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ComicCon Experience
265 Plays3 years ago
In this episode, Craig and Fraser (Satsunami) share their experiences from ComicCon. From sloth portraits to cosplay, the duo discuss the weird and wonderful world of conventions.
For more Satsunami content, please click here!
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcoming Listeners
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to the very first stream and chat tsunami of 2021. I'm Sat Tsunami and today I'm joined by my very good friend who might have heard his voice on another podcast, Bear and Joe, the one and only Craig. Hello Craig.
Lockdown in Scotland: Impact and Humor
00:00:36
Speaker
Thank you for joining us. Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for the invite. How are you, Satsu? Yeah, I'm not bad, thanks. Thank you for coming on, especially after... That was a couple of episodes ago you were on... Ah, it was, it was the Childhood Games. We were all on, wasn't it? Yep. Fun times. I remember it just like it was last year. How many times have you made that joke?
00:00:59
Speaker
at the start of the year. Less, like it's surprisingly lower than you would expect. Yeah. Well, because in Scotland, as you know, we're on lockdown as of like this podcast. So, you know, I don't, I don't see a lot of people. That's all I'm saying. So I don't get the opportunity, sadly. It's great though, because you can use the same joke over and over again, but everyone, because you only talk to people one at a time. Just use the same joke. It's brilliant.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's the same like small talk you get in the office and things. It's like, oh yeah, 2020 went fast, oh this weather, eh? And you're just like, yeah.
00:01:40
Speaker
Bring on 2022. I've already making my glasses, you know, like the 2022 glasses. I'm just like, yep, I'm going to cash in the arrow. Won't rush this year because, yeah, I'd say 2022 applies as well. This is for the next decade.
First Comic Convention Experiences
00:01:54
Speaker
I've got a little tip for you. Here's the insider scoop. You know how when you write the date,
00:02:02
Speaker
You can get it wrong because you're thinking of it last year. For the next 10 years, or 9 years, whatever it'll be, when you write the date wrong, just keep writing because if you go 20, you can just put then 21 on the end of it and it looks like you were right all along. Oh my god, that's amazing.
00:02:22
Speaker
Or do you know what you could do? And my god, I'm giving away my million dollar ideas here. You could always have just like a 20 and then instead of... In fact, you know what? We're gonna move on.
00:02:35
Speaker
I'm going to go down like a black hole with terrible, terrible idea suggestions. So yeah, cutting away from that. Today, as you can see by the screen, we are going to be talking about our experiences with comic conventions. Do you remember what your first impressions were, like hearing about comic conventions?
00:03:00
Speaker
Funnily enough, you message me this, so spoilers for people that are behind the scenes, but we do chat about what we're going to chat about when we chat about it. Yeah, we're more prepared than I make out. I just completely improve this. And you mentioned this question, like, what was your first kind of experience? I have no idea.
00:03:20
Speaker
Like, I don't know where my, did I ever heard of them before I went to them? I don't know if I knew what it was until that fateful day that we went to our first one store. I've actually got nothing to say for this answer, I'm afraid that's a review. Yeah, for the first I'm speechless, what did you kind of hear about them before we?
00:03:41
Speaker
Again, I've honestly, I think I'm in a similar boat.
Nerd Stereotypes and Growing Up
00:03:44
Speaker
The only time I think I heard about them was when you hear on TV people who, you know, the nerd stereotype, and I've brought this up quite a lot but it's like the nerd stereotype when it's like, oh, this person plays Dungeons and Dragons and he dresses up as an elf and everything and I remember hearing things about like cons but
00:04:04
Speaker
it wasn't anything like just from a kind of context my household like growing up was not like a geeky household like i mean when i was growing up i used to watch like there was harry potter there was um star wars like very and i don't i'm not like trying to sound like a gatekeeper being like like stuff that was already popular if you know what i mean it's a mainstream like nerd culture
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't like anything too niche. Like even Star Trek wasn't a thing in my house. Yeah, I had to find that one like years later. But yeah, sorry, that small thing called Star Trek. Oh no. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's on Netflix or something. Yeah, probably. Yeah, that's just a cheeky like wink saying.
00:04:47
Speaker
Go check out Netflix. But yeah, like other than that, I hadn't really seen them like very much either, which it does seem weird because they are like massive, you know, events. Like people like go out the way to spend hours dressing up for them in some cases. Not just like massive events in the terms of like size, but massive in terms of the quantity. When we started getting into them a lot more, which I'll get to, but yeah.
00:05:11
Speaker
I think the sheer number of them, and like, especially we live quite close to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland, and there's tons in Glasgow alone. If we were to go to all the ones in the UK or all the ones in the big cities, it would be busy all year. Yeah, we'd be bankrupt as well.
00:05:29
Speaker
because I mean remember that time we went on we went to I think it was Dublin wasn't it and there was like a comic there was like a comic on going on there as well like at the exact same time and we're kind of thinking like oh should we go should we not go and then we were like no we're literally going to a comic on like next week the week after yes
00:05:49
Speaker
No, there's no point because I already got one booked. So it's like, it's just, you're absolutely
Convention Guest Experiences
00:05:56
Speaker
right. There's just so many of them. And it's amazing how they come in different sizes. It's like when you think of comic conventions nowadays, you think of Comic Con and the ones in the big cities, but you never really think of the smaller ones as much. I mean, we'll get to it, but we have been to like, I mean, we have been to really small ones.
00:06:17
Speaker
Like again we'll get to it but oh my goodness. And yeah I suppose that kind of brings us on to kind of like the first point about it. So again Craig was saying there that we were talking like off stream just about what our first convention was and I think it was actually the same for both of us which I was quite surprised at. I think you drove me to my first one.
00:06:40
Speaker
Not only did we go to the same one but you actually, you taxied me there. Yeah it must have been. We've both got a mutual friend who's like really into, well he's into like a lot of things but he's into Doctor Who especially and I'm pretty sure and correct me if I'm wrong Craig but I'm pretty sure the reason, the only reason we went that year was because Colin Baker who was one of the like previous doctors was there. I think he'd been there before, I think with how he knew about it. I think he's been there a few years because he always
00:07:06
Speaker
it's um so the one that we're talking about it's a filming comic con one and they always get doctor who guests of varying size for some years it's like this guy was in a background scene and some years it's like gone baker you know i mean that's that's kind of the thing so i think he'd been a few times before and that's kind of how he knew about it i don't quite know how i got dragged along because i'm not that big into doctors i was kind of talking at the time but not like the old stuff
00:07:30
Speaker
So I don't know how I got involved, but yeah, I was there somewhere. I don't know what got me. Do you remember the guests that year? I think there was wrestlers there which might have got me along. I can't quite remember. Was, um, Sylvester McCoy? Was he not there that year? I think it might have been a year after and that's when it all started to change but that's, well come on to that.
00:07:54
Speaker
Yeah it was, it was like Colin Baker and there was another guy from Doctor Who there as well, I can't remember who it was. It's weird because it wasn't like, it wasn't a con that was like small enough that you didn't recognise the people but at the same time it wasn't like, you know, like massive celebrity. Like I'm not like shitting on Colin Baker or anything like...
00:08:13
Speaker
I was really surprised both A, the fact he was there and B, the fact he seemed like such a nice guy genuinely. He just seemed so lovely when me met him. But yeah, it is. It's like a different range of people you can get. The one that made me laugh one year was the
00:08:31
Speaker
Do you remember the year we went and it was supposed to be the woman from Terminator 3? And I couldn't stop laughing because she cancelled like literally I think a week or two before it was supposed to be going on and I was just laughing at the fact that, and this sounds so cruel, it's the fact it's like people probably like you know booked up just to see that actress and then it was just like yeah the week before, nope, Terminator. Yeah that's what they were saying.
