Latest / CONversations with Coffee / Episode 2: I Sang Happy Birthday to William Shatner... Here's What Else Happened at Comic Con
Transcript
- Kent: Hi, my name is Kent and you welcome back to cons with coffee and I've got my host Liz here with us. Say hi Liz. Liz: Bye. Hello from British Liz. British Liz. Kent: British Liz, yes, yes. The tea drinker and I am your coffee drinker. Yes, yes. So welcome to the show. have conversations with coffee is all about Comic Cons behind the curtains, little gossip and tips and tricks that will help you ease your way through the con because there are so many of you that are attending Comic Cons that we felt we. Liz: See Kent: We wanted to have a conversation. And of course, we like our coffee or tea. And we're like, this would be a great experience for other people to learn some things that most people don't know. And so today, I mean, I just got back from a Comic Con. How about you, Liz? Liz: I just got back from Megacon in Orlando, Florida, which is a four-day behemoth of a con. Behemoth, monster. I don't have official numbers, but if it was under 200,000 attendees, I would be shocked. It was enormous. Kent: Beermont? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that is one of the bigger shows, just like New York, San Diego. It's a bohemian-sized Comic-Con for four days. People come from all over for that one. Liz: Yeah, and yeah, and it was kind of weird. There were a ton of English people there and I couldn't quite gauge whether they were there because they were already there for the theme parks or if they came for the con, but there were a ton. And I was sitting with the voice of Barney the dinosaur who was... Kent: awesome. I don't even know. Never was. Liz: You don't, obviously. Us in the know. I love you. You love me. We're a great big family. Anyway, we were super busy all weekend. There was eight cast members from Lord of the Rings there. They had four mummy cast members, including Brendan Fraser. Mummy, mummy, mummy. Yes, that kind. Kent: I love you. Holy cow. You said mommy or mummy? MUMMY Like uhhhh yeah yeah the mummy okay Liz: Not, not mummy, mother of two. Yes, mummy. Kent: Well, you know, you are British, so we have to make sure that we have our pronunciation. Liz: Spelt the same, spelled the same. Where were you? Kent: I was actually in Richmond at Richmond Galaxy con so that one was That was a four-day show Thursday through Sunday just tons of different actors and celebrities that were there. I mean I mean the whole pretty much the whole cast of flash was there From the tv show. Yep, all of them. I mean Daniel pannenbaker grant was there Liz: That's another huge show. really? Kent: Holy cow. then Williams, I forgot to tell you this earlier. One of those things that you never think that you'd want to put on your bucket list, but becomes part of your bucket list is I got to sing Happy Birthday to William Shatner for his 95th birthday. Liz: No way! Kent: His birthday was on Sunday. We happened to be in the green room and they had brought out a cake. so everybody in the green room sang happy birthday to William Shatner. And then we got to, you know, shake hands or give him a hug and stuff like that and wish him a happy 95th birthday. So if you're at a comic con, just know that William Shatner is older than dirt. Liz: It's unbelievable! And he does so many cons. I feel like he's at every other show that I'm at. I never see him, but you you hear rumors that he's there. Kent: He does. He does. Yeah, it was crazy. And then there was four of the only living cast members left. Police Academy was there. J and Silent Bob was there. Some of the clerks were there. Tons of anime voice actors. It was just crazy. I mean, I would have to pull up the list of everybody and you'd still take another 30 minutes just to talk about everybody. Liz: Yeah! And then, and then I know there was a huge show in Vegas. That was a huge anime show. We have a friend that went, our friend Melissa went and they were just, I don't know how busy it was, but they had a lineup. Like, like the anime was crazy there. And, and it's like that. I mean, you know, you look up cons for every weekend. There's a dozen, sometimes a dozen in. Kent: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Three to four five a week Liz: around the country and not to mention around the world. And so, you know, I'm one of those idiots that picks and chooses and decides, I'll try that one. Then go and hope I get to be a hamper at that one. Kent: huh there you go that's awesome well you know this is cons with coffee and i am actually gonna have some coffee but do have to tell you i went to seattle last week and so i got to go to the original starbucks and they have a special brew that you can only buy at that store so i am drinking the pike place roasted brew from starbucks the original store Liz: wow. Kent: I did get some swag because at the original store they have the original logo and they had cups and things like that. you know, I walked out the door with about $80 worth of swag. Liz: You actually, had, but you had time. I never have time to go see things when I'm at a con. Kent: This one I actually flew in super early because of the time change going west towards the west coast. So I had time. So when I landed, I got checked into the hotel and then I was like, I got like three hours before everybody shows up. So I went down to Pike's the marketplace, the fish marketplace. yeah, so I'm going to enjoy my coffee. Liz, are you drinking tea or what are you Wonk. Wonk. Liz: yeah. Good for you. in my Wonka giant teacup. See, see how big it is? It's huge. It's yummy. Kent: that'll last you about two minutes