Salt Lake Comic Con Fan Xperience 2015

When Salt Lake Comic Con announced that the Fan Xperience would take place only 5 months after the September Con, I groaned. I understand they wanted to take advantage of celebrities already being in town for the Sundance Festival, but for me it was too close to Christmas to spend a lot of money again. So, I determined to skip it this time.

And then my beloved Stephanie J told me she had been given free Gold passes and asked if I wanted to go. I said yes. Go with Steph? And for free? Duh!

This is what I posted on Facebook:

And in a crazy, random, happy happenstance and invitation from Stephanie, I find that I'm going to Salt Lake Comic Con on Saturday after all.
Let the I told you so's commence.
(Also, tell me if you'll be there so I can look for you!)

Thursday

When you get the Gold pass, you have admission for all three days. I would not have gone on Thursday, but I pulled a Monica and accidentally bought a photo op for the wrong day. They only did exchanges in person. Whoops! So, I walked over to the Salt Palace, checked in and picked up my swag (a t-shirt, Comic Con cash, and a lanyard), and headed to the photo op area as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, they only had one person working as customer service, the machine was down, and they didn't tell anyone ahead of time that since Morena Baccarin had cancelled they would automatically be refunded for her photo op. So, I was in line for an hour and a half. Fortunately, I struck up a conversation with the girl behind me, Ashleigh (perfectly dressed as a female Mal Reynolds from Firefly) and pretty soon my Comic Con BFF Theresa joined us. In a crazy twist of fate, turns out Ashleigh is the cousin of one of Theresa's good friends. Our minds blew. Turned out that Ashleigh was not a Doctor Who fan, and kindly gave me the VIP Doctor Who poster. I squealed so loudly that people turned to look at us. I love it the poster, and I love that a random encounter turned into a new friendship. That's my favorite thing about Comic Con.

Theresa as Scully from The X-Files, and new friend Ashleigh

I need to start putting these things up in my spare bedroom.
Proudly display my badges of nerdom.

On my way out, I spotted these Velociraptors. I had to take a photo to share with Larissa.
"Ran into a friend of yours. He asked me to say Hi to Rob for him ;) Love you!"

Friday

I thought I might slip away from work for an hour or so to see Harry Potter's Tom Felton panel. I even wore my adorable hybrid Doctor Who/Up! t-shirt just in case. However, since I'd spent so much time there on Thursday, I decided to be responsible for once and stay at work. Theresa was kind enough to send me this photo and a few comments about the panel. I appreciated it, and I hope someone posts a video somewhere soon!

Theresa: "For you."
Theresa: "He just admitted to being Gryffindor!"
Me: "Had you not heard about that? It's so funny!"
Theresa: "No, I had. He was just really cute about it."
Theresa: "He keeps greeting the ladies that are asking questions 'hey lovely'.
It makes my heart happy. Shall I leave you alone now?"
Me: "Nope! Text as much as you like, I just don't want you to feel like you have to."

Saturday

Steph and I arrived early so that we would be sure to get into the Billie Piper panel, since I was worried a lot of people might crash Billie's panel so they'd be sure to be there for the Carrie Fisher panel right after (a lot of people did that).

Billie Piper is most famous as Rose from Doctor Who and was adorable and down-to-earth in her British former-pop-star way (she wore spats and a leather jacket -- whaaa?). As always, I couldn't help taking a few notes, and as always they're not nearly as funny or charming out of context.

When asked about her audition for Rose, and advice she may have: "I was high on sugar, pretending I was not well... so maybe try that for an audition?"

How she manages being an actress and a mom: "Badly."

Whether she's still friends with other Doctor Who stars: "You know, just hanging around with Matt Smith, like you do... I know, I'm being really blase about it."

Which of her songs she likes the most: "The rave-y versions of my sweet little pop songs were always such a treat!"

Why Britain has so many successful shows: "It's a small island and everyone's quite grumpy quite consistently. We have a very dry sense of humor."

Most people stayed for the next panel, but I managed to find closer seats anyway. Seventh row, baby! Couldn't resist taking a photo of this unicorn -- I had to share it with my Jekyll and Hyde cast :)

While waiting, the man in charge of keeping people entertained asked "Who has been to every Comic Con here in Salt Lake?" A bunch of us cheered.

Then he asked: "who is here for the first time?" Steph "Woo-hooed" so loudly the guy looked at her and said, "First time? Today? Just thought 'Hey I have nothing else to do?"

Steph responded, "I'm here to find a date!"

He didn't quite hear, "Blind date?"

The audience shouted back, "She's here to find date!"

And he said back, "This is the place to go!"

It was a beautiful, beautiful moment.

Producers Dan Farr and Bryan Brandenburg announce Carrie Fisher

Star Wars' Carrie Fisher's panel was hilarious, mostly because you didn't know what she was going to do or say next. Almost as soon as she got onstage, she asked the audience if anyone had a Coke. One guy did, and when he gave it to her, she grabbed him and kissed him, and it was not just a peck! He wrapped his arms around her and the crowd died! She said, "You give me what I want, I give you what you want!" Sadly, the moderator decided to ignore the dozens of people lined up for questions and just asked his own. It wasn't a very long panel, but it still seemed a jerk move.

