Radio on geekcastradio

.com Hello and welcome to Heatcast Radio's Toronto

Comic Con Roundup. I am your host, DFG1Mike,

and joining me as usual is Steve Megatron. Hello?

Hello. And our ace reporter, the Televixen, the

last time we heard from her was back on Tooncast,

episode 30, the holiday show. Hello, ma 'am.

Hello. How are you? I'm doing great this weekend.

That's good. I'm actually surprised you were

even here because of the simple fact I forgot

today is the launch of the iPad One of my friends

on Twitter Jenny girl seven She's in Indianapolis

here in the states and apparently there's nobody

at her local Best Buy and there's no line and

they said that they have plenty in stock so As

of this recording, Saturday, April 3, 2010, if

you guys want to get an iPad, go to Indianapolis.

Why would anyone get a first -gen Apple product

is what I want to know. I know. I know. Other

than the status that comes with it, you know,

ooh, I have an iPad. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I'm

I'm of the same mind now now see when iPhone

came out I was like oh I gotta have it and I

had the 2g and then I had the 3g and now I don't

have either one of them but yeah but yeah I'm

just waiting for Apple to come up with the next

best thing because you got the HTC 2 or the HTC

HD 2 which I so want that whenever I'm eligible

for my upgrade from T -Mobile I'm so getting

that phone to be with a cell phone provider that

you get upgrades. Mine doesn't. Well, I'm not

saying that I probably will have to put some

cost into it, but it's not going to be as much

as if I tried to get it now. Yeah, I looked into

switching to an iPhone. cruddy blackberry pearl

right now and uh... if i want to if i want to

get an iphone i have to buy out my current contract

at ten bucks a month by the phone for a hundred

and ninety nine dollars and sign up for another

three -year contract well here's otherwise at

six hundred dollars for the iphone yeah yeah

a virgin mobile Is Richard Branson even still

alive? Oh, yes, he is I was gonna say after his

his whole failed TV show. I haven't seen him

around lately Wow that totally That didn't even

register on my radar. There was a TV show. Yeah,

it was one of those not the flight attendants

one on CW It was either CW or Fox Okay, yeah

where he he had it's basically I think it was

like either right before or right as Trump launched

the apprentice Okay, so it's probably easily

forgettable I Don't do reality TV No, you stick

to the vampires with sparkles on them No, I don't

do vampires with sparkles either No wimpy vampires

for me. I want the ones that tear a chunk of

flesh out of you. None of these vegetarian vamps.

Alright, so you went to Toronto Comic Con, what

was it, two weekends ago? No, it was just last

weekend. It was the last week in March. Oh, okay.

And this was the first one that they've had in

Toronto. It's the same people, the Wizard World

Comic -Cons. It was their inaugural one in Toronto.

See, I thought they had something last year.

Well, we have two other events in the city that

are fairly well -known. PodCamp doesn't count,

because that's for podcasting. No, we have one

called Polaris, which used to be known as Toronto

Track. which is every July. It started off as

a Star Trek fan conference and is now branched

off into all sci -fi fantasy stuff. Not really

heavy on the comic content or the video game

content, but a lot of TV, film, a lot of filking

and stuff like that going on. So we have that

one every July, and then in August we have what's

Fan Expo, which is our biggest. Yeah, Fan Expo,

that's what it was. Yeah, and I've been to both

of those the past few years. But Wizard World

decided they wanted to enter the Toronto market,

and this was their first one, and it's got some

work ahead of it, but it wasn't a bad weekend.

Well, that's good. What was the first? Now you

went all three days correct Friday Saturday and

Sunday I was there Friday evening, and then all

day Saturday and Sunday, okay? What was the first

thing that you were looking for when you went?

The first thing that was on my list they had

a special Caprica event That was the day that

the Caprica mid -season finale was happening.

So they had two of the cast members, Magda Apanovich,

who is Lacey on the show, and Luciana Caro, who

is, she's Pryah on Caprica, but she's probably

best known as Kat on BSG. Yeah. Seeing two shows

I know nothing about. Yeah. was a huge BSG fan.

