A large portion of my Thursday, the first official day of San Diego Comic-Con 2017, was spent waiting in line to exchange my Conan e-ticket for a physical ticket with a seat assignment. Fortunately my hotel was just across the street from the theater box office. I headed out to get in line at 6:30am since the tickets were going to be processed starting at 9am. However, when I arrived, the line was already quite long, spanning a couple blocks. At 8am they started processing those in line who wanted to join the wait list, and the line shrunk a little bit, but I was still quite a ways back. When 9:00 came around, the line still wasn’t moving and I was starting to get nervous about my plans for the rest of the day. However, once they did start processing the line, things moved rapidly and I received my ticket in no time.
Ticket in hand, I headed off for my first activity of the day…a press preview of the Mr. Robot activation. Universal Cable Productions had built a branch of the Bank of E in the Gaslamp district. Inside it looked like any other bank, complete with tellers, free pens/pads, etc. I signed up for my Bank of E account and was given an Ecoin debit card with a balance of 20 Ecoins. I was informed that I could spend this money at many shops around town—those indicating that they accept Ecoin. Next door to the bank was a Red Wheelbarrow BBQ restaurant franchise—one of the shops that accept Ecoin.
After checking out these Mr. Robot-themed establishments, I headed off for my first press room of the Con—Syfy’s Dark Matter. This year Dark Horse brought executive producer Jay Firestone and cast members Anthony Lemke (“Three”), Jodelle Ferland (“Five”), Melissa O’Neil (“Two”) and Alex Mallari Jr. (“Four”). As always, the actors were a lot of fun to talk with—check out my videos to see what they shared about what’s to come this season.
Next I had the press room for new series Medinah, the first sci-fi/fantasy series produced in the Middle East. The series has already completed production on its first 7-episode season, and came to SDCC in hopes of finding a network or streaming service interested in distributing the series. This was a very atypical press room. When we walked in they had laid out plates of sandwiches, chips and pretzels on each of the roundtables, and also had pizza and soda available. And instead of the usual roundtable format, they did on-on-one interviews at the tables. Jason Griffin (TheTVAholic, TVTimesThree) and I decided to pair up for the interviews. First up were actors Hemwant Tiwari (“Ravendra”), Rick Ravanello (“Bannon”), Mohammed Alhamadi (“Isaac”) and Aziz Al-Dorani (“Taif”). Then, when we were joined by a third journalist when speaking with Eric Roberts (“Randall”). Afterwards, the other reporter asked for a selfie, and so when Jason asked for a regular photograph, Eric was insistent on selfies all around. As I prepared to take my selfie with Mr Roberts, I suddenly found a pair of hands over my eyes. Once Eric removed his hands I took the photo again…but he was very proud of the first photo. Jason and I closed out the room with an interview with Natasha Henstridge (“Salma”). Check out my videos from the press room.
Next I headed to the Van Helsing press room, where we got to speak with creator/showrunner Neil LaBute, executive producers Mike Frislev & Chad Oakes, stars Christopher Heyerdahl (“Sam”), Paul Johansson (“Dmitri”) & Aleks Paunovic (“Julius”), and newcomer Missy Peregrym (“Scarlett Harker”). Actors Jonathan Scarfe (“Axel”) & Rukiya Bernard (“Doc”) were also in the room, but unfortunately they never made it around to our table before the time ran out. Check out my videos from these roundtable sessions.
Next, I headed upstairs to the 12 Monkeys press room. We were all squished around two rountables, and since I arrived pretty much last, the only seat remaining was the one right next to the talent, which is always tough for photos/video recording. However, the room was really well-run, and we got to speak to everyone about the show’s upcoming final season—series creator Terry Matalas, and stars Aaron Stanford (“James Cole”), Amanda Schull (“Dr. Cassandra Railly”), Emily Hampshire (“Jennifer Goines”), Todd Stashwick (“Deacon”) & Alisen Down (“Olivia”). Check out my videos from these roundtable sessions.
After that it was time for Conan, so I booked it back to my hotel room to drop off my stuff and take a quick shower. Then I walked across the street to get in line at the theater. At around 7:30, they started to let us in, and when I got to my seat I was surprised at how close it was—I was in the 5th row, center section, right on the aisle! Before the show started a comedian came out to rile up the crowd and explain what was going to happen. Then the band came out, followed by Andy Richter and Conan, and the show was rolling. Conan gave his monologue and showed a few pre-recorded joke segments—one for a Young Dumbledore auditions, another for a Line Con. Then he brought out Captain Make America Great Again—a Donald Trump/Captain America hybrid, who we were supposed to boo. However, at one point Conan seemed to break, and genuinely start laughing at one of the comments made by the actor. Next Conan brought out the cast of The Lego Ninjago Movie. Sometimes it was a bit difficult to hear the actors, but it was a fun conversation. The show seemed to fly by, and in no time it was over. As we filed out of the theater, we were handed a limited edition The Flash Conan Funko Pop figure.
I headed back across the street to my hotel where I finished up my Preview Night recap post and prepared for the next day’s events.
(Check out all of our SDCC 2017 Daily Recaps: Preview Night | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4)