00:09:01
Speaker
you're saying boons how did you find your first experience going like what were you expecting and was it was it kind of what you expected i honestly had no idea like i'll give you a kind of like see before i went to the comic-con i've said this before and i think i've said this in streams but my brother is like very anti-geek i want to say like that's the nice way of putting it and i remember i told them i'm going to this convention and they turned around and they said something like oh is that where they put on the Spock ears
00:09:30
Speaker
Like, literally, that's what he said.
Conventions as Accepting Spaces
00:09:32
Speaker
And I was like, well, technically, the elf years are volcanoes, but yes, of course. So it was like, the thing is, as I said, because I'm probably the geekiest person in my family, so I was quite nervous about going because I didn't quite know what to expect. As soon as I went, I think the first experience I had, see when I got there, was getting a photo of me kneeling as a stormtrooper pointed a gun to my head.
00:10:01
Speaker
Like, outside they have, like, I don't know if they're, like, professional ones or they're just, like, random. Yeah, they're employed by the convention. Yeah, that's what I thought. I hope so, anyway. And yeah, there's, like, a couple of cosplayers that, like, walk around and they'll do their thing and there was a group of stormtroopers and a member of friends, like, went up and said, can we get a photo? And the gruffest, like, voice ever, just this stormtrooper saying, get on your knees. And it was like, oh no.
00:10:33
Speaker
But like see after going in and everything and experience it for the first time I mean you got me wrong it was a bit busy which as you would expect and I pre-covid in comic-con but I mean for me like I absolutely loved it because I've always been quite it sounds like a weird thing to say but like seeing growing up like before I started going to comic-cons and things I was like a really shy person when it came to like expressing my geeky interests
00:10:58
Speaker
Like if someone said oh I'm into Star Wars or things like that, that's fine because everybody likes Star Wars but it was kind of holding me back from saying oh I like this or that until you actually go to this convention and then you see other people around you that are just
00:11:15
Speaker
You know, they're just openly saying, oh, I'm, you know, I'm coming here because I want to see Colin Baker or I want to see this or that. And it's kind of, it was a weird feeling, I have to say, like seeing all these people being like, it's like, really? You can actually say that here? And they're like, yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
I was like, oh, nice. And I think it's not an age-wee word as well, because the first one, I think the first one was when I was trying to remember it, it was just when we, it wasn't long after we left school. And there's a real, like, certainly my history, there's a real, like, narrowing of interest. So you get, you're a kid, and you've got all these different interests, and you talk about them all the time, because you don't really care as a kid. And then as you get older, as you become a teenager, you start not telling people as much, and it kind of, your interests get a lot thinner as you leave school, and you kind of realize that people
00:12:00
Speaker
kind of like weird people or you meet, you get surrounded by more weird people. I don't know what the switch is that changes. I realize you've got no personality because all teenagers are the same. I don't know. At the point where you start then getting to start blossoming again, I think that's the common question. You was like the perfect time that I went to that because I was kind of the same. I was like, I don't really talk about geeky stuff. I don't really have any people to talk to about it.
00:12:21
Speaker
And all of a sudden the stuff starts coming in. It's very similar to what I've seen before when I got to Dungeons and Dragons, but when you reach that age you start expressing yourself more and then the comic-cons are just tied in perfectly to that. I think you're right, it was that kind of period between just leaving school and going to uni.
00:12:38
Speaker
And it is, it's like, especially when I went into uni, because there's a perfect, and I've brought it up before, but there's a perfect comic for that, and it's one about Pokémon, and it's a guy who, like, as a kid, he's like saying, oh, Pokémon, you know, he's like really excited and everything, and then it shows him as a teenager, and everyone's like making fun of him, saying, oh, Pokémon, oh, how could you say that? And then, like, he gets to university again, and everyone's going, woo, Pokémon!
00:13:03
Speaker
and you're like really like egg in the morning and that was definitely my experience i was kind of like oh i wonder if that is the case and then when i went to uni it definitely was that everyone was just so nostalgic about like certain geeky things and it's the same with especially the comicon um stuff because at least for the one we went to i think our one was definitely it was like a good starter one
00:13:26
Speaker
Because it was to do with film and comic stuff, it wasn't just to do with a single subject, like anime or just comics, which I think would have been a bit alienating if you weren't into it, but because there were so many, it was a lot more diverse that at least you could express yourself and say, oh well it's, what's this stuff, what's that
Memorabilia and Merchandise
00:13:50
Speaker
stuff?
00:13:50
Speaker
A lot of the stowels had like memorabilia on them and stuff. So you could kind of even not know into what you can say. You still recognize some stuff. I mean, there was like transformers. There was the big thing of pansolo and the carbonite. I can't remember the word there. That fridge that they always sell there.
00:14:08
Speaker
in a bunch of other stuff like that and then yeah like a lot of celebrities I didn't really know them that well but at least I knew some of them you know I mean so it wasn't like it was a total that's probably the one I think we've taken people to as well since as well that same kind of general comic-con so I guess that's probably my statement to people listening it's like if you want to take something to comic-con for the first time try find one that's as general interest as possible the more money shit gets the weirder it gets
00:14:30
Speaker
No, I'd agree with that. And especially, I think it's like the right size as well. You know, but I remember when we went to like the actual MCM comicon for the first time. And I mean, my god, it was massive. It was huge compared to the one we usually go to. Like you can probably write... Oh, sorry. I just didn't bring that perspective. The one that we went to the first time, this one that we're talking about, this was a bit on an ice hockey rink. I was given an idea of this ice. It was just all on the actual, what would be the ice to cover it over. I assume that's what they do. They don't know how ice works.
00:14:59
Speaker
But I assumed they covered it when they didn't melt at all. Maybe they did. Just the cosplayers out with the flamethrowers then. And then the MCM one, the big ones in Glasgow and stuff, they take place in our conference halls, which is multiple halls that are joined together and stuff. These huge, big buildings to that. And then the smallest ones we've been to are the size of a Tesco's supermarket.
00:15:23
Speaker
So like, the first one we went to the one in the ice hockey rink, that's definitely a perfect size. I think that was like a first one, to get totally just overwhelmed with what the hell is all this stuff. Sort of like flipping that question back to you, what were your like first impressions on that coin? Like for the very first one I mean. I had no idea what people did.
00:15:43
Speaker
And it wasn't until I went that you spent a lot of money shopping. That's kind of what you do for nerds. I hadn't quite realised it until I went myself. I must have seen like San Diego Comic Con or something on the TV by that point. You know what I mean? Like some kind of logic cons existed, but I didn't know what you did at them. I knew there was like a celebrity at them and I knew there was some talk during the day. I was like, what do you do for the rest of the time? But I just turned up anyway. But usually we just like go and look at all the shops, grab a coffee and then just kind of chat and chill out.
00:16:12
Speaker
it's a good time getting photos with cosplayers and stuff and just gonna yeah take it easy i think it's quite a it's a really fun day and i'm like like i said that first day i had no idea what we're going to get up to but yeah had a great time it was like i mean when you walked in the first time it was just
Cosplay and Personal Expression
00:16:26
Speaker
like remember they had i don't know if they still do it but they used to have like the early bird tickets and it was like i think it was like for an extra like 10 pound or something i'm just trying to remember but it was basically you could get in an hour early yeah
00:16:39
Speaker
which sometimes it's worth it but I think now because I've kind of spaced it out a bit more like before it was just like you went in thinking I could be fine and then you're wedged in between like like a body pillow store and like a guy dresses Chewbacca it's like it's not a nice place to be stuck that's double fluff what you really want to do is like
00:17:00
Speaker
Stuck between someone dressed as Metal Sonic and then someone dressed as Hellraiser or something. That's a real feel to get stuck between two spiky boys. Yeah, that's true.