I'm really enjoying Caprica, so I was really

looking forward to this. It was a one -hour panel.

We also got a 15 -minute sneak preview of the

mid -season finale and found out what's in store

for us when it returns in the second half of

the season. I think they're talking about fall,

that it'll be coming back. So it was a really

exciting event, an excellent panel. There were

some fantastic questions asked from the fans

and the media that were there, especially that

it's gonna get a lot darker. And there's gonna

be a lot of people getting their asses seriously

kicked from what I've heard. What I thought was

the most fascinating was they gave us a bit of

a look into what it's like to shoot the scenes

with, if you're not familiar with the show, one

of the main characters was a girl who died in

a suicide bombing on a train but her consciousness

was trapped in her virtual reality avatar which

has now been implanted in a robot. So there's

this robot who's trying to fulfill her mission

Well this girl in the robot trying to fulfill

her mission and her best friend Lacey The whole

interactions between the two of them girls, Magda

who was at the event who plays Lacey was talking

about the process in which they go through filming

these scenes and because she's basically talking

to, she starts off talking to the actress that

plays the character and then they replace it

with a metal pole. and she talks to this metal

pole and then they go from there to adding in

all the effects so when you see it on screen

she's talking to this giant hulking robot and

it was just really neat to hear the whole how

you go from you know talking to kind of thin

air to how you see it show up on on your tv screen

and someone like me who is just fascinated with

the whole tv process how they create it i was

just totally geeking out over that Also, how

do you add a human spin to it? If anything, they've

made this Cylon, while it's still all metal at

this point, they've given it some very human

traits. That's one thing that's really working

for this show, is giving this object such depth

and such humanity. Yeah, it's very cool. Um,

yeah, you know, I don't have anything against

BSG or Caprica But it's they're just not shows

that I watch or well BSG wasn't in Caprica isn't

but you know, that's cool I mean, it's nice to

see that, you know the cast members and Production

people or whoever was there whoever else was

there besides the cast members are out there,

you know promoting their stuff and giving the

fans what you know some sort of insight into

stuff so that's pretty cool. What I also thought

is really great with having a show like that

at one of these events in Canada is a lot of

these heavy -duty sci -fi shows are all done

in Canada, in Vancouver. Everything from the

X -Files to BSG to Smallville, that's pretty

much the sci -fi fantasy genre central. Even

if the shows don't necessarily stay there for

their entire run, that's kind of the big starting

point for them. really giving some recognition

to the people that make these shows happen in

their own country in a lot of cases. And a lot

of the cast is Canadian and as a Canadian I think

that's kind of cool that we're contributing so

much to television and to film that people all

over the world are talking about and appreciating

and loving. Well, Vancouver is the new Hollywood.

It is in a lot of cases. For a while it was Toronto,

but we just don't have as much of the geographic

diversity that Vancouver does. We don't have

mountains here. We have a lake. We don't have

the ocean. If you want downtown New York, like

if you wanted to look like New York, you can

use Toronto easily. But a lot of other settings,

it just works so much better in Vancouver. After

that panel, where did you go next? That kind

of wrapped up my Friday. That pretty much took

up most of my Friday evening so we headed back

down there on Saturday and had a couple of interviews

lined up that day. We met up with David Richmond

Peck who is one of the actors on ABC's V and

that was a a fantastic interview leading up to

it just came back this past week and he gave

us a little idea of what was going on and they

had some, the tone has changed a little bit and

we're to expect a different half of the season

for the subsequent episodes. I think things are

about to get really ugly on there and he just

gave us some really good insight into the whole

social commentary aspect of it you know was it

intentional or was it purely coincidental and

you know just how smart he thinks the writers

are and talking about how you know the sci -fi

genre they can really talk about subject matter

that maybe in regular television they don't want

to go there like the whole healthcare debate

and all of that stuff but you know you put it

into a sci -fi atmosphere and all of a sudden

it's fair game So it was really interesting to

talk to him about that. Also interesting to talk

to him about how acting has changed over the

years, especially with the advent of social media.

and the way that they can interact with with

fans and you know kind of find out that instant

reaction to when people watch an episode they're

they're going right to their Twitter to their

Facebook to wherever it is they congregate online

and talk about the episode say what worked what

didn't work and the actors the the directors

the writers they can go there and it's kind of

like instant focus group in a way yeah you know

they can they can see what people or what people

are talking about, what they liked, what they

didn't like. There's no more of this whole waiting.

