Got back from my trip to California this morning around 1 am, long cramped flight, but the trip was worth it. I went to attend I-Manicon 2006, the annual fan club members only convention for The Invisible Man put on by the I-Maniacs.
I had a blast, I arrived Friday afternoon, though a bit later than planned due to a flight delay, and when we got to the hotel we hooked up with some of the others who had already arrived than went to get some food. Afterwards I took a nap for a bit before helping put the goody bags for the con together.
The hotel was very nice, and from what I hear unless something better comes up before then, the con will most likely be there next year as well.
Saturday, the day of the con, was awesome! Was nice to see some of the attendees from previous years, got to catch up with some of them. Also got to meet some new people. Once everyone arrived we watched an episode of the show and some music videos made by a fan club member. We also played “O Crap” a themed version of bingo which was neat, and not just because I won a prize, a magnet.
After that we went to lunch at the Encounter Restaurant, which is inside the Los Angeles International airport. The food was ok, but the place made up for it with the sci-fi/space theme.
After lunch we went back to the hotel, and we watched an unaired pilot that Vincent Ventresca, the title character on The Invisible Man, did that a fan club member was able to get ahold of.
We then watched some more music videos until our guests arrived. First to show up were Eddie Jones and his wife Anita, who was also in an episode of the show. They signed autographs and did photo ops with the attendees for a bit and then Mike McCafferty showed up. He also did autographs and photos, and he even remembered me from the Chicago con which was very cool.
Next Vincent showed up, this was actually his first time appearing at one of our cons, all the other guests had been to at least one before. He was very nice, as were all the guests, and he did the autograph and photo thing while we waited for our last guest to arrive. He also found out we had copies of a couple of his unaired pilots, something not even he had, so we gave him copies as well. Then when Paul Ben-Victor, who like Eddie and Anita, was at last years convention. When Paul arrived we switched from autographs and photos to a Q&A session for a bit, during which the last guest showed up, Jason Makiaris, who guest starred in an episode of the show, and who is a friend of Mike’s who was also at the Chicago con. Shannon Kenny was also supposed to attend, but something came up at the last minute and she couldn’t make it, but hopefully she’ll be able to come next year.
After the Q&A we did group shots with the actors as well as one big group shot with all the attendees. We had to rush a bit on that part though since Vince had to be out around 5ish to go somewhere, although he was nice enough to stay a tad later to finish the photos.
Afterwards we treated the rest of the guests to dinner at Cafe Pinguini, the food was decent although it was a bit noisy. Mike’s family met us there and joined as well, he has a cute kid.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel, where Mike and Jason joined us for a bit, and told us about some the stuff they’re working on, including Robots of Comedy, a humorous, albeit corny, internet video project. He also told us a movie he filmed around the time his son was born (approximately two years ago) is finally coming out in September. The ironic thing is, one of the actors in the movie is also in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, which was filmed later but is being released first, go figure.
I’m hoping to be able to stay longer next year and also attend Comic-Con, which is always the weekend after our con since quite a few of the attendees go to both and can’t afford to fly out to California twice.
There was also some exciting news that was sort of mentioned, but I can’t go into it yet, but once I can expect another post on it…