00:17:14
Speaker
it is it's like oh god like remind me to talk about the retro uh game install a little later my god like in fact no i'm gonna i'm gonna quickly like touch on it now because i know i'm gonna forget yeah basically this is this is how you make like a millennial person um feel old okay so i remember it wasn't obviously it wasn't last year but was it it was either 2018 or 19 it was one of those i can't remember which year but we went one time and
00:17:43
Speaker
we went into, so as Craig was saying it's all in this huge ice rink but there's loads of small rooms in between or at the sides so you go through and they've got other rooms set up and sometimes it's for additional stalls and things like that
00:18:00
Speaker
And one of the rooms they have dedicated is this retro gaming room. Now you can't see it, but I'm doing like air quotes with my fingers here. Because I went in thinking, oh cool, retro gaming, you know, it's going to be the SNES, it's going to be, you know, maybe the Atari or something. I go in and they have a literal like Xbox 360 set up and a Nintendo Wii. And I'm like, retro, this is retro. Hey man, some of those kids have never seen those consoles.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, it was. It was like kids though, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. Like playing like Battlefront 2 and things like that going wee and I was like, oh you disgust me. Damn, Jordan. I disgust me. I aged. I aged. How dare I age.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah, but it was a humbling experience, that's what we'll see. But I mean, for that first one, I don't know how you feel about this, but for the first one, it was an amazing experience and you could... So technically, what you're supposed to do, the etiquette is, if you want an autograph, depending on the guy, it's usually about £5 to £20, I think, for this one. Yeah, something a bit higher, depending on... Get it? Played John Connor, was there? No, not John Connor.
00:19:12
Speaker
Someone who said that you've got a kylo... something? Was it kyloose? He was like 30 quid on autograph. Yeah but it's like what you could do was you could like go up to them and even informally say can I get like a quick picture with you so that year there were no like signs or anything up usually they were charging for that they were saying like oh you know it's
00:19:36
Speaker
I can't even remember, like you know it's like £15 or something let's say you know for this like professional picture but you know if he said like nicely oh can I get a photo with you and handed your camera over then you could the year after that because I mean I've got a photo with our mutual friend um like with Colin Baker and Sylvester Stallone that's the one Sylvester McCoy um oh no I have one like oh my god I phoned you
00:20:05
Speaker
Oh, he would actually. I am the law. That would be amazing. Yeah. I am the doctor. Doctor. Doctor. Yeah. Yeah, BRB. I'm just going to like tweet them out. No, I'm good. But yeah, it's like the year after that, they had like paper signs up everywhere saying no unsolicited photographs. And it's like, oh, oh, there must have been trouble last year. It was you. You were the trouble last year. Oh, yeah.
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was just me, just going up, like, can I get a photograph of this, like, this fucking sad tsunami guy, this, he's coming in here with his, with his phone. It's like, no, I just want a photo.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah, it is. It was a good experience though, as we were saying, it was a good start-up one and kind of branching off from that. I think that was probably the first time that I was heavily exposed to it. I knew about cosplay and everything but only from a distance. This is going to sound terrible and I mean no offense but you know that scene out of Jurassic Park?
00:21:16
Speaker
when it's like you've heard of cosplayers but you haven't actually seen one in the wild and then you go in and it's like you twisting my head round and it's like it's just all of these like people dressed up you're like oh my god is there like music plays in the background
00:21:33
Speaker
i don't know it was just it was really interesting i have to admit to see like people so i mean cosplayers are definitely the most or one of the most like energetic groups there like you just see that well no i don't mean this in a bad way i mean in a good way that's like they're always like running about and they're always like really excited to show off and i remember for the first one i was really impressed because there was a guy who had a like master chief outfit on
00:21:57
Speaker
it was so cool like it was really detailed and everything and it was just yeah no it was just amazing but yeah you got um quite into it didn't you indeed um yeah so for my first first time seeing it i think we realized normal people did it this is like noble that's really horrible um that's nice that pedestrian did it i also assumed it was like done by the um the people at the convention so like the star wars guys being employed i assume that was just how cosplay was done
00:22:26
Speaker
I hadn't realized costumes were homemade, so I think my only kind of experience of this would have been like gaming magazines putting out pictures from E3, the big conference for that was, and they heard cosplayers that were employed by the store. So I just assumed that's how cosplay worked. I didn't realize that just no people did it. It wasn't until I turned up for the first time, I was like, this is incredible. Because there's people there who are doing like homemade costumes. There's people who have done obviously like the store bought stuff, like the Master Chief guy, there's no way he made that.
00:22:54
Speaker
Maybe we did. I think that was bought. And then there's people who do their own twists on cosplay, which is super cool. So you get gender swap, where we've mashed together two characters, and it's like, that's something that you could never do officially. So that's really cool as well. And there's all this stuff that you get to see all for the first time. I was so blown away. So much so that a few years later, I started cosplaying as well to conventions. Are we going to talk about that now? We don't need to hold on to that. No, let's talk about it now.
00:23:20
Speaker
I basically, um, I gained a ton of weight for people that kind of know my life. Forgot to ask me huge. And, um, and then lost, I think, nine stone in the end, all in the course of two years. And my reward kind of to myself was to start cosplaying as, um, as Star-Lord, Chris Pratt from Guardians of the Galaxy. And, uh, yeah, I did that a few times now and it's brilliant. It's a really good experience for people that I've been kind of hesitant to do. I'd recommend it. You simultaneously get more and less attention than you think you do.
00:23:47
Speaker
I mean, you definitely notice people looking at you, but you don't get asked a lot of pictures until someone does it. You can ask lots of the gaming one that I go to. I've got no questions for pictures like all day. And all of a sudden someone asks me like, we're listening the way out. And then I got a queue of people taking photos.
00:24:07
Speaker
Isn't it great? It's amazing. It's just like sometimes the bubble just bursts. The best experience because I had was the last time I went installed. I don't know if I don't mean being last as in the final. I don't know maybe who knows but the previous time and it was my wife went as Gamora and basically her costume blew mine out of the water because mine takes like 10 minutes to put on. It's just like stuff I've made in a jacket so it takes like 10 minutes. She painted herself green, took her three hours
00:24:33
Speaker
And, like, her whole body was green, like her arms, her face, neck and all that. I don't think I would have said, like, sleeves, but no, she's not doing that. And she was wearing a vest. So it was like all the way up to the shoulders and then, like, her part of her chest was all green as well. Yeah, basically, we never got we got asked for photos so many times. I think, yo, with us that day, it was like, oh, yeah, we were. It was really weird.
00:24:58
Speaker
Couldn't go further than like 10 steps without somebody. Yeah. Somebody just broke my foot with a man. I was just gonna say I was like the third wheel. Because it was like we were walking around and then all of a sudden someone would like come up really excited and to be fair like both of you your cosplays were awesome and yeah it was they were all coming up like said oh can we get a photograph with you and everything and then handed me the camera like okay.
00:25:25
Speaker
I was devouring out with the third wheel and just like, okay, here we go. It's a good job you know the rule of free though, to get those photos just right though. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, cutting off the heads. Yeah, exactly. Just shit floating shins. That's all we wanted to remember the day by. Look, if the people demand it, then who am I to disagree? Okay, just three sets of feet. That's how it's done. Yeah, I don't drop out of photography. I was going to say photography cosplay.
