Wow! Did we have some fun at Wizard World this year or what? Big takeaway? We made a lot of new friends!
Before I get started, I must thank Max Federman, of Wizard World for giving us this fantastic opportunity.
(To be thematic about our presentation of Horror from around the world.)
We met hundreds of fans, face to face, and asked them to try test their knowledge of horror films by playing trivia for prizes. We had a constant stream of fantastic folks, and despite the fact that most people would claim “I’m not good at trivia!” we found so many people who really love the genre, and for those of you who stopped at our table THANK YOU SO MUCH!
We had the opportunity, also, do TWO horror panels this weekend. Our first panel, Making Mount Rushorror! had a modest but really passionate and enthusiastic audience. They helped us pick the heads to memorialize on a Presidential replacement on Mt. Rushmore, with one head representing each of the eras of horror. There was
Mount Rushorror by Vincent Kukua 
Mount Rushorror by Scott Roller
Two artists, two brilliant distillations of Friday’s Panel. FANTASTIC! In the end, our trivia proved to be too hard for our guests to get to claim these as prizes, so IF YOU ARE A SCARIEST PATRON… and you would like one of these fantastic images, please let us know… and you can claim one!
Our Second panel was HORROR FROM ABROAD! Mike and Eric took the Audience on a global tour, to show our fans some hidden foreign horror movies, the best of the scary movies from every corner of the planet. We managed to cover 40 movies in 45 minutes! WHEW! And, to prove it, we will have a full audio Podcast for this episode. And, since many of you in the audience were looking for notes on these movies, we will post the presentation to the Scariest things for you to get the list of films we presented.
Speaking of Podcasts, we had several fantastic podcast recording sessions with a number of Wizard World participants. We will be releasing these podcasts soon! (Once Mike gets some rest…)
- An interview with THE Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander Harris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s stalwart, loyal, and brave sidekick. Nicholas even sang some lines from the famous “Once More With Feeling” episode for us! A short but sweet interview, where he talks about his audition for his big role. I found Brendon immensely charming, engaging, frank, and open, particularly how busy he was at the convention. Our very own Scariest Amy practically melted when Nicholas gave her a hug! Hooray for fantastic fan relations! So cool to get this opportunity, and my thanks to Max Federman and Jerry Milani for helping set this up.
- Comic Author Ben Goldsmith, from Source Point
Press joined us to talk about his new horror imprint, The Source Room, and the upcoming film Rottentail. Ben is a scream! He is a non-stop charisma machine, and very funny. - Local folk legend Brian “The Unipiper” Kidd, who entertained the convention audience with his unique unicycle/bagpipe/cosplay show, stopped by to discuss his podcast Portland at the Movies.
- Lee Despain, from Dread Fright & Brew, one of TST’s Portland sister horror podcasts came by to discuss their intoxicating blend of horror movies and craft beer selections (See what I did there?) where they identify the perfect draft to go with selected horror films! Crazy!
- Brandy Dixon, a professional horror make-up artist, who runs Northwest Horror Network, came dressed in full Valek the Nun garb to discuss the charitable efforts that the NHN does on behalf of (at the moment) the Oregon School for the Deaf. Horror doing right by the public!
Yes sir! Brandy also has a bunch of films the works, so listen in to find out about her projects.
The convention may have been lightly attended by some standards, but it was a perfect amount of people for TST. Any more, and we would have been overwhelmed! We got to meet hundreds of fans, new and old, and I think they won us over with their charm and eagerness to share their love for horror films as much as we tried to impress them. As expected at Wizard World, the cosplay was second to none, and the excitement of our new friends makes the whole thing contagious and wanting us to get more content out there for you!
Thank you to all who came by to spend some time with us at the conference! Welcome to all our newfound friends, and we hope to do this again next year! For those of our fans in the Midwest, you can still use our code “Scariest” to get 10% off of tickets in the Cleveland and Saint Louis shows!
