This, however, is not a review on this production. If you want to read one, my good friend Karina has written one for PixelatedGeek.com which can be found here.

While I was watching this show, it dawned on me that there seemed to be a lack of “Geek Theater.”  Geek culture seems to have a home in almost every medium.  I mean, how many movies/books/TV shows are celebrated with fan clubs and at the various conventions throughout the year? For all of these gems of pop culture, there seems to be little to no entries of “geekdom” in the world of theater.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog seems to be one of the exceptions and even that is relatively new to the genre.   What’s even more interesting about the Whedon brain child is that it was not written for the theater in the first place.  From what I understand, the writers of the show were getting requests from small theater troupes trying to get the rights to perform the show.  They quietly gave in and Dr. Horrible was given a life onstage.  If I had to guess (especially with the request to film), the production in San Diego was probably one of the best attempts at this show thus far, to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes the “licensed” version of the show.   The point I’m trying to make is this show, which was ripe for a stage adaptation, wasn’t meant to be on stage in the first place.

It seems to be a given that if you can tap into the geek fan base, we can be passionate and spend money in droves on the things we like (See the Twihards outside Hall H on TUESDAY night or the millions of versions of Star Wars).  In this world of lowered grants and smaller audiences, theaters across the country are dying to get some cash flow.  It seems like a no brainer that theater that appeals to all of us would be coming out of the woodwork, if only to capture the dollars which are at play here.

So why is there no theater of the geek?

Off the top of my head I can only think of two shows which might appeal to a geek audience.  Once is the aforementioned Dr. Horrible and the other is the Rocky Horror Show.  The Rocky Horror Show, unlike the movie version, is based on a satire of 1950′s B Sci-Fi movies so, if done correctly, there is a huge opportunity for nerdity to appear.  However, no one would ever consider these to be “deep” shows.  Their appeal comes in the form of satire and comedy about themes which we appreciate (i.e. the underachiever supervillian).  The question is then posed:  Where are the deeper theatrical themes which appeal to this audience.

It’s not like we are strangers to multi-leveled stories with rich characters.  Anyone who reads A Song of Ice and Fire or has seen The Dark Knight can attest to the thought and deepness which is placed into these stories.  So why has that not translated to theater?

If I had to guess, theater is usually the story of the mundane.  Plays are looks at people’s hopes and fears on a small everyday scale.  While that makes for some powerful moments on stage, the geek culture tends to like their stories larger than life.  Most of us would rather see the stakes being the fate of the world instead of the fate of one man’s life.  While both are important, theater is smaller while movies and TV allow for “bigger” stories.

So perhaps there really is no way to get a true “Theater of the Geek.”   Maybe the stories we like as a culture need to be bigger than what we can achieve on a small stage.  However, theater is constantly changing.  I have no doubt that somehow; someway we will get a good marriage between the two.

“That’s because Seth Green rules.”

“No it has nothing to do with Seth Green.”

“Then girls are silly.  Don’t they know that entire panel was just hyperbole?”

On Thursday at Comic Con 2011 there was a panel at the beginning of the day called “Oh You Sexy Geek.” The point of the panel was to open a discussion on geek girls and what exactly made a sexy female geek…or something. This panel was right before the “Epic Fantasy” panel which was featuring George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Christopher Paolini, and a slew of other authors which I read.  Because this was Con, I decided that I would sit through the Geek Girl Panel to make sure I had a seat for the Fantasy one.  And Full Disclosure is……done!

Above is an actual conversation I had today with the friend I dragged to this panel.   I have been noticing a huge amount of conversation regarding this panel and, upon much blog reading, I see that there seems to be a slew of feelings regarding the panel itself.  Many of the comments seem to revolve around the disappointment of the panel’s ability to even come to some sort of serious discussion or consensus around the topic at hand.  The panelists, made up of Bonnie Burton, Adrienne Curry, Clare Grant, Jill Pantozzi, Clare Kramer, Kiala Kazebee, and Jennifer Stuller couldn’t even seem to agree on the seriousness of the topic, with Stuller trying to have a serious (maybe too serious ) discussion while Burton and Curry were pretty much making everything a joke (maybe not serious enough?).

