NCT Phoenix: Blog.: NCT at Phoenix Comic Con

This year marked National Comedy Theatre's 3rd round of performances at Phoenix Comic Con. I think that any of the players can tell you it is one of the events we look forward to all year. Cosplay! Panels! Art! Celebrities charging outlandish fees to snap a pic! And Nerds Nerds Nerds, delicious Nerds!

Our first panel was Saturday at 12. Spoof N Cinema: Star Wars the Clone Wars- wherein we took 2 Episodes of The Clone Wars (Defenders of Peace and Rookies, for the initiated) and created new dialogue, a new story complete with score and sound effects live! We packed in a standing room only crowd and fire marshals were turning people away. and the show was killer.

The team spent the day wandering around the con taking in various sights

Dont Blink! The weeping angels are here!

The cast of Voyage Trekkers? Didnt they win Best Web Series and Best of Arizona at this year's Phoenix Comic Con? Why yes, they did!

this inflatable time machine is bigger on the inside!

and then headed out for hilarious improv comedy at our own home, NCT in Mesa.

Sunday we packed back into Comic Con for our second set of shows. Something slightly out of the ordinary happened though...
we got set up and, per the norm there was some kind of weird and unexpected problem. the screen was yellow. we had all the right equipment so, one up on last year. and we had picture, so one up on saturday... but the picture was distinctly yellow. my super power of finding a tech guy came in handy and it seemed the problem was in hand when i excused myself to visit the powder room right across the hall before the show started. no sooner had trow dropped than the sirens and loud speakers began to blare in quiet and polite tones "the phoenix convention center has been alerted to an emergency. please proceed calmly to the nearest exit." and when i opened the restroom door a sea of nerd humanity was flooding past me, cutting off my connection to our panel room where my purse, phone and EVERYTHING ELSE lay in wait.
luckily, in the eye of the oncoming storm i bumped into, literally bumped into, one of my players who told me they had all my stuff and were booking for the exit.

ill tell you one thing i know for a certainty, if you want some fun people watching... visit phoenix convention center on the last hour of the last day of phoenix comic con and stand just across the street as the WHOLE PLACE gets evacuated. its unsane.
my players and i were super disheartened as well because our panel should have been beginning RIGHT THEN. and we were very unsure if we would be able to do it at all. at least a month of preperation and a whole bunch of positive energy was on the line if this weird bomb threat/fire alarm pull/ nefarious prank was not sorted out quickly.

evacuation smesmackuation!

it seemed darkest before the dawn when they ushered us from our roosts just outside the convention center doors and told us to cross the street.

However, no sooner did our feet hit the other side of 3rd street than the "All Clear" call went out and an even more robust sea of nerd humanity raced across, in front of the light rail for gods sake, BACK into the convention center.

miraculously we started our panel of Spoof N Cinema: Star Trek the Animated Series just ten minutes late. The crowd was significantly less than saturday, perhaps in part due to those fleeing for their very lives when the sirens blared? I hope so. the show was great, none the less and we walked out of Phoenix Comic Con, unbombed, and heads held high.