00:25:55
Speaker
What a niche subject. Yeah, what a very niche subject. But I have to admit, like, I've always been quite... Jealous is probably the wrong word. Probably in Mire, more, like,
Conventions in the Pandemic Era
00:26:07
Speaker
cosplayers. Because I've always said that, like, see, ever since, like, maybe the first or second con we went to, like, I've always seen some, like, amazing cosplayers, like, with the Stormtrooper, some Star Wars, and as you were saying, like, the fusion ones. Some of them are just incredible, and
00:26:22
Speaker
It's a weird thing because I've heard a lot of stories of people who have been kinder self-conscious, but as soon as they put on a cosplay, they're someone completely different. And you can definitely tell there's a lot of people who cosplay and they're a lot more confident. And that is definitely something we were talking about the other day.
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, I've been thinking of like maybe trying it because I mean it's we've got another go down coming in. What else are you gonna do? You know, be productive. No, I don't think so. So yeah, different types of productive, you know what I mean? I'm thinking of switching up mine as well, not just doing Star Lord all the time. I think creative people being stuck in lockdown obviously sucks, but at the same time, I think we're going to see some insane cosplays. It's like Comic-Con is coming back because there'll be so many people doing it.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think a man, and this is kind of rich coming from me considering I've just ordered one, but yeah, a Mandalorian I think is definitely going to be the one to look out for, especially the fact that you have to obviously wear a mask these days. And like people with those kind of helmets, I think, yeah, they're going to be the ones to watch out for, I think.
00:27:29
Speaker
that they are just going to be walking around and yeah I just ordered mine today but it's like really interesting when you go into it because it's like it's one of those things that like as you were saying like to begin with it's like you don't initially kind of realize that not like you don't realize the effort put into it but it's like you don't until you start looking into it you think my god the amount of time and effort and things it's just it's incredible some of them although
00:27:54
Speaker
I'd say though, even some that are quite low effort are really good as well. I'd say to anyone thinking about doing it is just go for it. Even if you think it looks bad when you look back at it later, I was like, okay, it's still a fun day. You know what I mean? Have fun. Do we do it? Oh yeah, definitely. The only cosplay that I do have an issue with, and you'll probably agree, is the free hugs guy.
00:28:15
Speaker
That isn't a cosplay, is it? Is that a beach club or something? I don't even think it is. I think it's a guy with a sign that says Free Hooks. Exactly. Literally, when we went to... I think it was the last Comic Con in law school, maybe it would have been. I can't remember. It was one of them, anyway. But we went there and I literally saw a guy just in jeans and a hoodie standing there.
00:28:36
Speaker
with a sign that was crumpled. If I wasn't even a sign, it was a crumpled piece of paper and they just scrolled free hugs on the side. And it's like, no! You wouldn't go into the street and be like, free hugs? No!
00:28:53
Speaker
Don't bring that here! Oh, it's just... Well, between that and... This isn't a weird one, but it was just kind of odd. It was the people going around with petitions or something, saying, like, oh, do you want to join? I think that was just more innocent fun, but it was like, oh, do you want to join this Harry Potter house or this team or
Size and Experience of Conventions
00:29:13
Speaker
something? It was like, no, no.
00:29:16
Speaker
I was like, I'm gonna move on. I'm gonna treat you exactly the same as like, you know, oh god that sounds terrible. I was gonna say like, you know when you see like, you know the people that like try to sell you stuff on the street like, or that they used to and they'd have like the billboards and they're like, excuse me sir. And I suddenly turned into an Olympic athlete and I just started speeding up going, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. I'm busy somehow. I wasn't busy five minutes ago, but you know what, see now, I'm ultra busy.
00:29:48
Speaker
Oh my goodness, you just get a bus to nowhere. But you know what, you had the moral high ground. So we were talking earlier about the first cosplay.
00:30:01
Speaker
The first convention that we went to was relatively medium, it wasn't too big, it wasn't too small, but we have been to a lot of different sized ones. So what do you think, what differences did you see between the larger cones versus the smaller ones that we've been to?
00:30:21
Speaker
So I'll probably put this in fact comes in some kind of perspective here. So this very polished one I've been to is one that we went to not far from my house in like a shop and it was basically a room. Yeah. It was like we I assume it used to be like a Tesco's or like well, just like a small shop like a Tesco.
00:30:40
Speaker
or you call it it was just like a room in a a unit in a shopping center and that was like the smallest one and that was just a bunch of guys and girls with stalls maybe 10 cosplayers of which i was one of them that was true yes it wandered on off the street that was kind of all it was and the biggest one
00:30:57
Speaker
is a video games conference at EGX. It's on in London every year, or burning in the first years, and that's inside one of these massive halls. You're there for like four days. Every games company goes to it and tries to sell their stuff, and there's tons of guests, tons of cars playing at different stages. It's like a full on four day long festival, basically. So that's kind of the difference of what these cons can be. Ticket price to get into the little one, five quid. Ticket to get into the big one, I think it's about 150 or something for the four days. But then you get... Actually, I can maybe listen up.
00:31:27
Speaker
You get like three minutes of that stuff and you're there for four days and you get an early pass on that stuff. So it's definitely worth it to play all the new games, which is part of that as well. The big difference is like the stalls. See the bigger that gets the stalls get less interesting, I think. I think it's a lot of the same people too. So it's still good stuff. I'm not trying to say otherwise, but probably the one we went to in Glasgow last time, a good mix where it had like all the usual stalls all grouped together.
00:31:54
Speaker
and then I had lots of independent stalls while the latest one just had all the independent stalls and these people are just, people are hobbies who are just trying to make money on the site. One guy in particular, I said I actually found his Instagram before we started this. He was doing like tiny little art canvases.
00:32:09
Speaker
We basically bought a stall. Oh yeah. I think you spent about, I don't even know how much, but. Yeah, I touched, like, betweeters. Yeah. We basically bought the guy's stall. He was like, oh, I'm done for the day. Yeah, that guy was awesome. So it was a guy, yeah, as you said, he made, like, the, it was just like different fandoms, wasn't it? It was like, he had, oh, God, I'm trying to remember now. Like, up in my house, I have one for the GameCube, one for, like, Overwatch, one for Rareware. Like, like, really,
00:32:38
Speaker
well detailed ones and then you got, did you not get a Lord of the Rings one? A Lord of the Rings one, a Waterman one and one other that I gave away for Christmas or whatever that was that you had and I kept me with that one wasn't I? Yeah I got three of them. So yeah you got a few for presents as well. Yeah I got a Lion King one which I sent over to someone and it is, it was so just like well detailed I was just really surprised and not to bash it but that probably was like one of the better stalls in that one that year.
00:33:05
Speaker
Well you get a lot of people that sell them like secondhand toys and stuff, but I'm not really a collector. A lot of that just kind of passes me by. I think that enters about 20 stalls, maybe 30 stalls, and a lot of them are selling just toys, which I didn't really get it. It's not for me, I like Lego.
00:33:26
Speaker
you can't buy that second hand because it's too risky. I mean the weird thing is like in all the cons i've been to they sell like it doesn't look as if it's official lego but i've got no idea where it's from it's like the custom figures that they're always selling and they've got them like in a line as if you know oh do you want to buy it and it's like no
00:33:49
Speaker
Thank you, but no thank you. It's interesting, right enough. I have to admit, when we went to that one in Edinburgh, so that was, was that not another MCM one that was added?