The panel itself seemed disjointed and without direction…which I don’t blame on moderator Katrina Hill from ActionChickFlick.com.  She had a hard job wrangling the egos of some very strong and awesome women.  Burton and Curry seemed to think that the problem of that “anti-sexy” geek (“I can’t believe she’s wearing that Slave Leia outfit” crowd) had to do with the girl on girl hate and jealousy which women sometime have.  Stuller put forth the idea that women need to be more concerned defining themselves by and taking cues from the media.  There seemed to be some dismissiveness of both points of view.  Because of this disjointedness, there seemed to be no central message (or even a clear disagreement).  The saving grace almost came when Seth Green was invited ask a question….leading to a good discussion regarding embracing fellow geeks regardless of gender or perceived ”time” they have spent loving their pop culture.

There was one tense moment when Chris Gore came on stage (40 fucking minutes late….way to be professional dude.) and promptly proceeded to piss off pretty much everyone on the panel with a comment about “wanting to put his penis into all the women up there.”  Ok, yeah as men we ALL kind of do, but this was not the time OR place for that comment…even satirically.

Or was it?

I began to think about my friend’s comment yesterday regarding the panel itself.  Without any knowledge of what has been on blogs or Twitter recently, his assumption was that the fervor of this panel had to do with Seth Green awesomely taking over what he perceived to be a ridiculous conversation which was all hyperbole.  The simple fact to him that anyone took ANYTHING that was said on that panel as serious is completely silly.

This man is not usually a misogynist and yet the panel struck him as girls trying to complain about something that didn’t need to be complained about.  And I guess that’s the question I take away from this.  Was the panel, by nature of its disjointedness and approach to the topic, just hyperbole with no real substance?  I know it didn’t mean to start that way, but through the panel itself, it obviously struck at least one member of the audience that way.  And if it was hyperbole, was Gore’s comment really that off base?  Because if the topic was no longer serious, wouldn’t his comment just really shine the light on that?

As for me, I’m torn.  Yes, I like to look at girls who are in skimpy outfits.  Yes, I also like the girls who wear Kaylee costumes…overall and all.  You don’t need to show skin to be sexy, but I do love me some skin (honestly, what guy doesn’t?).  I don’t know if it is really a problem that women are looked at as sex objects if they choose to wear the Aeon Flux costume (Adrienne Curry, I’m looking at you), because that is a choice that the woman is making.  If you dress like that, you will be looked as sexily.  But I think we are now living in a world where that is OK.

Although I do have an issue with some geek women thinking that the only way to be sexy is to wear the skimpy clothes costumes.  There are plenty of sexy geek female role models which DON’T require the skimpy getup….again look at Kaylee or Abby from NCIS.  Kick ass…fully clothed.

Finally, can we have an honest discussion about this if the discussion itself comes across as not serious?  If the participants are seeming to make a bigger deal (on both sides of the “sexy”) arguement that it actually is, does it even warrant discussion?

For me, I hope Con does a sequel to this panel next year.  This is one that I won’t be missing.

Look at all the Twihards!

The Good

Programming

Obviously, there was no way to get to EVERY panel (and I didn’t get into MANY panels that I wanted to), but the panels that I did go to were ALL incredible.  Not only that, but there were panels I was excited and wanted to see each day.  Normally, for me, I have a few “definites” and a great many “eh” panels I schedule for myself.  This year, I had several “definites” on each day.

As I said before, the panels I ended up at were awesome.  I randomly ended up on the “Oh, You Sexy Geek” panel which was taken over by Seth Green.  I watched George R.R. Martin stroke his beard like a wise sage as his fellow fantasy authors waxed poetic about their process.  I got to see my good friend ask Sir Patrick Stewart a question about his classical training.   It was a great year for programming….so good job Comic Con.  It may have been the fact that I was able to WALK into Hall H on Saturday Afternoon with no line, but hey, it made my Con.

The People

I’ll get to my crowd issues later, but this year has been my favorite in my 21 years for talking to other attendees.  I don’t know if because Con this year seemed mellow or if people were just more jovial, but I talked to more people this year than ever before.

The Use of Space

Comic Con pushed out into the Marriott and Hilton on either side with bigger panels than they had in the past.  The Hilton’s Indigo Ballroom, for example, had some of the bigger panels this year.  This was a good start and I’d like to see Con move even further into these areas.