well awesome my goodness t i told you you're gonna need to carry out a pot of tea right next to your desk to go through everything yeah well so this week was interesting i know you had talked about meeting your heroes and i was gonna let you just kind of share with the fans about meeting your heroes and and your topic on that Liz: I'm already almost finished. I should, and a tea cozy. Well, yeah, I mean, as I think you probably know, Kent and I mostly will sit with a celebrity and show people the eight by 10 pictures that are offered and sell autographs and possibly selfies at the table. It's kind of our job. But I often get people come up to the table. This is my first con. What do you do? So I usually give them my little Con 101. Con, Con 101. Which is exactly that. You can choose a picture from the table, you get a signature, it costs, does cost, certain amount of money, anywhere between say 50 bucks and Mark Hamill is 500, right? Something like that. Kent: corn, okay? Yes. Yeah, I mean the price is depending on how popular the the talent is but just know going up to a table autographs are not free. That is the talents business. And that's how they make money when they are not on screen. Because if they're not acting or working at the studios, they're not getting paid. So this is their way of taking care of their families Liz: Yes, so but those prices do vary a lot. I would say the average now might be 60. Oh, I was going to say 60 to 80. So just be prepared when you Kent: 40 to 60. Well that's, as you hang out with all the big name celebrities. Liz: Right. Well, most of the people I hang out with are 60 to 80. And then there's also a charge for a selfie, which is sometimes taken by you or the celebrity, but mostly I find is taken by crew members that are controlling the line as well. So you actually get a decent picture, not a big picture of your nostrils. Kent: yeah right i mean the the line control or the handler working with the talent will take the picture but there are several of those that when they when you get a selfie the celebrity likes to take your camera and they'll do different poses like i can tell you michael michael rosenbaums one kevin smith is another he doesn't do he well Liz: Michael Rosenbaum. Michael Rosenbaum. So hilarious. does he? Kent: He doesn't do selfies at the table. I'm disregarding that. So I've just seen him outside of the Comic-Con take pictures. But Nolan North from Uncharted. Man, that guy, Ross Marquardt is another one. There's several different celebrity. Liz: Okay. Mm-hmm. Edward James Olmes is another one. Yeah. Kent: Edward James almost, you know, they love to take the camera and take the pictures so that you get a unique and fun picture that you might not have taken yourself. So. Liz: And usually it will be multiple pictures because it's bound to be blinking or cross-eyed or something. Kent: There's a a there are a few that they will allow you to take one picture and and then they have to proof it Because they want to make sure it looks good. They look good I'm not gonna mention the ladies who do that, but there are a few that You take one picture you show to them you like it. Yes, they like it. Yes, you get to keep it If they don't like it then delete it and redo Yeah, that's happened a couple times this year Liz: really? Really? That is really interesting. Really? Ooh, you have to tell me who? Later. Now, I would that's the usual model of it. That's your basic. You have the pictures, you have the selfies. Often, you'll get a combo price if you get both. Kent: Really? Behind the curtains that. Mm-hmm. So what the combo do you, is there any, yeah, there's, there's special pricing on a combo, meaning you get the selfie and the autograph. Liz: maybe 20 bucks off or something. Yeah, so your autograph, autograph 60, selfie is 60, together it's gonna be 100 instead of 120. You know, that kind of thing. Kent: Okay, so you save 20, 30 bucks on doing a combo, which I've always found that most people, come to the table, they're wanting to get an autograph. And then they're like, I could take a picture with them. And then they're like, and then they get the combo and they're like, my gosh. Or a lot of times I've you can read those people, they come up and get an autograph. And then you're like, you want to get the selfie too. And they're like, and I'm like. I can't tell you how many times I've had people walk away and then 10 minutes later, come back and be like, Yeah, I want the selfie because they're there. They're in the moment. It's something that they can post on social media to show that they were with the person. You know, sometimes they'll hold the autograph up, which then is proof that that's a real autograph that you got and stuff. So Liz: Yeah. Especially. Especially if they're in cosplay for that show. Kent: A lot of your actors dress up in cosplay for the shows. Like Greg? Liz: yes, yes, the Avatar last airbender guys, they dress up and it's like, you've got it, you've got it. Yeah, Jesse Flowers, Michaela Murphy, she goes by birth. She dresses up as Toph from Avatar and she looks smashing and so does Grey Delisle who plays Azula. Kent: Avatar people yeah, they love to dress up. mean, who jesse jesse does talk Yep, she dresses up on yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Well, when I worked with Adasa, she would dress up as Dolores from Encanto. So, you know, the whole outfit and the hair done up and stuff like that. So. That's right. I mean, they're in costume of their character, so that makes it fun. Liz: Mm-hmm. So you gotta get a selfie with those guys. But even if the attendees are in costume, then it's like, well, yeah, you've