And it kind of puts a face to the whole numbers

game, too. Yeah. So him and I spoke quite a bit

about that, and that was a lot of fun. Yeah,

I remember, I don't know which movie it was.

It was one of Mel Gibson's movies. It might have

been one of the Lethal Weapons. I don't know.

It might have been Lethal Weapon 3, where I don't

know if he was on the commentary on the DVD or

a special feature or whatever. He mentioned that.

He would sneak into his movies in disguise to

not really hold the focus group, but to see the

reaction. And nowadays, you really don't even

need to do that anymore. Exactly. Because like

you said, Twitter, Facebook. Of course, we all

know MySpace is just not even relevant anymore.

And I guess you, you know, I would say the one

thing that's probably taken MySpace's place is

like blogger or blog spot or, you know, just

internet blogging in general. Yes. All right.

Where did you go after talking with him? Also,

as a BSG fan, there was a one -hour BSG event

with two of the cast members. Again, Luciana

Caro, who was in Caprica. She was Kat on BSG.

And probably one of my absolute favorite characters

from the series, Anastasia Diwalla, who's Candice

McClure. She ended up being the XO toward the

end of BSG. She left the show, her character

left the show on a very, very tragic note. She

ended up taking her own life on the show. And

it was one of the most, as a viewer and a fan

of the show and someone who liked the character,

it's a really difficult scene to watch. It's

that well done. And so this event was the, it

was kind of like a one year anniversary following

the series finale. talking to the two of them

about their whole experience and what their lives

have been like since the show ended and the impact

the show had on a lot of other things. How many

other shows in the world can say that they led

to a conversation at the UN in New York? Just

some of the subject matter that they dealt with

and they were able to deal with with it being

You know more of a sci -fi show also talking

about it being not just science fiction But really

good drama because if anything at the heart of

it all BSG yes, it took place in space for the

most part But it was some of the best drama of

any genre ever written in my opinion and a lot

of people's opinions So they just kind of reflected

back on that whole experience Talked about you

know how they kind of countered the really dark

parts, the dark subject matter that they were

dealing with on set and how they let loose and

all of that. Candice, who was Dee or Douala,

filled this in on how she got into the head space

of filming her final role and how she found out

she was going to be she was going to be offed

on the show and just the whole kind of an actor

goes through a mourning process when something

like that happens to them. Yeah, I think the

only actress that I know of and I don't know

first hand but just over on NCIS way back in

the first or second season there was a commentary

or a special feature on that DVD with Donald

Belsario where he mentioned that Oh, what's her

name that played Kate? Oh, crap. The woman that

played the character of Kate on that show, she

wanted to go back to theater acting. So he said,

OK, well, we're not going to just give you a

frumpy ending. We'll send you out with a bang.