Quotes from Carrie:

Which Star Wars film was your favorite? "Empire." The crowd cheers, 'cause we all agree. 

Moderator: "It has an epic, Gone with the Wind feeling."

Carrie: "Which one was Mammy? Chewy? That makes a lot of sense!"

Apparently, if you had a photo with or met Carrie, she doused you in glitter.

Moderator: "They've got glitter all over them and they say, 'I just met Carrie Fisher.'"

Carrie: "Everyone needs to glitter at some point! It's the law! Come see me!"

After the panels, we spent some time walking around and visiting friends working there.
First, we stopped for photos with the TARDIS.

This little girl was dressed as Maid Marian from Disney's Robin Hood, complete with a fox tail!

"MUCH bigger on the inside!"

When we realized that the photo op lines were crazy long, we decided to jump in for our Tom Felton photo (his was the one I had to exchange because I'd accidentally bought the Friday one). The line stretched most of the way down the main floor, in spite of the photo ops being on the far side of the building. It was crazy. And worth it. 

When we finally got into the room with Tom, suddenly Back to the Future's Christopher Lloyd popped in and asked for a photo with Tom. I love that Christopher dresses like an aging rock star. We all freaked out and wished the workers had let us keep our phones (a big no-no in the photo op area). Christopher said he'd want a signature later and Tom was cool and yet excited about that. When Steph and I walked up for our turn, Tom walked over to his girlfriend to check in for a minute. They'd been hurrying us through, but I got up the courage to ask him to wear my Gryffindor scarf. Obviously, he agreed.

New Gryffindor Tom Felton wears the scarf my mom made for me. Doesn't he look handsome?

Then we jumped into the line for Billie Piper's photo. While in line, Steph mentioned that she had watched Evita and realized that Billie had a small, uncredited role in the movie. When we reached Billie, Steph said, "I loved you in Evita." We all cracked up, and the photographer took this photo:

Seriously perfect.

You've probably noticed that I didn't cosplay this time. Since it was Steph's very first Comic Con, she wasn't planning to, and I know what it's like to hold your friend's purse while everyone takes photos with or of them. Steph insisted she wouldn't mind, but I opted for a nerdy shirt and my Gryffindor scarf. It made for a nice change, actually! Obviously, since our photo ops were with Billie Piper and Tom Felton I wore the Doctor Who/Harry Potter shirt Kristen gave me. It felt right.

Since I only had a few days left of the current round of Personal Trainer Food, I took snacks with me: meat sticks, pistachios, sunflower seeds, cauliflower and carrots, an apple, and a water bottle. I shared with Steph and a few people around us in the many lines. By the end of the day, I had eaten all but the pistachios and some of the carrots. It pays to plan ahead.

We walked around a bit more and found a lot of friends (most of whom were waiting in lines for photo ops).

Patti R in steampunk attire

Theresa as steampunk Cinderella

I don't know these people dressed as Harry Potter's Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, but I needed a photo with them.
The lady made the costumes from scratch and they were gorgeous.
I was thrilled to get to hold the Elder Wand!

Kristen (far right) and some of her friends from This is the Place, dressed up to advertise for The Witches' Ball

The DeLorean from Back to the Future

We even met a few celebrities at their tables. Steph declared that she wanted Billie to sign her photo, but Billie had already left. Then we saw that Karate Kid's Ralph Macchio had almost no line, so we had a little conversation about Utah's weather and grabbed a photo. He was extremely nice.

The man doesn't age

I decided not to resist getting Chuck/Arrow/Superman Returns star Brandon Routh's signature. I really wanted a photo but he wasn't doing selfies. I became that fangirl who stars in awe and has nothing to say. It was a little awkward but he was very nice. His manager asked if I wanted it personalized, so I squeaked out my name. Then Steph told me to ask for a hug, and I did. Then she gestured at Brandon like, "You know you want to hug me" and we laughed and he hugged her, too. (Steph is pretty much the coolest.) As I walked away I finally found a voice and told him I hope he lasts on Arrow for a long time. Then I ran away to die.

Fun fact: I have now been hugged by TWO actors who have played Superman!
(I hugged Dean Cain at the first Salt Lake Comic Con.)
And yes, he is gorgeous in real life. Hence the fangirling.

By the time Steph decided she needed to be glitter-bombed by Carrie Fisher, they told us she wasn't allowing any more people in line. I knew the guy holding the "End of Line" sign, and he would have let us in but he thought they wouldn't allow free meet-and-greets when she was so tired. Actually we were the "just-missed-it" girls a lot that afternoon. It became something of a joke for us. Oh well.

We finally left at about 6:30, hungry, sore-footed*, and happy. It was an awesome day. I'm grateful that Steph invited me and she wanted to be so involved. She made the day what it was.

Note to self: Don't plan any events for at least two days after a Con. It takes my feet and my energy levels that long to recover, especially if I'm dieting and the next day is Fast Sunday. Still worth it!

*We may not have logged as many steps as we would have liked (fitbit buddies), but we both hit 10,000 while walking back to the car. Turns out, standing in line doesn't yield much stepping!