Towards the end of the evening [Thursday] I continued to survey the crowd — to get a sense of who and what I wanted to report. I ended up at a panel about The Teenage Ninja Turtles which was somewhat based on that Facebook poll: What turtle are you? Hosted by a personality consultant, the panel was very well moderated and even featured an executive producer from the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in theaters this summer. Observing how excited the panelist were about The Ninja Turtles, consequently had me excited about the turtles and remembering the glorious days of after school television when I would plop down on the couch in front on the tele and switch into zombie mode for thirty minutes.
I also recalled the podcast episode where myself and the fellow Burros discussed this very subject during the Our Heroes episode. The realization hit me that those guys are just like me; just like Josh (General Dopeness), Adam, The Rupel – Chris, and Brianna. They have passion about something, Ninja Turtles, and they enjoy sharing it with others which evidently is the true cause and reason of the con panel. To reach out to those with similar interest and share with them the facts and oddities you otherwise bore your coworkers or family with who don’t share in your excitement about matters irrelevant to them.
I left that panel feeling inspired and comfortable with Leonardo as my turtle spirit. A staff member, after noticing me meandering with my face buried in the con guide, recommended I attend a rather popular panel/event called PUGS: Phoenixcon’s Ultimate Geek Smackdown, a fitting end to an otherwise bleak day. I found myself wildly entertained by groups of “geeks” debating random obscure and notable geek culture references. So much so, I recommended the fellas join me the following day for the semifinals where the obvious winner was robbed of the title by a B.S. Fact Slinger who, leading up to the last contention knew very little about the subjects she so vigorously defended. My real intentions… Well to show that Chris and Josh were perfect candidates for this spirited contest and that you know what: we can do that; we could conduct a panel.
Jerry Graham is...
