I did something different when I registered as press for ConnectiCon. I included my eldest son, 16, as part of the press corp. He's not working this summer, so I thought it would be a good experience for him to know how a real job works.
However, I think I've given him a more positive view of the profession that I intended.
He liked being able to cut into the head of the lines as press and he loved having access early to the showroom floor. The advantage of the first was clear when we arrived at Saturday evening's panel for Doug Walker, That Guy With the Glasses aka The Nostalgia Critic. The line was already snaking all the way down the hallway and out to the ballroom area of the convention center. Had we not been press, we likely would have missed it, as Walker was assigned one of the regular sized convention rooms.
The following is his report from the panel, edited by me for only stylistic purposes. I think he may just have a future in this business:
At this year's ConnectiCon, one of the prominent guests featured was Doug Walker, a popular comedic internet personality who owns a website called thatguywiththeglasses.com.
Its primary focus is to tear into movies, television shows, video games, or comic books that deserve to be poked fun at and give credit where it's due when a writer does their job right. Featuring a diverse cast of a couple dozen half-crazed or completely out of their mind reviewers, its popularity has been exploding after the four years it's been around.
Doug Walker was present at ConnectiCon in a question and answer panel, among other things.
For those of you unaware, he's best known as the Nostalgia Critic, a comedic internet reviewer that takes a look back at movies and television shows from his childhood. He's thirty, so depending on your age group you may or may not know about most of the stuff he reviews. He's done 200+ reviews as Nostalgia Critic, so I'm sure he's tackled some movies and shows anyone would know.
The important thing to know is that he's a nice guy, and has given positive reviews to decent shows like Animaniacs and Batman the Animated Series, while giving special criticism to movies insulting to children like that live action Inspector Gadget movie starring Matthew Broderick or that time someone made an animated Titanic ripoff starring a rapping dog. You heard me right.
His Q&A panel consisted of him answering questions from fans, and there were a lot of fans.
The con underestimated the popularity and the hallway nearly overflowed with people waiting to get in to the panel. Apparently it wasn't the first time that day he'd had trouble with crowds because he'd been reading Fifty Shades of Grey while out in the con, making funny faces as he did so. It attracted a large crowd.
He took a very polished approach to both this and the Q & A. Some of the questions were basic, like how he got his business going, which you can find on Wikipedia, while others were more specific, like if he'd ever seen Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, which I think he made a reference to at some point. Walker was witty in his approach, which is important in a celebrity and something most politicians have forgotten how to do.
For example, when a guy asked how he prepared his videos, he promptly replied with: "Poorly."
Right off the bat he was also asked about Noah Antwiler's (Spoony's) recent departure from the site. Walker was open and honest in his answer while also stating that it had been blown out of proportion and it was not this huge banishment or anything. His explanation was basically that Spoony had been conducting himself in a manner handling the media surrounding the site that wasn't how they handle things, and after explaining the matter, Noah calmly left to go on to his own site and there was no bad blood, pointing out that Noah is a hilarious guy especially in the upcoming 4th anniversary special for the site and that anyone on the site is free to do a collaboration with him.
He also took some requests under consideration from the audience, like when someone handed him a copy of Laserhawk, a movie starring Mark Hamill where a comic book writer and a mental patient fight aliens. He also took into consideration some of the Olsen twins' work, which he had previously made fun of in his review of Full House when their eyes turned red and apparently murdered him.
Walker also pointed out there were some things he would not review, like recent things or television shows he had not seen as a child. Doug doesn't do a lot of shows because he doesn't have the time to watch a whole show, while he does have time to watch a two hour movie and review, if it seems like something he could pull a lot of material out of it. For any piece of media that doesn't appeal to him, there's most likely more than enough left to last until people start calling The Avengers movie nostalgic.
Walker also has a very intense fan base. The room was full of energy, and some of the cosplayers even came as the Nostalgia Critic. There was also a Linkara, and someone even came as the rapping dog from that animated Titanic movie. A movie hardly anyone had heard of until he spent 20 minutes making jokes at its expense. Almost everyone behaved themselves at the con, but a couple people weren't exactly perfect, and Walker handled it fine. When a woman kept asking questions, he calmly explained that he had to take other people's questions and the events he would be at tomorrow.
The reason for his intense following is that nostalgia is a powerful force because those memories come from a time when are minds were still forming. Walker's excellent at tapping into that. For example, from when I was six to when I was nine or so, I'd always get up very early to watch one of my favorite shows. Unfortunately, Case Closed was on at 5:30 and I was always up at 5:00 AM. The only thing on besides infomercials at that time was an incredibly cheesy show called Captain Planet. I knew it was awful, but I watched it anyway because I was like six. When I noticed the Nostalgia Critic had reviewed the show, I watched it and I was amazed. Someone else had suffered at the hands of that garbage, and they had ripped its heart out through its chest! He's a very influential man, and a hilarious one at that.
In conclusion, it was a privilege to meet the man who can find so much comedy in making fun of something like a Stephen King miniseries and ConnectiCon was all the better for it.