also got to get a selfie. So like I say, that's the general model. Then you also have celebrities that sell merchandise, special pieces of art, Funko pops, toys, books. So those may be for sale, autographed. And then you've got the whole other model. Kent: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Liz: like San Diego, where, and I think New York is the same, where you can't really, they don't have a table. You're not gonna go up to Chris Hemsworth at a table in general, right? Isn't that how it works at the super huge cones? You can't really, you don't really have that sort of access. Kent: Mm-hmm. well, the big shows like San Diego Comic-Con, they're mostly there for the studio. And so, They're mostly they've got a time limit. There's a table there like CW has a booth. They've got an hour. They bring down one of the showcasts and they're there. You get a lottery pick ticket to get an autograph. You don't get to stand and talk with them. You're like literally just shuffled through the line. You might get an autograph and see them at a glance. But yeah, that's some of the stuff that happens. Liz: Yeah, because I was, I have to say I was a tiny bit disappointed when I went to San Diego because I thought, I can line up and see somebody, you know, Robert Downey Jr. You're like, great, I can see them. And it's like, not going to happen. Kent: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, not at San Diego. Liz: But I think isn't New York a similar thing because it's promotional for movies and things? Kent: Yeah, but they have the Hollywood area down below where you can go down and stand in line to get autographs for selfies and things like that. So yeah. Liz: Mm-hmm. Right. So getting back to most cons, there are sometimes cons where there are extremely popular celebrity guests. And then you start getting into weird things where you have to pre-buy autographs online. There's special times you might be given a group number. And that's when you're talking lines that might be... four to six hours long. So just be prepared folks. If you want an autograph from somebody like Elijah Wood, you're going to be in line. You need to pre-buy a ticket. You probably have to buy the photograph that you put it on, whereas for most people it's included with the autograph. Just check online. Kent: Yeah, and again, some of the bigger names and I'm going to say this and I know Liz is saying this as well. Here's an example. Hayden Christensen has three, 400 people in a line all day long. All right. So Hayden doesn't have the time to sit there and talk with everybody that comes through the line because you probably got there super early, like two, three hours ahead before he got there. So you're at the front of the line and then people are joining. They're waiting two, three hours because the line's barely moving and stuff like that. So having a long conversation or getting a conversation with those heroes is pretty much obsolete because if you take a minute. Then the person behind you takes a minute takes a minute take a minute. They can only get through 60 people In an hour and you've already got 400 people deep You know, so that's why a lot of these times it's just like they're going to sign, they're going to have post-it notes with your name on it. These are things that the handler is doing to prepare the autograph so that you can actually stand there and watch them sign it and then grab your autograph and go or quick take the selfie and go. But yeah, people get upset because, I didn't get any time with this celebrity or guys. They're there to make money. They're there to, obviously they want to meet the fans. But again, depending on how popular they are, they can't sit there and talk with you for two, three minutes. It's just not possible. know, just like Johnny Young Bosch always has a line, always has a line. He will say hi, he will... Liz: He's one of the Power Rangers and... Kent: Black Power Rangers does about a bazillion anime voice acting stuff. He's in one piece. He does a lot. Yeah. But he does not have the time to sit there and talk. He will talk while he's autographing and he'll converse and stuff like that. But he's not going to have the time to have a one on one conversation. Does that make sense? So Liz: yes, he's in one piece, isn't he? He does the English one piece. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kent: Keep your expectations of meeting these people and talking with them at a lower level. If you get more than a minute or two or three minutes with them, wow, you're doing better than the average person attending a Comic-Con. And that's just because, again, a lot of these Comic-Cons, there's 80, 100,000 people attending and they want the same thing you do. So I'm just trying to keep it real. Liz: Though, though, yeah, yeah, definitely, that is definitely true. I mean, people like Brendan Fraser, I saw last weekend, Liv Tyler, just, you can't even get near them. And. Kent: And even on the photo ops. Liz: well, that's a whole other thing. Yeah, let's talk about photo ops, which I think is funny because you've got photos on the table, you've got photos you can take on your phone and then photos that you can get professionally. so the the vocabulary is limited. So I usually say, do you want an eight by 10? Do you want a selfie or do you want a professional photo op? So Kent: want to go that's a whole bottle of Boloax right there so Well, yeah, mean, some people want a nice clean photo. Mm-hmm. Liz: So when you take a selfie at the table or table photos, they sometimes call them, that's generally, you would pay for that at the table and it's done right there and then. If you wanted