Missed Nerd Confessions (pt. 3)? No Worries.
Sunday: Ending Comic Con on a High Note
Like most nights during Comic Con, I didn’t get much sleep Saturday night. My brain was on complete overload and refused to shut down. After a day of Seth Green, Nathan Fillion, Josh Gomez, and Captain Awesome, I’d say that’s pretty understandable. Despite my lack of sleep, I had come to a new realization this week: If I had something exciting to do with my day, something to look forward to–rather than going to work in a middle school where I feel like a little piece of me dies each day, I’m actually a morning person. (I know mom. I never thought I’d say those words either.)
- Today was one of those exciting days. We were going to meet Zachary Levi. It didn’t matter that his conversation panel was sold out. We were determined. We arrived at the Nerd HQ a little after 7am. We landed a place pretty close to the front of the standby line, which was good, but that also meant we had some time to kill. There’s not that much to do in a standby line, but eavesdrop and make new line friends. K Jo and I met this these two (the ones in the middle). The girl in the Nerd HQ shirt, was a volunteer–we call her Staci (we never did get her name but we decided on Staci, spelled with an “i”) and she was really cool. When we found out the people in front of us were calling their friends and trying to save places in line for them, Staci put the smack down. The guy (I’ll refer to him as “Line Friend”) was pretty cool as well. He was on a mission: To get Zachary Levi’s autograph for his wife, who couldn’t get off work to come to San Diego with him. He was pretty funny.
K Jo, Line Friend, Staci & Me. Making friends just as nerdy as we are.
Line Friend: “I swear Zac thinks I’m crazy. I’ve asked him like 3 times for an autograph for my wife but he was always mobbed by people or really busy. I don’t even think he believes I have a wife. That’s why I have her picture on my phone and her number on speed dial. I have proof. I swear I didn’t make her up.”
K Jo: “Great. I’m line between the two craziest Zachary Levi fans on the planet.”
Me: No comment.
While Line Friend and Staci were pretty fun and personable, the two people in front of us (Lets call the boy “Dumb” and the girl “Dumber”) left much to be desired. Aside from trying to sneak their friends into the line, they were full of asinine comments like:
Dumb: “You do know that like 90% of the good lines in movies were made up by the actors don’t you? Writers just come up with plot because nobody knows how to write good dialogue. Except for me. I write excellent dialogue. My mom people have told me so.” *Side note: If Dumb sells a screenplay before I do I am going to be beyond pissed.
Time ticked by and the next thing we knew, people with tickets were filing in. Then came the donation bucket and the spare tickets. I got the last ticket. K Jo was one person behind me. As I snaked my way through the roped-off line, I looked back at the desperation on her and Line Friend’s faces. Thank God they were also allowed in. (I’m not sure how things would have played out if only one of us had gotten in, but I’m pretty sure it would have resulted in a little more than a Facebook de-friending.) *K Jo is now instructing my writing process:
K Jo: “It was more like you ran through the roped lines waving your ticket yelling back, ‘I’m in! I’m in!’ It was only after they let us in as well that you were all, ‘I would have totally thrown a rope down and hauled you up.’ Right. A whole lot of good that would have done. You were totally, ‘I’m in! See you later bitches!’ Why don’t you write about that part?”
Like I said, thank God we all got in. 🙂
Adam Baldwin (yep, he's tweeting), Mark Christopher Lawrence, Zachary Levi & Josh Gomez @TheNerdHQ
Giddy with excitement, we made our way to our standby seats in the back. In a few minutes, Zachary Levi would take the stage, and based on our past Nerd HQ experience, we knew he would not be alone. He did not disappoint. Zac was joined with Chuck costars Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike), Adam Baldwin (Casey), and my good friend- remember we had that bonding moment the day before- Josh Gomez (Morgan Grimes). I decided I was going to make this Q&A session count. I was going to ask a question. As soon as they started taking question my hand shot into the air… and stayed there for the remainder of the hour.
At various points, I switched arms, waved my arm/arms around, had my arm held up by K Jo, had my other arm held up by the girl sitting next to me… At times Zac would say, “Let’s see. Who has a really good question?” At which point I would jump out of my seat and make Oooh Oooh seal-esque noises. …and other questions came and went.
Questions: “How do you feel about Chuck entering its final season?” “When Chuck is not filming, what do you do with your down time?” “Which actors do you hope to work with some day?” “Zac, since you love video games, would you ever want to make a Chuck video game?” ( I did like that question. LEGO Chuck- another game for my XBox, which I don’t know how to use.) “What’s with Chuck’s hair? Will it go back to the look from Season 1 cause that hair was stupid?” (Not all questions can be winners.)