00:34:01
Speaker
I can't remember. No, was that not a... Well, I can't remember. It was all different brands. Yeah. That was quite a funny one because it was not physically big, but then it ended up getting some pretty big stalls and pretty big actors and stuff. So that was pretty cool. Yeah, it was a really weird one because usually... I don't know. I've said this before. I'm quite shy when it comes to just chatting to random strangers, you know, especially when they're buying stuff. But in that one, and it's something I've noticed in. So for context as well, outside of
00:34:29
Speaker
Comic-Con and things like that. I've got a friend who is really into like tabletop games and things and like 40k and Warhammer and all that and we used to go to like a modal one. It's just basically a place where people like sell off either their second-hand models or you know like board games or things like that. It is quite interesting but the thing that I really love about that is the fact that the people who are set like the
00:34:56
Speaker
second hand like people are selling their models second hand they are so passionate about like their hobby and they just like sit there and you know like if you're asking them questions about it they're just so like happy to kind of talk about it and there was a couple of people like that in the Edinburgh one where they were just chatting for ages just about like what they were doing like there was a guy who like did a lot of like wood carvings and things like with the laser pen um
00:35:22
Speaker
I ended up buying something from him because he was just such a nice guy. And then it was the same with another woman I was talking to. She was like, I can't remember what she was talking about. Like, she'd came up from Liverpool, of all places. And that's what she was saying, that apparently it's like a lot more expensive for them to set up shop. And like the bigger ones, apparently, they charge a lot more money, which I thought was a bit kind of off. But, you know, I suppose like Comic-Con is going to do Comic-Con. So they kind of stick to like more small ones.
00:35:51
Speaker
I suppose but no it's like you get so many like you know not just like people coming to you know like cosplay or like to see the people like just the vendors as well they're
Memorable Celebrity Encounters
00:36:01
Speaker
probably a lot more chapped well I don't know because I don't know we speak too many in the Glasgow one I have to say other than that one that signed something for me but yeah
00:36:12
Speaker
Yeah, I was just thinking of the con we went to. Is there anybody you can remember wanting to meet in the con you went to? I haven't really met many people at the Comic-Cons. What I prefer to do is the talks. So a lot of the time you'll get the Comic-Cons arranged like a talk, so they'll be themed guests. Like there'll be several people from Doctor Who, so they'll do a talk about Doctor Who and stuff like that. I always find them really good. Mainly because I don't know what to say when I meet these people. And then I've been to the settings before when I was a huge music fan.
00:36:40
Speaker
And I get the second and just lose it. I've probably lost more autographs than some people have bought in a life, you know? I really enjoy the talks. Some of the people I've seen do talks. David Bradley, he was really... I know you're probably going to talk about him in a bit.
00:36:57
Speaker
What one was that? Oh, yeah. No, I know who you're talking about now. Yeah. I also met really briefly on the way out of a thing, but I got to see Andy Serkis do a talk as well on what she captioned video games. That was really interesting. So that's kind of like talks. I really can never seen a bunch of wrestlers do talks as well. So I've seen all that. I really, really like that. But I've not met that many people simply because I'm going to bump into them by accident.
00:37:27
Speaker
I'm not gonna pay for an autograph because I'll lose it. But you've made quite a few great ones. I'm just trying to think, the first one we went to, Colin Baker, the sixth Doctor Who, he is such a nice guy. Honestly, see, between the talks he did, he did a whole talk about a show that over here, his experience is on a show called Come Down With Me, where the whole premise is it's one person cooks dinner for three other people that come to the house and they have to entertain them and everything.
00:37:54
Speaker
And that was the main thing he was talking about before he started talking about Doctor Who and thinks it was just such a chill kind of experience. Although I think one of the ones I'm kicking myself for is the guy who played Sam in Lord of the Rings.
00:38:10
Speaker
Something Austin, Sam Austin. Sam Austin, that's the one. And I'm sure he was at that one, like the film and comic one. I remember looking at the queue and being like, nah, I won't wait. And then I think the year after they got in Stranger Things and it's like, yeah, the point of no return now. I should have got the autograph then.
00:38:27
Speaker
although I'll always laugh because I think at that same time the guy who played Boba Fett was there and not like bit more like people think oh it's you know like the new Boba Fett and everything no no it was a kid from Attack of the Clones
00:38:43
Speaker
and I remember like turning round and there was nobody at his stall so I remember like looking at him like catching his eye and just be like yeah I'm gonna go this way just like shuffle it off that was one thing I was not prepared for was the amount of empty stalls and that
00:39:01
Speaker
make in front of any particular person. What happens is people come in queues and queues vanish and people go and do other things. So like what will happen is a person will sit down at say 10 o'clock to say autographs and there'll be a queue like so many people waiting for them and they'll sit there for one. So it gets to like the end of the queue. They just sit there and it's just the most important thing to see like, you know, just like a celebrity sitting there with nothing to do. It's always a shame.
00:39:29
Speaker
It's almost like you don't want to go over and give them a pity to get a photo with. And they just give them something to do. Do you know what that reminds me of? It was probably the last Colin that we went to, the one with David Bradley. And they did this thing where they got three actors from Doctor Who. So it was David Bradley, it was Colin Baker. He honestly gets round the Collins. It's like one out of every so often. You'll be like, how are you here?
00:40:00
Speaker
So it's like it was him, him and I can't remember the other girl's name which is terrible. It was this girl from like a Doctor Who spin-off and because the other two were so well known she wasn't getting as many like questions in the Q&A. Like some of them weren't like people in the audience weren't very, they didn't really read the room let's just say when they were just like oh I've got a question for her you know Colin or David and it's like
00:40:25
Speaker
like now it's saying like in fact there was there was like a nine-year-old was another like going up and said I have a question for all of you it's like oh my god just like dropping the mic as if now that is manners because it was it was Sophie Hawkins thing my name is and I don't really know it was a doctor who's been a full class but someone went this is a question for Colin and David how do you move on from having a big a big role in your career and she was like oh
00:40:54
Speaker
Nick is like, she's been playing this talk to him. Perfect question to answer this question. She's doing it.
00:41:03
Speaker
Oh yeah, some of the questions there you were just sitting like, oh no. And you couldn't get any. Probably the best one I've ever had for that is at a developers conference for XCOM games. And we did like a question answer at the end of the thing for XCOM and how that was made and stuff. It was really, really good talk. And one of the guys asked, when are you going to open up everything to modders so I can fix XCOM?
00:41:30
Speaker
It was like incredible man. Even the guy on the stage was like, oh, all right. That's all he said, though, was he just like... He just kind of went, well, we don't think that a kind of a... He's in a very good answer of sort of like, it's not right to open up the entire source code to people that think it's the game. There's a reason the game engine is behind the screen, basically.
00:41:58
Speaker
I don't want to be like oh you get the stereotype so you always get like you always get someone like that but then you always get like someone who'll just ask like the expected questions.
Elements of Enjoyable Conventions
00:42:08
Speaker
Like usually it's kid yeah it's usually kids though but just fine because it's usually like I remember there was one this is kind of slightly off topic but I remember there was I don't know if you were there it was like when Doctor Who was like ramping up to the 50th anniversary so they were talking about it like the
00:42:25
Speaker
the film and comic convention and everything and then there was like a spin-off thing they did where basically they showed an episode in the cinema and they got like the directors in to like talk about it and as soon as everyone started talking about the anniversary all the directors were just like no I can't talk about that no no that's under wraps no I can't do it it was like it's like going on a talk show and being like oh so you like this I guess
00:42:52
Speaker
It was like, there was no interaction whatsoever. You're just like, oh my God, oh my God. Just sitting there and going, what? And then like at the end, this kid says like, what is your favourite Doctor Who monster? And they leapt right on that question. They're like, well, I like Cyberman. And I was like, oh God.
