This past week-end, I had occasion to attend the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. Let me tell you, I was mighty entertained. As a confirmed Fan-boy, I was super excited to see all the vast quantities of comics for sale. Even better was to attend a panel with comic legends Chris Claremont and Len Wein answering questions from the audience about the X-Men.
Just leaving aside the comic half of the expo, the entertainment half was even better. Featuring such celebrities as Aaron Douglas, Tahmoh Penikett, Sid Haig, Malcolm McDowell, and Erin Gray; as well as Brent Spiner and the great one himself (no, not Gretzky) Leonard frakkin’ Nimoy!
I attended multiple panels with all of these guests and more. I heard some very interesting stories and I found out that Malcolm McDowell is a very funny man. One audience member asked him what he thought of the fact that the Halloween remake was widely disliked. He responded, “I don’t give a crap! I cashed my cheque; buh-bye!” Brent Spiner, though, was even funnier. He did impressions of Captain Picard and Worf and he mentioned how he preferred to do episodes of The Next Generation where he only had one or two lines of dialogue, because he got paid the same as when he did an episode that was entirely focused on Data. Then of course there was Nimoy. Just attending his panel was nearly worth the price of admission. He talked about his trip to Vulcan, Alberta, where he was honoured with a parade and a key to the city (which he said he is planning to try out). He mentioned his work on the t.v. series Fringe; he will be in two more episodes before the end of season two (one of which is supposed to reveal William Bell’s true motivations). And he mentioned that he has made a decision to retire from movies and t.v. Instead he will focus on his photography.
Another highlight was Ed & Red’s Mini-Show; starring Ed the Sock and the very lovely, talented and funny Lianna K. (whose picture graces the top left corner). Their guest stars were Aaron Douglas, Erin Gray, Tahmoh Penikett, Sid Haig, and Lloyd Kaufman with The Toxic Avenger. There were some very funny stories told and I learned a few things I never even would have guessed (i.e. Sid Haig is a liscensed hypno-therapist and Erin Gray has been doing Tai-Chi for the past thirty years.
I should also mention a t-shirt booth that was set up. Some of my favourites were “Horton Hears Cthulhu“, “And then Buffy staked Edward. The end.” and one that had a picture of the panther Guenhwyvar gnawing on Drizzt Do’Urden’s head and underneath the caption “I can has elf?”(that one may be sort of an inside joke).
I could just go on and on about this event, I’m sure that our Beer Buddy (and fellow fan-boy), Manodogs, would be fascinated by it and maybe Steve would enjoy a detailed analyisis of how it was all set up and run (seeing as it is a type of trade show). However, I would hardly know where to stop if I really got going. But I will say, if anyone finds themselves out in this general direction next year, you should come by and check it out. The CCEE is Western Canada’s largest expo of it’s kind, second only to Toronto. In the coming days I’ll share some of my pictures with all of you.