a professional picture taken, that's called a photo op and that you would buy online in advance from, there's a number of different companies that do them. Epic, Leap, Kent: epic and yeah leap yeah those yeah but you you buy them online ahead of time so that you're guaranteed to get that photo up if you show up that day they might not have any availability because they've sold so many and they only have a time restraint that the that the actor can be in that photo booth so Liz: The others don't come to mind immediately. it's, yeah. Yes. Yes. Kent: showing up the day Liz: And so. Kent: of sometimes and trying to get a photo op and you can go there and ask hey are there any available and sometimes they are but a lot of times like the big names the brand new frazier's the you know the kevin smith the lord of the ring collection yeah no yep Liz: Yeah, the Lord of the Rings collection. Yeah, they were just sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out. But that is done with professional lighting, professional photographers. They print out the picture, which is really great because then you can go pay to get it autographed by the person in the picture. But it is in flash out. is, there's... Kent: I call it the 10 second moment that you get to stand next to your hero and smile and then you have to be moved on because there's 10 million people behind you and you're not don't attempt to have a conversation in those photo booths because they will push you out. Liz: Yes. Yeah, Yeah, and. Kent: And then you're gonna get upset because you're like, I was trying to talk with them. No, they've got 500 people behind you that want to get a photo as well. And they're getting all their makeup ready and stuff like that, too. So Liz: all those people. And I've heard people ask, can I get an autograph in there? No, absolutely not. Not happening. I managed to... Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Kent: Hey, we're just trying to keep it real for the people that are subscribing and listening to conversations with coffee because, you know, we do this and we've been doing it for decades. So we're attempting to keep everything real with you so that you have those don't have those high expectations and then get upset because it didn't go your way. Liz: Yeah. So I was just going to say another thing at the table. You pay for your autograph and most some, I don't know, you you can get your picture personalized to you. You could get a quote. You can get the character name on there and that's often free, but sometimes... Kent: Mm-hmm. Some are charged for a quote, they charge for personalization, drawings, doodles. Liz: Yeah, so I got hit with all three. I got character name, personalization, end quote. I got hit with three charges, which added $50 to the autograph. Kent: Yeah, because a doodle or a drawing is usually 20, sometimes a character name. They'll usually put it in there, but some actors will charge you $10, $20 for that character name. And then if you want to quote, because they have different quotes of different anime or movies or things they've done. Liz: Mm-hmm. Kent: Sometimes they will give it to you and then sometimes you got to pay that extra $20 for the quote. So always ask. Liz: and and And frankly, their hands are probably dropping off by the end of the day. Because of so many signatures. It's just crazy. Kent: especially the anime people when they're signing autographs, they have famous quotes, and then everybody's like, can you do this quote? And I know some of the anime people actually print out their quotes, because, you know, you come up and if you're not prepared, you just take in a lot of time, because you need to be prepared on what you want. You know, of that quote. Liz: Yes. Mm-hmm. And I would say, yeah, go ahead, finish, finish. What I was gonna say also, maybe having some mental preparation as well, because mostly the conversation's natural. Mostly they'll say, you know, what do you do? What do you like? Or I love that you did this. I love that you were part of my childhood, this kind of thing. Kent: No, go ahead. Liz: But sometimes you can be so keyed up and tongue tied, you simply don't know what to say. So I always think, write a note or write, or just think about it in line. What am I gonna say that's not gonna be, well, super creepy? Or just start crying or whatever. You know, it just... Kent: Yeah. I always tell people write down a note. Well, I get the crying because it's an emotional thing and you're you're meeting this person that you idolize or see on TV or here all the time and you're getting to actually meet them for us. It's just everyday Joe. But for the fans, it's their first time meeting a celebrity ever. Like they don't live in Hollywood. They don't see this stuff. So I understand that emotions come up and that is OK. We just don't. Liz: True, true, yeah. