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Monday, August 4, 2014

Comic-Con 2014: Nerd HQ - Conversations For A Cause Panels - The Walking Dead Cast and Alan Tudyk

Written by Jami Ferguson
Saturday’s Nerd HQ panels included conversations with casts from "Sesame Street," "Orphan Black," "The Walking Dead" and Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk. Although most tickets sold out in less than one minute, I was lucky enough to have a seat at two panels. First up was the "The Walking Dead" panel included Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Danai Gurira and Lauren Cohan. That was followed by a panel starring Alan Tudyk who is always hilarious.
Upon seeing the "Walking Dead" cast, my first thought was that it seemed strange to see them all looking so clean. I’m used to seeing them running for their lives on the show, usually covered in dirt and blood. Out of the group, Danai Gurira was the most dramatically changed with short hair, makeup and a pretty blue dress on which was a dramatic difference from her sword wielding character Michonne.
While Norman Reedus was obviously the fan favorite, the cast as a whole is clearly loved by the fans. One question from the audience asked whether or not they would ever host "Saturday Night Live."  The entire cast would host if they were asked, and Reedus talked about the humor in "The Walking Dead" skit "SNL" has already done.  Speaking of "SNL," Andrew Lincoln said his favorite "SNL" character was the one that Christopher Walken played in the famous cowbell sketch. Steven Yeun turned out to be pretty funny himself and by the end of the hour it was hard to imagine these people back in the midst of zombies.

Norman Reedus revealed that he has a stockpile of weapons in his New York City apartment, and that’s where the cast agreed that they should go in the case of real life zombie apocalypse. It was apparent to me that both the male and female people in the audience would also like to hide out in Reedus’ apartment as everyone seemed to love Reedus and his character Darryl.
Immediately following "The Walking Dead" panel was "Firefly" alumni Alan Tudyk. He was non-stop funny and silly and went over his allotted time by selling random items that he brought with him to sell for charity. The items included a light, pictures, script pages and Xbox controllers that he promised that both him and friend Nathan Fillion used at one time.
If you weren't lucky enough to score a ticket to one of these conversations, you still could still have fun just being at Nerd HQ because there were a lot of opportunities for celebrity sightings. The money raised by the Conversations for a Cause goes to Operation Smile, but in some case, for $20 a person, celebrities that have just finished panels or had some time to kill would allow you to take a picture with them in a black and white photo booth. During Saturday for example, I was able to take a photo with Alan Tudyk and then the cast of "Grimm."  The photo sessions, called Smiles for Smiles, are a great way to get a quick moment with your favorite celebrity. It's like catching lightning in a bottle though because with the addition of the Nerd HQ app that alerts fans about the photo sessions taking place, you have to move quick before they cut off the line.

Here is the videos of the panels if you'd like to watch them for yourself. Below them you will find some additional pictures from the panels too.

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