----------- WIZARD WORLD 04 -----------

Meeting Bryan and Walter was probably the highlight of the entire weekend for me. Going into the Comic Con I figured they were going to have a View Askew/Graphetti Designs booth somewhere to sell some Kevin Smith merch, since Kevin and Mewes were both supposed to be there that weekend. I say supposed to be there, because you never know Mewes. Two years ago, Mewes wouldn't have been there, but now that he's 'stone cold sober' he has nothing better to do. I digress, so going into the comic convention I thought to myself, self I said, how awesome would it be if Walt Flanagan was their working the booth considering he runs Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, but I figured he would stay in Jersey and look after the store. So after spending about 3 hours looking around the Rosemont Convention Center with Anthony, which was spent waiting in line for Amber Benson and looking for Buffy Action Figures, we finally stumpled upon the View Askew booth. I stood in awe for a while because I've never seen that much Jay and Bob merch at one time in my entire life. I knew I could have maxed out my new credit card, but I thought better of it. Anyway, while looking at the merch I saw autographed Steve-Dave and Walt Flanagan figures on the table. I figured that they shipped some in because on the View Askew website they have autographed figures for sale. So I went around to the area where they stored all of the figures, and those ones weren't signed. So I went around to the front and asked a guy with short blonde hair if all of the Walt and Steve-Dave figures came signed. He said, "Yeah, just buy them on the other end." After hearing him talk I recognized the voice from somewhere before, I kind of double taked and looked at the guy and then looked to his right and saw Walter Flanagan, I looked back at the blonde guy and it finally clicked that standing there was Bryan 'Steve-Dave' Johnson himself. He looked extremely different because I always remember him with his long hair and goatee look. So I bought the figures and got Bryan and Walt to sign them. Then I asked them if it would be cool to get a picture, so they told me to come back behind the tables and I had Anthony take a picture. An hour or so later, I went back to the booth and had Walter Flanagan sign my DVD copy of Clerks considering he played about 5 roles in the movie. Saturday night I had written a script loosely based on their deleted scene from Chasing Amy and I went there Sunday to see if they could read that for a voice-mail message for my phone. I went up to Walt and talked a little small talk, asking him how the store in Jersey was doing and about the new store in California, and then I asked him if he and Bryan could read something and do a voice-mail, and Walt replied, "Sure, no problem." He told Bryan that I had a voice-mail message for them to do and Bryan put down his Bacon Cheeseburger. It took me a while to remember how to change the voicemail message on my phone. Finally I got it and they did the voice-mail, I listened to it and it sounded awesome. I called Anthony and told him to call my phone and listen to it. He called me back and asked me if I changed the script, I said, "No, why?" and then he said, something like well that's not what I heard. BOOM! I forgot to save it. I took Anthony's spot in line for the Jay and Kevin signing because he had to go to a Buffy toy thing. I waited for about 5 minutes in line and said screw it, so I darted over to the table where Walt and Bryan with cheeseburger were still standing there. I told them that I forgot to save it and asked them if they could do it again, so Walt again said, "Sure, no problem." And Bryan again put down the Bacon Cheeseburger and they read it again. I told them both "Thanks again. It should have saved this time." Then I went back in line. During the Comic Con I ran into Bryan drying his hands in the bathroom and I ran into Bryan again in the hotel lobby where he was going up the escalator talking on his phone. But I didn't want to bother him either of those times so I let him go about his business. Anyway, my voice-mail message goes a little like this.

Bryan (Steve-Dave): Brent's doing something much more important than talking to you right now.
Walt (The Fanboy): Tell 'em Steve-Dave.
Bryan (Steve-Dave): So me and Walt want you to leave a message.
Walt (The Fanboy): And me.
Bryan (Steve-Dave): I said that.

The first picture you will see is of around where I was standing waiting in line for Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes autographs. It is a little bit more to the left of where I was standing because originally my view was blocked. The second picture is of Kevin signing a person's poster, since Kevin wasn't sitting down but signing autographs in the aisle, he had the person turn around and signed it right on there back. That was among many of the cool things Kevin did while signing autographs. Some other of my favorites were when he signed someone's shirt "Kevin Smith Was Here" and when he signed some of the Big Ass Jay figures "You Are Well Hung" for some of the guys that bought them. When I met Kevin I told him that Chasing Amy was my favorite movie and I had him sign my Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy DVDs. I had him sign my Amy DVD "To A Really Big Fan" in honor of Ethan Suplee at the beginning of Amy. After getting Kevin Smith's autograph, I waited in a mini line for an autograph from Jason Mewes. I had him sign my DVDs and had him write "That is fuckin' baby talk" on my Chasing Amy DVD. Then later on Saturday he held a Q&A where ironically enough I was sitting next to a dude from West Bend, Wisconsin. That was kind of weird. Anyway the Q&A was fabulous during that time he talked about his alternate ending to The Passion of the Christ, where he'd have ninjas swoop in and save Jesus. Also he talked about how the Lord of the Rings movies and his alternate ending for the third movie, Frodo and Sam engaged in sex. The Q&A was scheduled for two hours but of course Kevin went over time and the event coordinator guy was trying to get him to stop but Kevin just kept on taking questions.