00:43:12
Speaker
And that kind of brings me on to like, what would you say in your opinion? What would you say makes a convention good in your eyes? It's a real mix of stuff. I don't think I've been to a bad one. I'll say that. Everyone I've enjoyed for different reasons. And a lot of it for me is just getting to hang out. A lot of times we get to hang out at them and your wife will come along to them. That's always good fun. And they didn't see different friends. I always think that's fun. But to see just, I like bustle and
00:43:39
Speaker
to look at it like I'm a very I don't know what the word would be like a very receptive person so I like just walking around like looking at things like nosing at things I love cosplays especially that's like such a big thing to me I just I don't know I think a good con is for me it's busy like doesn't need to be busy in terms of people but just busy in terms of stuff to do stuff to see and a lot of time I go to these and I don't spend that much money I won't sometimes I've been to them and not bought stuff before which I know is like
00:44:06
Speaker
complete heathen for some people. But sometimes I don't, because I just enjoy going to them and just being there and just experiencing the noise and the rabble of it all. So I think as long as a comic-con's got some good vibes, I think that makes a good amise.
00:44:19
Speaker
I was gonna say, we have a mutual friend who, I think it was the second time we went to that con, and he ended up bringing up a fund scale. So it was one of our friends who brought up, he spent a lot of money. And what was he saying? It was something like, I'm having so much fun.
00:44:42
Speaker
You can quantise fun as like, one fun is £10 so it's like, they're more funnier than what I used to pay. Which is great because you can take tons of bags of just, like, stuff. I don't think his house is big enough for it all, so I'm not going to say anything but...
00:45:03
Speaker
Because I mean, I don't know if we went to one and I think in the first 10, 15 minutes I found, because it was really quiet, I found a really good stall. I was like, I'm going to buy this. So I bought it and I came back and then he was standing there just like, oh no, he started the fun early. So it's become like this informal competition of having fun at a con. I was like, oh, it's...
00:45:31
Speaker
That was so funny. Yeah, I would agree with that though. I think as well, see if you go with friends. I think that definitely makes it, I feel as if it's a lot better going like with someone rather than, because I don't know, like I've been, I haven't really been to many on my own, but I've been like in it when people have like kind of left to go home or something and it's just not the same. I know that sounds weird, like obviously there's nothing wrong going to Comic Con or anything on your own.
00:45:57
Speaker
but definitely see if you're like shy like especially like me for the first time and everything like i'm like a very indecisive person so i'm like oh i don't know should i go should i go i mean you've seen me at the t-shirt store you know i wasn't able to bring that up but that was the ones we went to i almost like we almost had a proper fight
00:46:20
Speaker
It's like we spent, oh man, I don't even know what it was. It was a long time looking at these t-shirts and then he goes, I'm not getting one. So we walk around and he goes, actually no, I'm going to get when he goes back to the store and this happens like, oh my God, about four times eventually. Please, it was three at least. I just had to go over to Adam and like, please separate us because I'm in my rack here. You don't have to get like three t-shirts. Oh yeah, I got you.
00:46:50
Speaker
That was like a celebration. The fireworks going off in the background. Oh my god.
00:46:58
Speaker
fun with friends and like the kind of in particular the see the especially when you're waiting a lot so like cute people like when I go to the video games one we often cue games like an hour for some of the games and like the the pattern and the banter you've got to your mates like it's just so much fun just sitting like getting that time because you know life's busy a lot of the time you don't get trying to chill out like oh one of the things that we always do the the one that we go to the often most often like we always get a cost of coffee
00:47:23
Speaker
like halfway through and have lunch together and it's like you know it's nice as well and like getting to go in the convention. I always love that stuff and that's yeah I think that's a big part of me just getting that out. I probably wouldn't go to them myself I'm honest. I probably wouldn't. No I'm probably the same because it is it's like an excuse just to you know meet up kind of.
Conventions and Socializing
00:47:40
Speaker
I mean obviously see the souls, as we said, see the souls and everything, see the actors and things, but a big part of that is being able to kind of experience that with your friends. That kind of brings us on to one of the, nicely on to the next point about what kind of memorable moments we have.
00:47:59
Speaker
about like these cons but it's like without you know being able to kind of share them there would be probably as many like these memories grow because you're all there like doing it together yeah because it becomes like an inside joke like the whole thing about spending money to have fun you know
00:48:17
Speaker
like it's like funny and kind of joking as it is it's like that's you know it's like as soon as we say that that's what we think of because that's where it came from you know so i was just going to say like what are some of the memorable moments for you i don't i'm one of mine's actually going to steal from you so i'm going to hold on to it but seeing you meet the guy that voices mario um yes well that's it i'll let you talk about it because we were sitting right in the eye to start that and i'll hold on to that sorry other sort of memorable moments
00:48:46
Speaker
Oh, there's so many. It's so hard to knock them down. I'm actually struggling to just think of one or two, just to express what you can kind of tell on the pod to make them snappy. I was going to say, write the Tommy Cooper one, maybe. I'm going to name him Shame him, because he's usually a good pod, so he's going to come back up.
00:49:08
Speaker
Adam was sitting up with him one day and it was not long after Matt Smith's doctor had sort of taken the reins and also all the people dressed like him with the brown jacket and the fez. And he's looking at them all and he's looking at us and he's going, do you know what I just don't understand? Why is Tommy Cooper making such a comeback? And we're just like, what? And he's just like, yeah, Tommy Cooper, fez is everywhere.
00:49:37
Speaker
And I would've been like, Tommy Cooper wears black, you know what I mean? It's not like he's wearing a brown t-shirt, it's like, oh, you know what, we're on the details. Yeah, that was just like...
00:49:46
Speaker
Yeah, it was like looking, going. Because I thought he was joking at first, and then you were all like, no, he's serious. I was like, what? If he was quicker off his feet, you probably would have tried to save it as a joke, but he wasn't doing his joke. Another one of my favourites, one of my favourite photos from one, is being a friend, Jordan. We were at the big video games one, EGX and FIFA, where you could pose inside the box.
00:50:13
Speaker
like is in the cover for the game and yeah both people going in like Santa like yay or put a ball under their arm and he we had me and him went on together and he just basically like kicked me straight in the knee
00:50:27
Speaker
No, it actually kicked me, but his maiming too. It was just me pulling over all the money. Like, career ending for 21 or whatever. That's a great one. And then, probably finally, just getting to go cosplay with my wife for the last one in Stalinga where that was brilliant. It was so much fun getting to see her sort of do what I already knew, and then me getting all the extra attention because she looked amazing.
00:50:51
Speaker
That was great as well. See, it's probably my big three. But like I said, it's so hard to pick some to talk about because it's just the experiences are so incredible. But I'll throw it over to you. What are some of your favourite moments? Yeah. I will say that at all last.
00:51:11
Speaker
I'm just trying to think, I mean, there was one weird, well, I don't know whether to like tell this one. I don't know, were you there at the one where the guy kept staring at us? No, I was not at that one. No, so basically, we were at this, I think it must have been the second or third one, and we were at this, so basically, as you were saying, the one we were at was in this like ice rink, so it was like, the seats are kind of like tiered, so you're looking down. So I was sitting there,
00:51:39
Speaker
with a couple of friends and it was my friend's fiancee sitting beside him. And as we were looking down, she kind of tapped me and I was like, oh, you know, I'm like, what's up? And she typed something on her phone and it was like, that guy keeps staring at us. And, you know, like all the grace, social skills of, you know, that you've come to expect from me are just straight up turned round.