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Kent: I always try to help them because I don't want them crying when they get up there and then their makeup's all like down their face and they want to do a selfie and stuff like that. you know, go ahead and cry out or do it after you leave the table and it's okay. The celebrities understand that it's an emotional experience and that is okay. Liz: Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Kent: Cause I had a girl at, I was with Kevin Smith this week and only had one, but she came in and she, she wants to be a director. She's writing her own comic book and just idolize Kevin and just was so excited to meet him and just wanted, she wants to do what he does. And so he was she was sharing that and he was like, my gosh, that's so exciting. Keep doing this like he was given a reinforcement. And the more he kept giving the reinforcement, the more emotional she got. And she was shaking and super excited. And he understood that because you know, you don't get these opportunities all the time. And so, you know, for her, I mean, obviously, there was people behind her and things like that we had to escort her not as credit just out. he was behind a curtain because he likes to engage with the fans but eventually we had to have her leave so that the next person could come and you know while she was leaving she was crying and he's like that's such a good feeling like I love that so it's okay Liz: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. mean, I hope that was understood. But if you're just kind of tongue-tied, I feel like if you can think of, say, a story, like, I thought I could fly because of you and I jumped off the shed and broke my leg. You know, just dumb stuff, something that might even make them laugh. Kent: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I think that... yeah a personal experience well and i always tell people look if you're coming up getting an autograph have things prepared like i i saw this one gentleman he had a three by five card had his name and the quote he wanted on that three by five and then i just set it on the print and it made my job easier but it made it easier for the talent because like boom there's the name there's the quote and it was done Liz: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I know people, well, we could go into this another time, but people who are later going to be selling items, which we can talk about, they often will have, you know, I want this in this color, that in that color, this quote, and, you know, and that's great because they're prepared, yeah. But if you know, Kent: Mm-hmm. Again, preparation is the best. Liz: you know who you want to make it out to happy birthday, know, stuff like that. And we can always help you. You know, people like us handlers can always help you with things you might want to say might want to, know, because they'll tell you the story first. Tell him, tell him. Kent: Well, hang on. Yeah, yeah. If you have, if you, the listeners listening right now, if you've got questions, please put them in the comments below, wherever you see us on Facebook or Instagram or whatever, put your questions in there. We will read this and then we'll bring you back in another episode to answer your questions. Because again, you guys have questions. We do this all the time. We're here sharing our experiences and what's going on to make your experience a lot better. And I know you have to leave here soon Liz But one of the things coming up this week is Hail Mary with Ryan Gosling And then I know Ryan Gosling they actually did a Super Bowl commercial of him throwing a football through the big donut You know the big you know the donut that Iron Man's that's in yeah Liz: Do tell. Did they? When it in LA. yeah. Kent: They had him on the one side of the bridge and he threw it and it made it a Hail Mary pass for the Super Bowl kind of thing. It was kind of cute. So that's coming out. And I know you said something about ACME. Liz: Hahaha yes. So last weekend, I was with the voice actress Candy Milo, and she voices a bunch of Warner Brothers characters. And I didn't know this, but there is a new Warner Brothers slash live action movie coming out in August called Coyote versus Acme. And I think Coyote is suing Acme for all the contraptions that don't work. And I don't know that much about it. I'm not even sure if there's a trailer yet, but John Cena plays the lawyer, which sounds the lawyer. He sounds hilarious. So I'm excited about that. It's kind of early, but. Kent: Ooh. The lawyer, okay. know. Yeah, we'll have to check I'll have to check it out and do some research and then come back on a future episode and talk about that and stuff. So any any last words before we get out of here and let our fans enjoy their day? Liz: Yeah. Well, I would say my tip of the day. Don't buy anything huge or bulky first thing in the morning when you go to a con. Kent: that's a whole different conversation right there. Holy cow, Drop a big thing like that on the at the end of the show. Liz: I know but just just the number of mystery boxes I bought at like 10 in the morning and then had to lug around all day. So well that's just a little tip. Kent: Wow, truth bomb laid right there at end of the show. There you go. I love that. Don't buy big bulky stuff or just have your boyfriend or girlfriend come along and let them carry it. Actually, some of the comic cons now are putting lockers. Liz: Hahaha! Yeah, or the stroller. Kent: in in the hallway so that way if you have items you can put them in the locker you can lock it you know they charge you for the lock or whatever but and then there's i've seen a couple of the comic cons have like a concierge service where if you've got packages like disney you buy it and then they leave it at the front and then when you're done at the end of the day you grab all your packages that you bought because it's in a storage room Liz: Yeah. Yeah! That's great! Okay, so scratch that! Okay, well, I will see you next time and see all of you guys next time! Kent: Yeah, see more ideas. Awesome. Well. Yes, and to the fans. Yeah, to all our new subscribers and the people that have been listening. Thank you. We're super excited to share more content, more stories. Please like and subscribe so you'll know when our next episode is. And I'm Kent and this is Liz and we are conversations with coffee. Till next time. Or tea. All right. Have a great day. Liz: Or tea. Or tea.