Kevin Smith

Of course, Kevin Smith is one of the best moments of Comic Con each year.  This year he talked S.I.R.  (which I have just recently found), Red State (which looks amazing), Hit Somebody, and his life in general.  He seemed to be very introspective, which I imagine comes from age and experience.  I’m looking forward to see what we get our of Smith in the next few years as his voice is one which increasingly cuts through the din of Hollywood.

The Price Increase

“WHAT?!?,” you say.  Yes, I agree with Con’s decision to raise prices.  It is a long time in coming.  Think about it, in the past the one day badges were $40 and the four day was $100.  That’s a $15 per discount per day on the badge.  That’s completely outrageous.  By raising the four day pass, it allows con to better control who can attend the convention.  You won’t have people who buy a four day pass to sit in line for one panel on Thursday because that’s the one panel they want to see.  This way OTHER people who really will enjoy the four day passes might be able to get one.

Personally, I think they can stand to be raised even more

The Bad

The Crowds

The crowds have gotten out of control. I remember (God, I sound old) a day when you could pretty much walk into any panel in the middle of it and get a good seat. You could walk the floor without fearing for your life when you passed the DC booth. I miss that about Con. I know many people argue that it should be for everyone, but there comes a point where you want to enjoy your time and if the price increase means a lower attendance, then that might not be a bad thing.

The Lines and Panels

This is part of the whole “Crowds” problem. I think its an issue when you get in line for an 11:00am panel and the person in front of you is there for the 12:00pm panel and she’s not getting in so there is NO way in hell you are getting in either. This completely takes the fun OUT of the convention going experience. There has to be a better way. I actually propose selling (or allowing attendees to register for) seats in the panels and clearing the halls between seatings. Use the extra convention space at the hotels to get the same number of panels in and put less panels in the rooms that are used. There HAS to be a better way.

The lines are also out of control as well. I honestly believe that the Convention Center staff thing of the most ridiculous line configurations which completely disrupt traffic and make it hard to find the end. OK, mayhap you need to do that because of the fire codes for the breakout rooms….but then reconfigure the rooms. Those walls are airwalls and can be moved. Lets work smarter, people!

The Announcement of the 2012 Passes Sale

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!?!?! Each year, they sell the next year in a lovely booth under the Sails Pavillion. The booths are usually open with nary line in sight. This year, they decided to move it offsite to the Hyatt and make an announcement about the tickets for sale. Why did they A. Feel the need to change from the old way? and B. Tell everyone that not only were they only selling until 11:00am, but that they were only selling a certain number of tickets. By the making that simple announcement, they made the passes into an untrue scarcity which artificially pushed out the demand curve. Because of this we were faced with people who were updating their Twitter feed at 3:00 IN THE FRACKING MORNING. All this because OMG THERE ARE NO TICKETS!!

This is at like 7am at the Hyatt for Passes. People were asleep in line

You want to close sales after a few hours….fine. You want to limit the number of badges…fine. Don’t announce it, it just makes things miserable. I can’t tell you how many people berated the poor security when there were no more badge coupons to be had at 8:15 am.

At the end of the day Con is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I saw a tweet today which said something along the lines of “Con is Geek Spring Break” (my apologies to the Tweeter….I did not get your name), and I couldn’t agree more. I am SO excited for 2012 and seeing some of you there.

Happy 2011 Comic Con everyone!

A few years ago it dawned on me that instead of attending Con….I should be a part of it.  I wanted to be the one sitting on the panels with my oh so awesome professional badge.  I wanted to be the one who got to meet people at con and discuss all things we love about the genre.  I wanted to be one of the ones who left con and STAYED in the “con” world long after the con itself ended for the year.  But how?  I’m not one of guys who wants to go to Hollywood and become an actor.  I do direct, but all theater and all community so film or TV work was out.  I don’t own a store or draw a comic book.  I just like geeky things.

Then it dawned on me…I’m a story teller.  My wife makes fun of me all the time for being longwinded, but what it boils down to is I like to tell and create stories.  Now, I have no idea if people enjoy those stories…but hey at least I’m getting them out.  What if I could turn that skill of story telling into something that allows me to do something in the world I want to live in?

So today I being Musings of a Geek.  This is where I’ll just throw out my feelings from time to time on geeky things.  I may review a comic book, I may talk about the newest Harry Potter movie, I may podcast about Wil Wheaton…and who knows, I may post chapters from a book.

I’m not the end all be all, I’m just a guy who is looking to live in a new world.  I’d love it if y’all come with me.