And they had the villain of that episode, Sniper

in the Head, to kill her. Wow. Yeah. So, you

know characters getting getting killed off or

or or whatever a character's end may be I don't

know how a lot of people like directors or producers

or whatever tell the actors but Some people,

you know want that explosive ending or some people

want, you know the more subtle ending or whatever

Yeah, well a lot of what she was saying was she

didn't She had no suspicion that she wasn't going

to be in the show until the very end. It wasn't

until she was given the script and then Ronald

D. Moore called her in and said, listen, this

is what we have planned for your character. Here's

how you're going to be leaving the show, but

didn't really get into how she was going to do

it. And as she was reading the script, she discovered,

oh my gosh, I'm going to kill myself. Her reaction

to it. She said she was just she was she was

crying she was upset, but by the time she got

to filming the scene She kind of comes up to

terms with it, but I know even reading some interviews

following it at first she I Guess she felt she

wasn't ready to go yet, but now she she did mention

that in hindsight. You know that was the that

was probably the best decision they could have

made for her character and a fitting ending and

the research that went into it like she spoke

with a lot of people who've made that decision

in the past and didn't necessarily go through

with it but kind of the whole hit space like

you don't realize like actors just don't naturally

have this like there's a lot of work that goes

into it and if anything I walked out of there

with like a whole another level of respect for

the whole the whole acting process mm -hmm mm

-hmm yeah what other like outside of like the

panels and stuff what is at like I've never been

to a convention I well when I was little I went

to a couple of like you know car shows that stars

showed up to like when I was six I you know did

a thumbs up with david hasselhoff and he picked

my mom up and held her in his arms and all this

and all that but yeah well this one i'd have

to say the emphasis was kind of on coming and

meeting some people from tv and film and there

was a huge wrestling components wrestlers from

back in the day like I haven't watched wrestling

since I was a kid I mean I know a little bit

of what's going on now but I do not watch it

but you know to see people sitting around like

the honky -tonk man and Virgil and Kamala and

all them a lot of things you know you just a

lot of the biggest part of it is going meeting

these actors getting autographs some of them

getting photos with them it's it's a lot of it's

kind of a thank you to the fans in a way There

was a huge reality TV section. Which you probably

didn't even go near. The only person that, and

I mean this isn't me now, but me when I was like

a kid would have been excited over was Christopher

Knight that was Peter Brady on the Brady Bunch.

He was there with his supermodel wife. Yeah,

who was dressed as Wonder Woman and got a lot

of attention from most of the men there that

weekend I'm sure even if he wasn't dressed as

Wonder Woman. She would have gotten a lot of

attention She's an Amazon of a woman. She is

so tall. Yeah What's her name Adrian Curry? That's

yeah, so there was like there was like the most

recent winners of the amazing race and Some not

dancing with the stars. What's the other dancing

show? So you think he can dance right the Fox?

Yeah, so there were a lot of those kind of people

there. And then the sci -fi fantasy genre. One

of the coolest people to meet over the weekend

was Ernie Hudson. Oh, really? You met Winston,

did you? He was fantastic. I watched him on Oz

from beginning to end and that was one of my

all time favorite shows. So just kind of meeting

him was really neat and a friend of mine got

to interview him and got some really interesting

little tidbits. He really wants to do the next

Ghostbusters. You know together with the guys

again. He said yeah paycheck, of course, but

you know true It'd be fun. Do you know suit up

and get together with the guys, you know? Kind

of like a little reunion. Yeah, I hate a couple

about a month ago. I was watching I don't know

Sunday morning. There was I had just woken up

I turned on A &E and there was a special on Caddy

Shack like behind the scenes making of whatever

and it was on A &E and uh... and i saw herald

ramus and just there's just in the heat i don't

know if they might know they make fat suits in

hollywood i don't know if they make skinny suits

there's just no way i i would see him as he gone

anymore it's just and i mean those same thing

with uh... david hasselhoff he has engaged well

either uh... but it's it's one of those things

where I would love to see a Ghostbusters 3, but

I don't know what direction they could pull it

in. Like if they were gonna do it where, kind

of like in the beginning of 2 where they split

up and then they got back together, but 3 they

split up, got back together and then say Peter's

kid or their kids become the new Ghostbusters,

I don't know. I've kind of heard like in all

the kind of grumblings about it is that it's

going to be them kind of training the next generation

when and if the third one ever happens so they

may not be the they might not be the primary

players rather than kind of mentors Which I'm

totally cool with I'd love to see another Ghostbusters

movie I think if anything like I liked those

movies as a kid as I've gotten older I Come to

love them. Yeah as I've gotten older. They've

grown on me even more Yeah Yeah, so there was

he was there and There was, of course, a lot

of TV actors. Jewel State was there from Firefly.

It was Kayleigh on Firefly. I didn't get a chance

to chat with her, but a lot of people were stopping

by to say hi and shake her hand. And a lot of

guys, like, kind of just milling around staring

at her because, gosh, she is a very pretty girl.

What? There's nothing fake looking about her.

