Reading my buddy Brandon's posts about his experience going to Wizard World in Chicago in 2016 has me thinking about my own convention experiences. I first posted this on another blog back in 2014 when I got home from the convention. This is that post and I have expanded it and added detail. The convention was October 31 - November 2nd, 2014.
This past weekend I spent a spectacular time with some great friends in the Ocean State for the 2014 Rhode Island Comic Con. John, Jere, Ju, Jonny, & I piled into Vanna and about 4 hours later we arrived at the Omni Providence Hotel, we made great time. We were able to check in early and had adjoining rooms which was very convenient. The hotel is attached to the Convention Center where the Con was being held, and the Providence Place Mall via a skywalk. Once we parked the car it didn’t move until we left Sunday.
After getting settled in we attempted to find where we could get out passes as our weekend party pack was at will call. Turns out we had to go to the ticket master box office at the Dukin Donuts Center, which is attached to the Convention Center, to pick up a single master ticket and then Saturday turn in our ticket for a wrist band that showed we got the weekend pass and were issued another bracelet showing we bought the early bird pass as well. Those early bird passes paid off more than we thought they would.
Friday night featured the Halloween Party, and as none of us are party people we weren’t that interested in going. However, Ju wanted to at least check it out so Jonny and I joined her while John & Jere checked out Dave & Busters. D&B turned out to be quite disappointing while the Halloween Party was not!!
The three of us met up with Leah, a very awesome young lady who had traveled from the Boston area alone to the con, and eventually John and Jere came down. Leah is fan of Supernatural and I dare say she likes that show more than I like wrestling, yes that much!
The Halloween party featured a mechanical bull, karaoke contest, costume, standard high school dance songs like Cotton Eyed Joe, The Macarena, and ect and a few celebrity guests; Brian O’Halloran, Scott Schiaffo (the chewlie’s gum representative from Clerks), Seth Gilliam (Father Gabriel of the Walking Dead), Linda Blair, Anthony Michael Hall, and Cosplayer Belle Chere. I got my picture taken with O’Halloran, Schiaffo, Gilliam, & Belle Chere. Linda Blair even showed up to judge the screaming contest! The Halloween party was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. We all had a great time. I even got to tell Anthony Michael Hall my piss-kaw-talk-us story!
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| Belle Chere as Jessica Rabbit |
I was huge fan of Anthony Michael Hall from from many of his movies, but most recently he had been the star of the USA Network show The Dead Zone, based on the Stephen King book. The show took place in Maine and they used many actually Maine town names and landmarks even though it was not shot in Maine. They even "went" to Litchfield once, the town I grew up in. Well in one episode he was looking for the blood mobile and they wouldn't tell him what town it was in only the county and it was Piscataquis, pronounced piss-cat-a-quis but the actress pronounced it piss-kaw-talk-us. This tickled me and made me laugh so much, so I shared this horribly boring story with Mr. Hall and he patiently listened to it and seemed genuine when he laughed after.
The costumes through-out the weekend ranged from very intricate detailed work that was just fantastic to store bought to meh. The majority of attendees wore costumes, lots of Dead Pools, Black Widows, Harley Quinns, and lots and lots of cat suits. There was a few random‘s that surprised me like a Firestar, Darkwing Duck, and very large heavy set male dressed as Elsa from Frozen. Everyone was very happy to pose for photos if asked and I got a few. Once of my favorites was a girl with a very nice Captain American contest with the upper portion was actual scales woven together. The pictures do it absolutely no justice.
The convention floor was set up left to right with comic artists, vendors, celebrity photos & autographs, and finally celebrity headliners. The headliners filled a large area as it was anticipated their lines would be long, and they were correct. William Shatner was there both days and I never saw him once.
Outside the convention center on the main floor were several vehicles and minor booths set up. Vehicles included; the DeLorean, Kitt from Knight Rider, Mystery Machine, the batcycle and others. If you went up to the next floor they had the panel rooms as well as the pro photo op rooms, and a few other attractions.
We all pretty much did our own thing on the convention floor, sticking together and separating at times. I had Brian O’Halloran sign my Vulgar DVD, I got a couple trading cards by Curt Hawkins and my photo with him, also a photo with cosplayer Jennifer Rose as batgirl.
