Stop Cryin’ Before I Give You Something To Cry About

Posted on | May 18, 2011 | 2 Comments

Ok, last week a friend on Facebook posted a comment on how today’s Hollywood film makers need to pay less attention to their calculators and more attention to scripts. Uh-huh. Before that I had a brief argument with a friend over Hollywood’s recent “hatred” of original ideas; every movie last year was a remake, reboot, sequel, or adaptation of a teevee show or book or comic.

Snore. There’s nothing more boring than unoriginal cookie cutter arguments about unoriginal cookie cutter Hollywood.

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Star Wars the Musical (Circa Class of 96′)

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | No Comments

Your appreciation of this piece hinges on two criteria: (1) Your absolute knowledge of Star Wars and (2) Your absolute knowledge of musicals that were popular in the mid nineties.  If you are well versed in these two criteria, the following is comedy gold.  Like the new off-Broadway production of the Spiderman parody, It is a zero-budget, high school production with a lot of heart and talent.  Especially in the writing.  All I know about the prodution is that George Lucas shut down the production after three sold-out performances.  Pity. 

Click below to watch the show….
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Comic-Con Tickets Sold Out; World Mourns

Posted on | February 7, 2011 | 2 Comments

Last Saturday morning, Comic-Con tickets officially went on sale through Ticketleap. Servers were instantly slammed, and many people got over-capacity message from Ticketleap and were encouraged to keep trying. All passes were sold out by 3pm. Some people who were online since the first minute they were available weren’t able to get tickets. And of course, the internet was abuzz all weekend with complaints about Ticketleap, Comic-Con’s decision to use them, the availability of tickets vs. the number of people interested in going, and the inevitable fiasco to come for available hotel rooms (at reasonable rates or not).

“We’re obviously not happy with this morning’s events,” said the Comic-Con Twitter account on Saturday.

Keep in mind that none of the tickets sold on Saturday to those few lucky individuals were 4-day passes with preview night. For that dubious honor you must have purchased your tickets AT last year’s Comic-Con by waiting in a very long line. So, the best chance you have to attend Comic-Con is if you already attended it before. That’s… annoying.

This will be my 12th year going, 4th as press. So I totally understand what it must be like to not get tickets. I can absolutely understand what it must be like for people who have gone for decades not to be able to get in now. And it makes me angry, but what can you do? All I can do, as press, is ask you all what most interests you and hope that we can cover it for you.

We don’t get confirmation who who will be attending and who will be available for interviews until the week prior, but if you have any (reasonable) questions for the people we will be interviewing, I’ll take them.

Did you try to get tickets and fail/succeed? I’d love to know how your experience was. Write to comments@uglycouchshow.com.

- barry

WTF Comic-Con?

Posted on | January 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

It’s now halfway through January and they still haven’t sold tickets proper. There’s no news on Comic-Con hotels yet, and you know San Diego gets full-up for the convention by March. Prices for hotels have already skyrocketed for July. Rates for the same hotels I stayed at a couple years ago have jumped upwards of $200 a night.

It’s becoming clear that Comic-Con is getting further out of reach for many attendees. Is this the fault of Comic-Con International? I don’t know. I don’t think so. You can’t blame them for being successful. And San Diego is a beautiful city to hold it in, but it’s simply too small. I fear that even if (in imagination land) they expand the convention center and make all the rooms twice as big so everyone can get into panels without a 4 hour wait, the city would still gang rape my bank account for a decent hotel room. Also, if they expand, they’ll sell more tickets, further compounding the problem of hotel space.

I fear there is no solution but the one I most dread: moving it out of San Diego. There’s only one city I believe can hold everyone, but it’s not a city I would choose for a convention in July: Vegas. Not only that, but it’s not a walkable city. The convention center area isn’t that wonderful. 2 blocks over, you’ve got scumville. There’s no fun awesome Gaslamp district. Oh, and no ocean.

I don’t believe they’ll ever move Comic-Con out of San Diego. If I were in charge, I would fight tooth and nail to keep it there. But I have no solution to suggest for the problem of overcrowding. Does anyone?

- barry