She's very pretty, even in person. Did you get

in any line for any autographs or anything? You

know what? I'm not a big autograph person. All

right. I'll rephrase because I'm looking for

a certain thing here. Have you ever gotten autographs

at any convention? Not at a convention. OK. My

point is that my follow up question would have

been, What do you think of what do you think

the like that the people giving the autographs

the actors the Musicians whatever do you think

they should do it for the fans just to do it

or do you think it's okay for them to charge

for it? Well, the only reason I think it is okay

for them to charge for it Some of the rates that

are charged are a little outrageous But in a

lot of cases, that's how they pay that's how

they're paid to attend these events. Okay That's

what pays their flight, their hotel. Because

in 99 % of the cases, they're not locals. True.

Do you think that they should? I'm not really

trying to go into a rant on this. Well, a friend

of mine went to, I think it was, FanX last year

and stood in line for. six plus hours to get

Leonard Nimoy's autograph. He was also going

to get a photo with him, but it was like $60

extra. Do you think the autograph signing and

the photo should be just one price, or do you

think it should be the two separate prices or

whatever? You know what, I think there should

be two separate prices, but some kind of a cheaper

package deal. Okay, you know like say if it's

$50 for an autograph and $75 for a photo Maybe

for a hundred bucks you can get both Mm -hmm

and the only reason because I'm someone who's

put on events in the past not necessarily this

type of event But I know how costly it is to

put on an event in Toronto so I can respect why

people charge that To bring in talent like this,

in Toronto, unfortunately, we don't have the

big studios footing the bill for a lot of these

things, whereas like a San Diego or... one of

the larger comic cons you know Warner Brothers

might bring in the actors and they pay for the

actors to be there so there can be free autographs

we don't we don't really get that advantage in

Toronto yet but I'd love to see the day so at

this point I really have nothing against you

know charging for the photos in the autographs

in some cases it is really expensive but it usually

makes sense for the people that it is more expensive

depending on who they are like Leonard Nimoy

It's expected that it's going to be significantly

more than anyone else who was at it. Well, true.

But my friend that went, the problem was that

he was a robot, my friend said pretty much. People

would come up, hi, Mr. Nimoy. They would hand

him whatever they wanted him to sign. He would

sign it, and they would just walk away. He wouldn't

acknowledge them. He wouldn't do anything. to

say hi, how you doing, whatever. He then went

on an hour lunch break and returned four hours

later. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I also,

I can kind of, and I hate to play devil's advocate

here, but I can kind of see it like how it is

for them on their side of things. You know, how

numbing must it be? Like it's exciting and invigorating

probably for the first hour so but then you know

it does become It's got to become pretty monotonous

after a while Especially for as many years as

as someone like Leonard Nimoy has been has been

going to these things But I do have to say I

was at his at his panel that he did last year

at Fan Expo and he was very animated and very

entertaining and I'm not a Trekkie or a Trekker

or whatever you want to call it. I've never really

watched Star Trek it's just something I've never

been able to get into but even as someone who's

never watched the show it was very entertaining

to watch him speak and talk about you know how

little things came to be. on the show and uh...

i'd i'd think he was there he was probably one

of the best speakers i've ever seen at one of

these events steve do you want to ask any questions

who all did you end up talking to you as far

as interview wise uh... well there was david

richman pack from the who we touched on already

I got to speak briefly with Meg Dapinovich from

Caprica and she gave us a little bit of insight

into what's in store for her character in the

second half of Caprica when that comes back which

I think is the fall. Candice McClure and Luciana

Caro from BSG, I spoke with both of them and

that was pretty much all of the interviews I

got. Schedules were pretty With this one, I found

that the main focus wasn't on so much the media

or press that may have been there. It was more

for the fans. Like this was probably one of the

events that the ultimate focus was on the fans

and giving them as much time as possible to get

photos or autographs or to just go over and say

hey to whoever it was that they were there to

meet. So I do have to give them kudos on that.

And that seemed to be the head space that all

of the talent was there in. fans first and foremost

this weekend and I really liked that vibe of

it yeah what kind of merchandise was there like

what like I like my main thing when I think of

conventions I think of the Transformers one BotCon

where obviously you have the dealer room with

thousands and thousands of Transformers toys

that people can buy so what kind of merchandise

was there that people could buy for this one

of a vendor floor as there is at a fan expo.