I also got some swag autographed by Jason Mewes. I got my Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy DVDs signed by him. I had him sign my Chasing Amy DVD, "That is fuckin' baby talk," which was awesome. This was also the first time I saw him with his new shorter brown hair

Meeting Amber Benson was a real treat and a half. The first thing that Anthony and myself did when we went to the convention on opening day was to go to the booth where Amber was to be signing. It turns out she wasn't going to be there until a little bit later so we just stayed around the booth the entire time. Anthony went to the Diamond Select Toys booth, the company that makes Buffy action figures, and got caught up in his opportunity to buy this one varient Willow figure where she has a different color lipstick on or something, so of course he spent $400, or something close to that, on a Willow figure that he already has, except painted a little different, while he was waiting for his boxes of figures to arrive, I went back the Amber booth. And she was sitting there signing autographs. So I ran over and told Anthony that she was there and then I went to go stand in line. Anthony came over with 5 boxes of Willow figures and spent the majority of the time in line trying to cram them into his backpack. Finally we met Amber and that was great. I was planning on purchasing a copy of Chance on DVD if they had any, but alas, they only had the VHS copy and FUCK VHS. So I just had her sign my 'Once More With Feeling' CD. And then I got a picture with her. She was probably the nicest person that I've ever met. And of course, she liked my Common Rotation T-Shirt, but then again which Buffy star doesn't. Later on that day, we went back to the booth to see Amber and Anthony got a video of her signing autographs and him saying, "No Problem." And I took that other picture of her signing stuff. That guy with the mustache in that picture was the Comic Con's version of La Fours from Mallrats. It seemed like he was around Laatsch and myself constantly. And after I took my picture, he said, "HEY, NO PICTURES!" So I scampered off like a bunny. Anyway, Amber Benson rules and so does the very awesome Diane Benson.

Meeting Billy was a huge honor. I mean I grew up listening to the guy. You might recognize him as the voice of Doug Funnie from Doug (Fuck The Disney's New Doug), Stimpy from Ren & Stimpy (he did Ren in later seasons) and Fry, Farnsworth, Zap Brannigan and Zoidberg from Futurama. He was an amazingly awesome dude. I bought a copy of his band's CD, which he signed along with my first volume of Futurama. Originally he was supposed to be there all three days, but he was only there Saturday and Sunday. Anthony and myself went to the booth early in the morning, but he was still eating breakfast. So I stayed around the booth until he showed up. Anthony was kind enough to pry himself away from looking at Amber Benson, or something, and show up to take the pictures of myself with and Billy. I told Billy that I was a huge fan of his on Futurama and everything else that he has done, and it really sucks that FOX cancelled the show. Billy was a really awesome guy and very nice.

Scott L. Schwartz is a really huge guy, which you can probably tell from his picture. He was a really cool and nice guy and Anthony and myself visited him all 3 days of the comic con, with Anthony getting an autographed picture of him. I would have boughten an autograph, but I was extremely short on money after the View Askew merchandise table, so I was unable to. He's been on Buffy, Angel, The Scorpion King and he plays Bruiser, the guy who acts like he beats up George Clooney in Ocean's 11. Hopefully he will be there again next year and he was one of the most enjoyable people to meet.

There were two girls there who had roles in the new Star Wars movies. The lesser of the hot ones did the voice for Taun We (Rena Owen) and I can't remember the really hot Star Wars chick's name but I know she plays the jedi with those two fatty horns thing hanging off of her head. (If you know who I mean, let me know). I was tempted to get my Star Wars Episode II DVD signed by them, but that would have cost around $30 combined, and I didn't have enough money with me to do that. So instead I just took a picture of them signing other people's stuff.

The Incredible F'n Hulk. I was in awe of how extremely huge this guy was. It was funny watching him set up his booth the morning of the first day. I didn't speak to him, which was probably a good thing because he has a hearing problem, so he probably wouldn't have heard me anyway. I took a picture while he was talking to some other people that way he wouldn't see me taking a picture of him and then get angry. Because the last thing I want to do is making the Incredible Hulk angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

I grew up watching Virgil play Ted Dibiase's man servant on the WWF. He was a very unique person, who when Anthony and myself talked to him, talked repetedley about "pussy". He must have taken too many chairshots to the head because he just muttered a lot and talked about pussy. No idea what he was talking about.

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