00:52:06
Speaker
a lot dies with this guy that was just like, standing at us, like twirling this pen and these fingers. And it was like, it was the weirdest thing because I kept kind of looking at him like, out the corner of my eye and you could still see him like, just standing at us and it was like, what the f-
00:52:27
Speaker
You've been seeing that giant, that bowl with the 1000 seats, you just had to sit in his seat a bit, that's what it was. Oh, probably, yeah. A genie, I don't know. He wasn't even dressed up or anything. He was just in a jumper or something. He was just staring at us. As soon as we left the talk, we were just like, yeah, let's get out of here.
00:52:47
Speaker
I mean, there are, there's just so many. I think, like, in the kind of wholesome aspect, one of the ones I really liked was just, like, chatting to some of the vendors and things in the Edinburgh one, although it was. So, for context, I ended up... The day that I went to that one in Edinburgh was the day that there was, like, a massive storm in Scotland.
00:53:11
Speaker
So, you'd done the smart thing, I think you'd driven through. Yes, I have. But my friend and I had to take the train back home. And I wouldn't have minded as much, you know, except the fact that I was so stupid that I decided to buy a... So, as I said before, I'm going to Star Trek as well, and I bought this huge canvas of the, like, Starship Enterprise. Like, really cool, it's hanging up upstairs. Yeah, spoilers that made it home.
00:53:38
Speaker
but yeah it was like I had to carry this all the way through for like hours because the train stopped and then it started again and then we got stranded at another place and then we had to oh it was a nightmare getting back and it was just like my friend running ahead normally and just me carrying this canvas like a shield.
00:53:59
Speaker
I will also, actually that does remind me because we were talking about this the other day as well about so in the low and the bigger comic cons they do like all the prop swords and things like especially for like I mean it's usually more for anime but they also do like the replicas for Lord of the Rings and I was joking with you guys saying like
00:54:20
Speaker
oh imagine you know someone bought like a you know full-size sword could they get it on the train and I kid you not season as I go like off the train on the other end I saw this guy dressed as Aragon with the big sword and it's like oh my god he actually did it in the math lab
00:54:39
Speaker
And I can't remember who it was if it was you or someone else said, well, would you stop him?
Celebrity Interactions at Conventions
00:54:44
Speaker
You know, a guy with a huge sword? It's like, well, you know what? It's... I can't. Yeah, you have a point. I wouldn't be the ticket collector being like, yeah, yes, sir, you're going to have to put that giant claymore aside, you know?
00:54:59
Speaker
That's not gonna be the hell I'm gonna die on. But the final story, oh god, it's the Mario one as you were saying. So basically there was one year we went to the Glasgow one and they had like a lot of interesting guests and basically I was kind of like indecisive. I was like should I get an autograph?
00:55:16
Speaker
like while I'm there should I not and then I saw that the guy who voices Mario was there and it was like it's one of those things you know that clicks on your mind you think I'm never gonna get this chance again and because obviously like I used to like play like a little Mario games I was younger and things I thought I could take in the like the N64 cartridge of Super Mario
00:55:40
Speaker
Yeah, cute for the ages to like wait for this guy to come out. I can't remember his name, it's Charles and I really don't want to say his second name, it begins with a name but I don't want to say it because I'm pretty sure when I ask for the ticket for it, like at the store I'm like, can I get one ticket for Charles?
00:55:59
Speaker
And they were like, the Mario guy? Yeah. And we stood there. And I remember, I can't remember if I brought it up with a friend or another streamer. I genuinely can't remember who I brought it up with. But they were saying, oh, when I met him, he was like, reserved, calm, he didn't really say much. He just signed and then moved people on. That was not the experience I had. Like, at all.
00:56:24
Speaker
like literally two seconds like you went away to the toilet and then two seconds later this guy comes out the curtains going and doing all the voices and i was just sitting there like maybe i made a mistake
00:56:37
Speaker
Yeah, you guys were like sitting to the side, weren't you? Yeah, I was just cutting at this point. Yeah, you were the only one in the queue for this guy. Yeah. And me and my wife and a couple of others, we all just grab a seat just next to his stand, basically. And all we can hear the entire time is him going, woohoo! Hi!
00:56:59
Speaker
You're in that queue for about 25-30 minutes. I hope he has just busted out the sound effects. Every single Mario sound effect and quote you've ever heard.
00:57:12
Speaker
He was a human soundboard at that point. He was just like, whoo hoo! And I'm like, oh Jesus, just sign it, please. Because there was a guy in front of me and he turned round and he was like, oh, do you think he'll sign two things? And I'm like, like, I thought I said to him like, oh, sure. And I'm thinking, you know, in my head, I'm like, Comic Con would never allow such sneakery. And then he actually signed it and I'm like, oh, son of a bitch, I should have done that.
00:57:44
Speaker
Well, the thing is, he also voices one of the weirdest things in his career, I think, but he also voices one of the dragons from Skyrim. And I've actually got, like genuinely, I'm not even joking, I've got a map upstairs of Skyrim, so I'm kind of like, shit, how much I'd taken that? Because I was decided, I'm like, did I get something, you know, like a Mario thing, or did I get a Skyrim? I'm like, you what, Mario, because voice of Mario, that kind of thing.
00:58:11
Speaker
Yeah, you're not gonna go to the voice of Mario and be like, could you sign this tea cup a Sonic? You know? Oh god, but there are just so many memories, aren't there? I mean, even, as you said before, I don't think there's been a bad one. Like a bad one. Even the ones that haven't lived up to the hype, there's been something about them. And I think a big part of that is just because we've all been going with one another.
00:58:39
Speaker
Yeah, it does. It just makes it a nice experience. It makes Comic-Con a verb. You know what Comic-Con is a friend who made along the way? Exactly. With a retro stoles and everything. And then you hear the music from the cosplay corner. Which, yeah. It's an awesome place. So yeah, I would totally like vouch. Well, obviously. I was about to go into it. I would vouch for going to it. Not this year.
00:59:08
Speaker
Even though everything's getting kind of bad, I don't even know. I can't even say that for certain. But you know, it's like when they get safer, I suppose is the right word. Yeah, some people are doing outdoor Christmas market style ones, like the last year. And the other countries are having them again. So if you get a chance to go on safely, then take it. Find a cosplay that has a mask, which is a lot of people going to be doing this year as well.
00:59:33
Speaker
Well, as I say, I've ordered mine to come in a couple of weeks. I just need to buy the paint now and that'll be it. And then you'll just see me like turning up with like, I'll be that guy everyone talks about. It's like, why is he handing me business cards for his Twitch channel?
00:59:51
Speaker
yeah i was actually um so that's what we were kind of discussing because obviously my um avatar that's what i'm looking for because my avatar is a red panda i was kind of sitting there thinking how could i do it like should i just do it like straight up as a mandolin you know like
01:00:07
Speaker
You know what? No, I'm gonna be creative and like do it up in kind of like an orange colour scheme, like orange and teal. And then I thought maybe, you know, it's like obviously I'm not gonna carry like a baby road around. And then I thought, well, I've got like a stuffed panda I could carry around. And then I was laughing to myself all night because I thought, huh, the panda locusts.