Like fan expo is massive. This one was probably

about a quarter or a fifth of that size. There

was everything from, there was a lot of comic

books because this used to be primarily a comic

book convention that WizardCon kind of came in

and purchased and took over. So there was a heavy

emphasis. on comics and graphic novels. There

wasn't a lot in terms of the anime or manga stuff

that there is at Fan Expo. A lot of the TV merchandise

too. There was t -shirts, like fun little t -shirts

with slogans and sayings from shows. There was

figurines, everything from some Doctor Who stuff

to... I think there was even like wrestling figurines

that if you wanted to have them signed you could

It was pretty much standard convention fair Apparently

a lot of the Joss Whedon fans were very thrilled

because they had Some of the angel and Buffy

merch at really awesome prices cool cool yeah

they have the angel and spike puppets from the

puppet episode and they have them for like thirty

nine dollars which is like unheard of in most

cases i love smile time yeah i'd yeah smile time

is by far the funniest episode in season five

Yeah, so that you saw a few people carrying around

their puppets because they've been looking for

some people have been looking for them for years

and they've always been like exorbitantly priced

and So, you know to be able to pick up something

like that for like thirty thirty nine dollars.

I think they were that's yeah It wasn't nearly

as much variety. I wasn't as impressed or overwhelmed

as I am at Fan Expo. But like I said, this is

the first year. And this is just kind of like,

to me, they were kind of gauging the market,

seeing what potential there was. And I'm sure

next year's will be bigger and probably have

even more vendors. Right. Yeah. But it was good

quality stuff, too, from what I could tell. Like

they had an actual swordsmith there selling,

you know swords and stuff like that. It wasn't

just you know Some of the conventions you go

to people are selling stuff that they got for

free at San Diego Comic Con and stuff like that

Damn scalpers. Yeah, and I kind of you know,

if you if you got something for free Why are

you gonna go out there and then sell it? Yeah,

you know that makes no sense. Yeah, so they're

There was definitely not the quantity, but it

was some really good quality vendors. And the

artists, I have to give like, the artist's alley,

the actual comic book artists that were there

were fantastic. You got this real sense of community

for all of them. I'm by no means a comic book

person. I mean, I appreciate the art. I do love

some of it, but I'm not a regular comic or a

graphic novel reader. But just the whole sense

of community and especially... Now that the internet,

like you can do web comics, just stuff that's

out there that you may never have seen before.

Meeting some of those guys and gals was just

fantastic and the whole networking, I think it

was a really good event for them. And just seeing

them on the spot, putting together a really neat

little picture. Just getting a better understanding

of the whole process, that was pretty cool. Also,

in terms of graphic novels and books, Max Brooks

was there, and oh my gosh, if you ever get a

chance to listen to that guy talk, he's like

one of the best speakers I've ever seen in my

life. Hello? Yeah, I'm here. Okay, you guys both

cut out at one time, it went silent. Oh, no,

we're here. It sounded like the connection dropped.

Max Brooks has to be one of the best speakers

I've ever seen in my life. And he was just talking

about the whole process, how he ended up writing

World War Z. Or as he kept saying, we're in Canada,

it's World War Z. He's very entertaining. And

there's a common theme that I keep seeing at

these different conventions that a lot of the

people who are the most creative and put out

the most exciting projects are the people who

face the most challenges growing up. Like a lot

of the real geniuses are dyslexic. And you know,

it's just like, wow, like the stuff that they've

overcome. You really leave a lot of these events

feeling invigorated, especially creative people,

you know, you leave there and you're like raring

to go, you're inspired. if that doesn't sound

too cheesy. Yeah, well, you know, that's another

thing. I forget which one. It might have been

a convention on the cartoon reboot or something.