I was at a comic book convention so of course I picked up plenty comics, some of them for pretty darn cheap too spending about $20 on close to 40 books. Also Jonny got me a Bates Motel room keychain in the style of the old plastic motel key tags, pretty darn cool! They had a lot of really neat stuff there, and if I had the money I could have spent quite a lot of it.
On Saturday Jay joined us as he was there to see and meet Colin Baker the 6th Doctor. We did hang out on the floor together for a bit, but mostly he did his own thing as well. He got a couple signed photos, did the professional photo op with Baker and got that photo signed as well, and attended his Q&A Panel. Jay had worn a Dr. Who shirt that had the outfits of all the doctors on it in the order with which they played the iconic character. In the photo Colin pointed to himself on Jay’s shirt, it’s pretty awesome!
Jonny and I attended the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark panel as we planned on meeting everyone for the Supernatural Panel that was to follow after. They couldn’t get in because the crowd was so large, so it was just Jonny and I. Then everyone on the panel except for Jim Beaver, had played bit characters that were only in a few episodes. The main reason I had wanted to go was to see Mark Sheppard in action as Leah had sold how funny he was at the panels, and he wasn’t even there. So we left.
We were pretty tired from being on the floor all day and decided to head up to the room for a spell, knowing we probably wouldn’t get back on the floor. Basically they oversold the show and the Fire Marshall shut it down and for a few hours they wouldn’t let anyone back in the center, no matter what kind of ticket they had. People were lined up down the hall ways, around the building outside in the rain, thousands of people. People were furious and rightfully so, especially the people outside in elaborate costumes that were there for that evening’s costume contest and they couldn’t even get in to have them seen. Luckily we had the early bird and was able to get in straight away before the chaos broke out.
Saturday night we all, including our new pal Leah, went to dinner at Joe’s American Bar & Grill. I had a fantastic burger, cooked to perfection as did Ju. John and Jere went with the Mac & Cheese and were very please, Leah the half roasted chicken, and Jonny…I just can’t recall but I’m leaning towards chicken sandwich. It was fun dinner.
After dinner we separated as Jonny, John, & Jere headed to the IMAX for a screening of John Wick, Ju eventually made her was back to the room after some window shopping, she almost shared and elevator ride with Brian O’Halloran. Lean and I ended up heading back to the convention floor for the last half hour of the show. We grabbed some pictures, browsed a bit, and saw some cool costumes. The coolest part of all though was that near the elevators of the hotel we saw Scott Wilson, Hershel from the Walking Dead. I had a wonderful, but albeit, brief conversation with him and I have to admit I marked out like crazy. He was such a super nice guy and thanked me after I thanked him and he was so sincere about it too. Then he ended up on the elevator with us, Leah asked him if he was having a good time and he replied, “more importantly, are you having a good time?” It was so cool!
Jonny, John, Jere, & I finished off the night laughing heartily while watching 22 Jump Street. The movie is completely stupid, but it is hilarious and was the perfect way to close the night.
Because of the time change we got and extra hours sleep before checking out of the hotel and heading into the convention center. I took in two panels this day, one about cosplay costume making that was really enjoyable and the other was phenomenal, Warehouse 13 with Saul Rubinek and Eddie McClintock!
First off they ruled the panel, they cut moderator off immediately and ran it themselves. When it came time for audience questions Eddie was the one holding the microphone for them even. In the next room to us was the Walking Dead Panel and the kept erupting in applause, Saul lead us on a loud ovation to out due them, and then when it happened again, he just said “oh fuck them” and continued with his story. It appears that they characters that they played on the show were just extensions of their natural personalities. It was a great way to close the weekend before the long drive home.
I had been reading the weather updates and it was talking about nothing but snow as we were to head north and back home it was piling up. Fact is we didn’t really hit any snow until Maine, and nothing that affected the roads until Topsham. So on the van ride home, we made great time!
Planning for this trip started back in February and culminated 9 months later with a fantastic weekend full of interesting stories and wonderful experiences with some great friends!
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