01:00:25
Speaker
like yeah okay that's definitely what we'll be doing nobody will understand it but it'll be worth it i'm sure to like that one person that gets the inside joke and by that i mean you probably just me yeah just you oh dear do you know what i've actually forgot to tell what did you forget to tell well two stories and
01:00:46
Speaker
probably two like stories to wrap up on but the sloth story and the bobblehead story the main event oh yeah this is what you wait for at the very end you know this is this is a marvel after credit scene setting up for the next one
01:01:08
Speaker
So, yeah, if you guys are on the Discord in the Satsanami Society, you might have seen two pictures that I posted. The first one was a picture of myself as a sloth. And you might be thinking, what the hell does that look like? Well, you're gonna have to go... First of all, you're gonna have to go and then see it. Second of all, the reason that Kaye meant... And I think you were there as well. In fact, you were there when I got it done. Yeah, I was one of the people that pressured you into
01:01:36
Speaker
yeah so oh you were no because we were walking by and you get all these stalls where you get people who will draw you in different like ways so like oh you want to draw someone like you know a superhero or an anime character you know something like that
01:01:55
Speaker
comic books and they all sell the comics and also do this on the side just to kind of rack up a bit of extra extra cash or whatever. Yeah and yeah there was quite a few of them. We were walking by this one stall and this guy like completely empty bar like one cat who cut in front of me but I'm no better.
01:02:14
Speaker
yeah but there was like one yeah there was like hardly anyone there and i passed by this thing and they had like a sign up saying like that he was drawing people with sloths and at first i walked by laughing to myself kind of thinking that's quite funny you know that'll make a good anecdote and just like 180'd and i'm like if i don't do if i don't do this now i will never forgive myself
01:02:40
Speaker
So I ended up going up, I was like, Genka should do it, and you were just like right in there going, yes, do it. Do it, do it, do it. Yeah, so now I've got a picture hanging on my wall of myself drawing this a sloth. For everyone who's seen it, it just causes mass confusion of what the hell is that? And I'm like, it's me as a sloth. And they're like, but why do you have it? And it's like, more importantly, why didn't you not have it?
Vendor Interactions and Wrap Up
01:03:08
Speaker
Why do you not? Waste of money? No, no, no, no. Investment. That's what we call it here. Investment. You know, years down the line, that's going to be my legacy. Just a bitch. What did you look like when you were younger? Well, my boy.
01:03:29
Speaker
Oh good and the second one then this is oh god I don't think you were there no you weren't you weren't there for like me actually getting this but I didn't saw the aftermath yeah you saw the after so basically I've got like this Doctor Who hoodie it's like a TARDIS hoodie really like it very comfy and just
01:03:50
Speaker
yeah just advertising through these now and yeah i went up to this stall and it was one of these stalls where you can like put your hand in and like pick out a random you know like a usually it's like a lollipop stick or it's something like that and you get a random prize so i did it and i pulled it out and it was like one of the best prizes you could win out this stall and this guy was like oh well done you won um i talked to you like bobblehead like and i was like oh
01:04:16
Speaker
that was really cool because at the time I'm not really into it now but back then I was really into it and I was like oh that's cool. So he brings in this blob head and again if you're on the discord you'll see like this monstrosity it's like yeah it must have been like during Matt Smith's time so it's a character
01:04:36
Speaker
Clara Oswald and it's played by like Jenna Coleman and my god does this thing look demonic it's like he pulled it out like he actually had the cheek to say after it like he pulled it out and he was like oh and you've got a TARDIS hoodie on oh you're a Doctor Who fan as well and I'm like
01:05:09
Speaker
I've never taken that out, it's like a goosebumps story.
01:05:17
Speaker
Sorry, just one quick one, I just remembered there. I don't know, were you there for the, when I was trying to buy a, so I was trying to buy like a Funko Pop one year of Twin Peak? Yeah, yeah. So for anyone who doesn't know, it's basically like a murder mystery show about like small town America. Good show.
01:05:34
Speaker
Check it out. But I was trying to get like a specific character but one of the like famous images is like at the beginning of it this person or this girl like gets killed and wrapped in plastic and then that's how they find her. For some reason Funko Pop decided to make a Funko of this lassie. So her name's like Laura Palmer and it's like Laura Palmer dead. It's like
01:06:02
Speaker
like I just wanted one of the FBI agent from it because it's like he's a really fun character and everything but it's like so if the guy was doing like a deal it was like three four like whatever amount and I remember just sitting there like yeah I'll have that one I'm not sure about the other ones and he's like do you want this other one and he kept trying to sell this like this dead Funko Pop to me and I was like
01:06:26
Speaker
I'd play, take this damn thing, it moves at night. Yeah, like, I genuinely, I was like, there is not enough explanations in the world that I could justify that to anybody. Not even like hardcore fans of like Twin Peaks is going around rocking this like Ted Funko. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not bad. I just straight up said to them and they kind of looked like, oh, but I was like, no.
01:06:52
Speaker
Have you actually had any moments like that? Like people trying to pressure you to buy anything in Comic-Con or...?
01:06:59
Speaker
I don't think so. I usually just walk away if it gets to you. Maybe the only thing is like when you go to these games once, when it's like indie games, a lot of times, just as one person's worked in it, they're the person man in the stall. They can be pretty intense. You know, it's their baby. Yeah. It's like if you get to get it or if you don't understand it, sometimes that can get a pretty tense as they're trying to like explain something to you. Like it's the most obvious thing in the world to them because they've been spending so much time with this game. And I'm like, but why isn't Spacebar the jump? I don't understand.
01:07:29
Speaker
I was like, duh, left clicks jump? I was like, why? And I was just like, that's maybe like the biggest headache I've ever had for that. I have to admit, other than that, that was at least like a joking kind of thing. Like I think it's worse because again, like when I was at that one in Edinburgh, there was a lot of vendors that I was talking to and like really like getting a lot of good interactions. But I went up to once though and I was like,
01:07:57
Speaker
you know like i said hey and the guy was just like oh there's not even a not even a hand not even a form to load just that and i was like oh these you know the glasses are nice and he's just like hmm i'm like yeah it's like did i it's like what realm did i walk into here did someone smash one of your glasses yeah no thank you so much greg thank you for coming back on the show again much appreciated always pleased to have a wee trip down memory lane with you
01:08:24
Speaker
Oh, that's true. So yeah, where can the lovely audience, where can they find you? Oh, if you're looking for more of me, you can find me at Craig Ali Martin on Instagram, but probably more importantly and more on theme, you can find me at the Bead and Shell podcast. So that's at Bead and Shell Pod on all social medias and also on Anchor.
01:08:45
Speaker
We release episodes every Monday. We did our awards, like, wrapping up 2020. Last week, we recorded Chilis. Next week, we're releasing episodes. I think it's really, really good fun. It's about different tropes in movies and TV. And then, coming up, we're doing an Audience Interaction episode. We're looking for people's predictions for 2021, so we're looking for what people think are going to happen next year.
01:09:07
Speaker
Whether it's big, small, whether it's like a massive change, or just my favourite video games are going to win Game of the Year, it's entirely up to you. Just let us know and we'll feature you on the show. So, looking forward to hearing what your predictions are for next year, is that it? This year I can see. Yeah, no, that's all my shilling done, I think. I'm getting good at that.
01:09:27
Speaker
yeah you can find me on twitter instagram youtube twitch and of course tech talk under the name satsanami42 bam see that's how you do a shout it crusty uh crusty the clown when he's recording the lines for the doll ha ha they do ha ha they're done yes i was like
01:09:56
Speaker
And the guy was like, eh, Krusty? Oh yeah, we've got the tape on that. Krusty. Same drives off. He's like, yeah, you can find me a touch on the video. Until then, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated. Bye guys. See you later.