Scott McNeil, Gary Chalk, who are two voice actors

were there. And apparently Scott McNeil is telling

this story about this that, you know, he was,

you know, he's just walking around. He saw somebody

drawing a picture of one of his characters. So

he comes up behind the kid and goes, in the character

voice, he goes, who last year like picture and

the kid turned around and the kid was like uh...

uh... here you all my god your your scott mcnealy

is just like cracked up but it's like this is

is people like that that take a real interest

in the fandom and really realize what they've

done hits a lot of people you know that's what

i like about some of the convention stuff because

you just never know who's gonna show up I mean,

you can look at a list of convention attendees,

but last year's BotCon was in LA. Pretty much,

unless they're based in Canada, pretty much all

the Transformers voice actors who live in LA,

whether they're invited or not, I would think

would show up just to show up, just to kind of

surprise people. Well, so what else happened

what went on Sunday Sunday was well just to go

back to Saturday for a second one other thing

that was fantastic and I'm super super excited

about they had a sneak preview of the film kick

-ass and my reaction like I've kind of been living

in a little bit of a bubble right now and outside

of TV I haven't really been looking at any film

stuff so I didn't know much about it other than

it's about superheroes. Going into this and finding

out what it was about and seeing some of the

clips from the movie, I am so excited for this.

I'm almost as excited for this as I am for the

next Iron Man. Which, that's gonna be epic. Oh,

I can't wait. I'm so happy Robert Downey Jr.

is in such a cool role, but also that someone

who I always grew up thinking, my gosh, I'm not

going to be able to see this guy's career grow

just because I didn't think he'd live. Yeah.

I am so thrilled that he beat the odds, and he's

here, and he's better than ever. Outside of the

Iron Man movies and Sherlock Holmes before those,

The only movie I ever remember seeing him in

was 1985's Chances Are with Sybil Shepherd. I

don't remember any other film than that one.

Less Than Zero is one of my all -time favorites,

the pick -up artist. Chaplin was brilliant. He's

a phenomenally talented actor, but he can also

do the you know the more fun roles yeah yeah

so yeah kick ass holy smokes I'm watching this

and I'm like I had no clue that like one of the

characters is like this little girl with oh my

god such a potty mouth but I'm standing there

and this little kid is like totally tearing up

another character and then she fires off some

really rude, crass, smart -ass comments, and

I'm like, I wanna adopt that kid. I was just

super excited for that. It would have been a

lot better if they'd had maybe one of the actors

or something like that there for it, but as it

stood, they had one of the guys from Wizard Magazine

and three local media people talking about it

who have seen the movie already. And to me, A

panel like that isn't really that interesting,

but the clips that they showed us and some of

the trailers that haven't been released yet really

made up for it. Yeah. And also because they made

it in Toronto, so you're kind of like playing

pick the landmark. Yeah. I love doing that in

movies and TV shows, looking at things and saying,

oh my gosh, I used to live there. Which has happened,

one of my old places was in the background of

a lot of shows. Yeah, so that was really cool.

And then on the Sunday, I went back for a couple

more interviews. I interviewed Candice McClure,

who was on BSG, and hands down, one of the best

interviews I've ever done in my life and one

of the nicest people you could ever meet in your

life who truly feels that she was lucky to have

been a part of that show and just loves going

to these events and meeting people and just kind

of hearing how they reacted to everything. She's

probably one of the best convention guests I've

ever encountered. That was pretty much most of

my Sunday was interviewing her and then checking

out a couple of the different areas I hadn't

checked out before. They had a Tom Clancy Splinter

Cell room set up where you could go in and play

the new game. And I'm not much of a gamer, but

I watched my partner play around with some of

the games. I love watching people play video

games. I'm not very good at it myself. So they

have a little bit of a video game aspect to it

too. And other than that... My primary reason

for going was the whole TV stuff, the TV actors

that were there and it was a really good convention

in terms of getting to chat with them and not

just a hi how are you. You could really have

a bit of a conversation with them just because.

The lines weren't huge for most of the weekend.