As our time together was winding down, I noticed flashlight flickering on and off behind me:
K Jo: “They are totally signaling him to call on you.”
Me: “No. That’s just what they do to let them know that time is almost up.”
K Jo: “I don’t think so. I think he’s totally going to call on you.”
Meanwhile: “…in that one episode, Morgan ate a sandwich. I was wondering, what is your favorite kind of sandwich? Like if you were on an island and could only have one kind of sandwich?”
In the middle of their answers, a voice came from the back indicating that time was running out and there would only be time for one more question. I’ll bet you’ll never guess what happened next… (You can’t see me because I am on the other side of the room… where Zac keeps looking… at me… while we have our conversation…)
After the Conversation, came autographs followed by pictures in the photo booth. There were 200 of us so that meant more
quality time in line. It was fun to see the different things people had signed: Comic Con badges, shirts, DVD cases, Nerd Machine merch… At the autograph table, I had Zac sign my iPad and the following conversation transpired:
Zac: “Where would you like me to sign this?”
Me: “All over. Just go to town. And this is for you.” I gave him a Nerd Machine button with my twitter handle and website on the back–shameless I know. Don’t judge me.
Zac: “Wow. Thanks.”
Me: “I wrote my name on the back. You’ll want to remember that name because some day, in the near future, a screenplay is going to come across your desk that will change your life and you’ll think, ‘Hmmm. Melissa Lewis. I remember her. She was the girl with the button’.”
Zac: “Alright. I’ll do that.”
Me: “And thank you for setting all of this up away from all of the craziness. It was really nice of you, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Zac: “I know right? I’m glad you had a good time.”
At this point I was ushered back into the line for the photo booth.
This time in line, we were all crazy. We had just met Zachary Levi, we all had his autograph, and now we were going to get our pictures taken with him in the photo booth. As the pictures began, they were projected overhead on the big screens and you could overhear people talking about how they were going to pose. K Jo, Line Friend, and I invented a new game called, “Yep. That just happened.” It mostly involved eavesdropping (not that it took much effort) on Dumb & Dumber whom we couldn’t manage to escape.
Dumb: Sang the Zac and Mandy Moore duet from Tangled, with high hopes for compliments on his angelic voice.
Dumber: Took out her birth control pills and popped a tablet right there in line.
Dumb: Refused to take off his ginormous Comic Con backpack therefore kept smacking us with his posters every time the line began to move.
Dumber: Eagerly watched as the photos were projected and would say phrases like, “OMG. That is so presh.” Or my personal favorite, after seeing a girl pose with Zac standing behind her resting his head on hers, “OMG. It’s like a little totem pole. Hi yu-yu-yu, Hi yu-yu-yu.”
At this point Line Friend stepped up.
Line Friend: “Alright ladies. I’ll take one for the team and stand by them. We have to treat them like radiation. If we take turns, and time it just right, we can each avoid a lethal dose.”
Finally It was time for my picture with Zac:
Me: “Hi Zac. Let’s just get rid of this footstool. We’re going to go for comedy.”
Zac: “Alright. I like your style, and I like your shirt.”
Me: “Thank you. Ok. Here’s the plan. I’ll look up at you, you’ll look down at me and we’ll swoon.”
Zac: “Ok. Sounds good.”
I look up at Zac and he looks down at me with that face that’s all Zachary Levi-like and…
Me: “Hee hee hee. I don’t know how to swoon!”
So help me, I could not stop giggling. Finally, we settled on plan B in which Zac looked down at me while I tried not to pee my pants. This was the end result.
This concluded our time at the Nerd HQ. We had defiantly ended our Comic Con experience on a high note. We did decide to make one last loop through the exhibit hall. We entered the hall and it was packed. Uncomfortably crowded. Less than two minutes after our arrival, we found ourselves in the front of a mob clearly waiting for something. Cameras shot into the air, and K Jo said, “Hey, isn’t that Coach?” Sure enough Coach Beiste along with several members of the Glee cast were headed our way.
K Jo: “Do you want to get autographs?”
Me: Completely overwhelmed, “I want to get out of here.”
We picked our escape route and right in front of me I noticed a little boy, no more than 3, and his mom and sister were being swept away in the crowd. I held him up in the air and hollered, “Hey. You forgot your kid.” She was horrified, and K Jo and I were officially done with Comic Con.
Thank you San Diego, Thank you Hotel Del Coronado, Thank you Comic Con, and Thank you Zachary Levi & The Nerd Machine for such an awesome summer adventure.
