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Phoenix Comicon Saturday – Shatner, Wheaton And Troopers

James Sabata writes for Bleeding Cool from Phoenix Comicon 2012;

It's Sunday morning [Monday? – Brendon] and I'm finally able to give you guys a quick run down of day three at Phoenix ComiCon. As always, I spent a lot of time in Exhibitor's Hall, checking out costumes, meeting fans, photobombing people, buying stuff I probably don't need, and just having a great time. If you haven't attended a con, I highly suggest you go, even if you just attend one day.

I was actually so wrapped up in playing in Exhibitor's Hall that I only caught the last half of the Starship Troopers 15th Anniversary Panel. They were already taking questions from the audience when I got there, but Dinah Meyer and Casper Van Dien spoke about the training they went through to be in the movie, including a couple weeks of hell eating only MRE rations from the Army and living outside in Wyoming's Hell's Half Acre. When the snow hit, Dinah gave up and left, going to stay in a hotel in nearby Casper Wyoming.

She also poked fun at Van Dien apparently driving through Casper Wyoming, claiming every single thing there had been named after him. When asked about the shower scene in Starship Troopers, Dinah stated the idea was that in the future men and women were just soldiers, so they all showered together. Director Paul Verhoeven, hailing from the Netherlands, could not understand why the American actors were so shy about getting naked with one another, as Europeans are much less shy about such things. His plan to kill the awkwardness was to have the entire cast get naked and have a pseudo-fashion show for one another until they weren't scared of it anymore. Dinah scoffed at him, and said, "Easy for you to see. Show us what you got." Verhoeven actually did. Casper said he still sees naked Paul Verhoeven in his mind and will always blame Dinah for that.

Up next was the one and only William Shatner. Shatner was scheduled for an hour and spoke for around 75 minutes. He came out and immediately went to questions from the audience. He spoke about all phases of his career, including Boston Legal, The Defenders, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone (and how he still tells flight attendants there's a gremlin on the wing to this day), The Captain's Documentary, and the newest Documentary he has in post production right now, Get A Life.

Shatner had many stories that kept the audience laughing to the point of tears, including a story about selling his kidney stone for $75,000, which he donated to Habitat For Humanity. "There is a family somewhere in Louisiana living in a house paid for my by kidney stone!" Shatner is also a known prankster. When asked for some of his favorite pranks, he related a story from season one of Star Trek, when he and Leonard Nimoy would race to get to lunch. Nimoy brought a bike one day. Not to be outdone, Shatner brought a bike chain and locked Nimoy's bike, so he couldn't use it. The following day, Nimoy brought bolt cutters to cut the lock if it happened again. The day after that, Shatner grabbed the bike and placed it in his own dressing room, surrounded by his doberman's. "You know, for protection. People might steal his bike!" exclaimed Mr. Shatner.

His new documentary Get a Life, tries to explain why people come to ComiCon and other such events. In the beginning, Mr. Shatner thought it was to see the celebrities, but now he sees that it's so that the fans can see one another. They can catch up. Shatner believes that as a whole, we lack a mythology in life. Just like religion gives some people explanations about life, the Cons do that for others. "We are here to celebrate a mythology. The cast of our favorite shows are the heroes. Buying costumes, getting signatures, those are the rituals. To the outside world, it doesn't make any sense, like many religions, but to us, it's a cultural myth which binds us to one another and gives us something to hold onto."

Shatner had fans in tears at another point as well. He spoke about his twelve year old dog, Starbuck (who has a daughter named Cappuccino). Starbuck has a disease which is calcifying his organs and he may have to be put to sleep soon. Mr. Shatner is driving to the vet with Starbuck (a seven hour trip for a specific vet) on Tuesday for Starbuck's surgery. He talked about how it is symbolic of all of life. How do you make a choice of who lives and who dies? Do you spend the money the young need to save the old? Do you have the right to tell the elderly their time is up? Mr. Shatner stated he was sad to know that at 81 years old, he is reaching the point of this decision in his own life and fears what it will be like when that time comes. I don't know about the rest of the auditorium, but there weren't too many dry eyes in the media corner at this point.

I then attended Story Time With Wil Wheaton, a small affair where Wil reads some of his fiction, nonfiction, and talks about what else he has going on right now. It was, by far, the highlight of Phoenix ComiCon last year, so I had to attend this year. I can honestly say it was the highlight of my convention so far this year.

As people were taking their seats about fifteen minutes before it started, Wil accidentally came into the room. He was greeted with cheers, which quickly turned to playful boos, as he was wearing an LA Kings jersey (The Kings recently eliminated the Phoenix Coyotes from the Stanley Cup Playoffs). He laughed and said, "I really came through the wrong door. I'll be back though." And he left. The next time he entered, Wheaton was wearing a Table Top t-shirt, to promote his youtube show. As he came through the door, he did the John Cena "You Can't See Me" pose, and then laughed and went up to the stage

He had the audience in stitches from the second it opened until he left. I honestly do not think I've ever seen an entire room of people holding their stomachs from laughing this hard, and I attended the Bleeding Cool Fan Awards (Cheap plug).

Wil read his short story, "There's A Monster In My Closet" (which can be found here). I don't want to tell you anything about it so I don't ruin the story for you. Read it. Wil then read a response he wrote to spam he received in his email. The spam was about a drug to help you gain erections so you can run wild. Wil said, "run wild" and "erection" about 200 times each. He bashed Trader Joe's, wondering who picks the parking lot size. "No no no. This lot is much too big. We couldn't possibly have a Trader Joe's here!" And called out the "Douchebag in the SUV who has to back into every spot as slowly as possible". My favorite story he shared was when I ran into his kitchen to tell his wife, Ann, that he had just become the proud owner of a t-shirt reading, "Holodecks Are For Porn." He smiled like an idiot telling her, and she stared at him. His smile faded. "Babe, you know what a holodeck is, right?" She said, "It's something from Star Trek, right?"

If you get a chance, watch his youtube show, Table Top, to see the Ticket To Ride episode. I don't want to ruin the ending for you, but Wil talked in depth about this episode.

As Wil Wheaton was leaving, he went out of his way to high five people sitting in the front row (myself included… had to throw that in there).

We spent the rest of Saturday night at Geek Prom, a dance with a Space Geek theme. All money made by the event went directly to the charity Kids Need To Read. It was a great time with a lot of wonderful costumes, dancing, and picture taking. There's really nothing like a congo line full of superheroes, storm troopers, aliens, and geeks.

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