There was a steady stream of people But it was

a bit of a different setup than than what you're

accustomed to like there wasn't a big long wall

of people and Lineups in front of each of them

the people more had boots that you'd go to Yeah,

but you know, that's what I'm noticing about

conventions that just start out that they're

really personable, they're really like very low

-key, you know, even though with all those TV

guests and comic book artists and everything

else, you know, you take, again, because I'm

a Transformers geek, the best example I have

is BotCon, just from listening to a couple of

our other co -hosting people. When BotCon started

out, it was really, really small, same thing

as this. It grew and grew and grew to what it

is now, to where it's like, Wow, there's like

millions of people showing up for this thing.

And there's no way you could have an entire conversation

with a voice actor or an actor or actress in

general just in passing, which is kind of sad.

But you know. Yeah. For a first attempt, I think

they did a pretty good job. They really need

to increase the amount of panels, in my opinion,

or fan Q &A sessions. They really need to increase

that. But other than that, the setup of it was

pretty good. I see it growing in the future,

for sure. There is an audience here. I just think

that the larger, the more Let's say the more

popular talent really needs to consider coming

here because There is a huge huge demand for

it. Yeah, and Not a lot of the big actors do

come here because you know, it's it's Toronto

and they don't they don't know much about the

market It's Toronto and the only thing that you

guys have is Niagara Falls That's not even in

Toronto. We've got the CN tower Well one towers

better than none It's actually like Toronto's

pretty much as close to the United States as

you're gonna get Yeah, and you're coming to Canada

in my opinion. Yeah It's regularly yeah, and

just the studios really need to get behind it

and and appreciate the You know the value of

what what they'll get here by bringing their

cast here There was a part of it and I should

mention this although I didn't attend and there's

the new saw movie coming out And they had pretty

much there's a lot of horror fans here So and

they make a lot of those movies here like a lot

of the saw movies have been made in Toronto So

they had like the entire cast For a Friday night

event that I didn't attend. I'm sorry don't watch

Yeah, I'm sorry, but those movies are not horror

movies the first one Maybe you can classify as

a horror film the rest of it is just five, you

know Five -minute recaps expanded into two and

a half hours. I hate those damn films I've never

watched one Yeah, I see just kind of the reactions

and I know people who really like them No That

was that was a big draw on the Friday night though

was a lot of people showed up for the Saw event

with the cast and Jigsaw was there and everything.

No, I could see the whole thing with the Saw

series, why it's popular, but at the same time,

I don't think they planned this far ahead. They

didn't plan at all. They're going to throw in

this next movie just because they're trying to

mix because originally they're going to have

Saw 7 and 8. and 8 got declined. So they're going

to mix it all into 7 to try and wrap it up. And

on top of it, to make it worse, they're going

to make it 3D. Just a hook to 3D. Everything

is going 3D, which is just a gimmick, which I

hope blows over. Well, it blew over in the 80s.

It didn't come back till now. So hopefully. Well,

this is the new 80s. Where I was going with the

with the whole saw thing if other big movies

could get on board and and bring their events

here and even if they brought like one actor

with them or Director or something like that

It would really enhance the events here and you

know put us on the same playing field and then

the talent will want to come Yeah, so you know

you kind of have to have that you know not necessarily

Studio, but you know kind of like the bigger

powers saying hey, you know bringing people to

this and then other people will be other actors

And that'll be like oh, so if they're gonna be

there well, then maybe this is a significant

player And I think that there there is a definite

future for stuff like that here. Yeah, well,

that's very cool Mm -hmm. Do you want to know

anything else Steve? Is there anything else that

you wish that they would have included in this

year's or to have for next year? Definitely more

panels. TV content you know just beyond the two

shows that they had events for. They also had

like a reality TV panel which I really don't

care about. I think if they scale back on the

reality TV stuff and you know bring in some of

the more significant TV shows out there. I mean,

you know, Smallville Films in Canada bring out

a couple of those people. If they are just trying

to stick with people who already happen to be

in the country, they could have totally done

a fringe panel here. There's a lot of really

good mainstream television that could have been

a part of it and was it. So for me, that'd be

a big thing. Expanding on the film content, everything

just that was filmed there this year that was

film related seemed like an afterthought. So

I really hope that's just part of the growing

pains of this particular convention. Yeah, probably.

All right, well, I think that's going to wrap

it up for us. I'd like to thank the television

for this special Toronto Comic -Con roundup.

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