This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a brief but enjoyable trip to the wondrous New York City, with the purpose of attending New York Comic Con.
While I’ve been to New York on a number of occasions, I’d never attended their Comic Con. I think if you’ve been to at least one comic con you probably at least have a pretty good idea of what others are going to be like, but it’s always a treat to get to walk around and explore the expo halls of a con you’ve never been to before. I didn’t get quite as much time to just meander as I would have liked, but I was there on a mission for the Ford #FiestaMovement, and they made sure to keep us agents busy.
Friday I arrived quite late in the evening, but I arrived at the same time as fellow agent Deena Marie, who was lovely and strolled around Times Square with me (neither of us wanted to go to bed right when we finally got to the city, even though we both regretted it when our alarms went off bright and early the next morning). We gazed at the glowing signs advertising broadway shows, found a cute deli that sold adorable little macarons, and I tempted fate by ordering a Brie Sandwich. I don’t know what I was expected, aside from a sandwich filled entirely with brie cheese, but my stomach wasn’t too happy with me that evening.
It was worth it.
The next day began with a trip to “Burgers and Cupcakes” for breakfast, where I order neither a burger nor a cupcake and opted instead for a breakfast sandwich. Then two of the team headed off to Comic Con to begin their challenges and my team was sent around on a scavenger hunt tour of the city. This is what eventually led me here, a place I can never fully describe to anyone who wasn’t there with us:
No joke, this place was a tiny little comedy club… and the only audience members were dolls. The dolls were places on chairs with little tables with varying degrees of sobriety – some were prim and proper dolls and others were slouched over next to empty glasses and only half clothed.
But that’s not even the weirdest part.
A woman was running the place, and asked us if we wanted to tell any jokes to the dolls. Deena was delighted, but told the woman she didn’t have any jokes. “Not a problem!” we were informed. “There are jokes hanging up there for you!”
Which is why, in the fall of October 2013, I had my standup debut in front of a bunch of skeptic dolls that didn’t like my jokes. The woman in charge had a laptop and would play an audio track of the babies cooing or laughing if they were enjoying your set. They were a tough crowd.
It didn’t cost us any money, there wasn’t a donation box anywhere – we had no idea what the point of this place was or how we had even stumbled onto it. The entire room was maybe twenty square feet, total, and the women seemed so, so pleased we stopped by and participated.
Just a strange live art installation, I guess. Guess I can cross “tell jokes to dolls” off my bucket list, or maybe “fulfill some women’s crazy fantasy”. Jury’s still out on that one.
Anyway, Saturday night in the city was a blast; then Sunday was our team’s turn at the con! We started the day taking photos for Gawker, but then got to wander out on our own. I bought some fun nerdy things I’m sure you’ll see soon in an outfit of the day post, as well as a few early Christmas presents for friends (started shopping early this year!) and ran into a couple of friends. My biggest regret of the weekend was not getting into R. L. Stine’s panel (UGH) but… next time, I suppose. It still stings. Let’s not talk about it.
It was such a short, crazy trip – but I had a great time meeting some of the other Fiesta Agents I hadn’t known before, catching up with the ones I did know, and spending a bit of time in a city I just don’t know all that well yet. Thanks for sending me, Fiesta Movement!
