There’s a chance you could spend much of your Dragon*Con experience sitting on a sidewalk.
Want to get into the “William Shatner Live!” panel? Hope you weren’t naïve enough to think that arriving 40 minutes in advance was sufficient, since by that point, the entry line wrapped around the Hyatt twice.
And how about Carrie Fisher’s “Honestly” presentation?
Despite signs saying that lines couldn’t begin forming until an hour before panel opening time, one mega-line already looped the Hyatt slightly more than an hour before her appearance.
Granted, Dragon*Con organizers are astute enough to put their most popular stars in the biggest ballrooms – both the Hyatt and the Marriott Marquis setups could accommodate more than 1,000 people – but with 45,000-plus attendees at the 25th anniversary of this year’s sci-fi/comic/fantasy convention in downtown Atlanta, let’s just say that patience was mandatory.
At Sunday’s Q&A session with “Star Trek”’s most affable captain, Shatner regaled the near-capacity crowd of about 1,100 with dramatic stories about eating fried egg sandwiches with onions with Leonard Nimoy, shared his philosophies about standing on principle versus compromise and previewed his upcoming album and book, both out next month.
As he strolled in front of the panel table, hands in jeans pockets, he responded to audience questions on a wireless headset, often humorously asking for their assistance when he couldn’t recall the name of a stunt man or, oddly, Elvis Presley.
His book, “Shatner Rules,” arrives Oct. 4 and one of the topics he covers in it is his outlook on life.
“This life has so much delight in it – in ourselves, the world around us, the continual joy of discovery that you should never lose. I strive to remember every day that life is precious and it’s there to be grasped,” he said, spreading his arms with trademark exaggeration.
The album, “Seeking Major Tom,” out Oct. 11, not only includes a Shatner-fied version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but musical appearances from Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett and “20 instrumentalists of legendary hue.”
“It’s going to be monumental, I think,” Shatner said.
At Fisher’s panel, she talked about how she despised Princess Leia’s white dress in “Star Wars” and that iconic metal bikini in “Return of the Jedi.” But as with any Fisher appearance, everything she discussed – from her mother, Debbie Reynolds, to her upcoming book, “Shockaholic” -- was couched in her razor-sharp wit and endearing sassiness.
“It’s hard to have self-loathing when you have a group of people like yourselves [here],” she said to the capacity crowd of about 1,200, many of whom waited in line in the rain to guarantee entry into the 40-minute Q&A session .
Fisher, who has always spoken candidly about her bi-polar disorder, listened attentively to comments from fans in the crowd who share the mental affliction and also passed along her panel nameplate to one zealous Fisher-ite who requested it.
While occasionally sipping from a glass of Coke Zero and taking a few puffs of her electronic cigarette, the writer-actress-personality seemed to ponder many questions seriously, such as what continues to drive her.
“I’ve gotten to a place in life where I’ve had a lot of difficulties. When things are good now, they’re great, because I know how bad they can be,” she said. “I guess I keep going because I can always find something of myself in someone else, because I see myself everywhere.”
She also disclosed, when prompted, that her favorite of her books is “Delusions of Grandma” because “I was such a mess when I wrote it.”
Though “Shockaholic” won’t arrive until November at the earliest, she teased its contents, saying it contained stories about her recently deceased father, Eddie Fisher, as well as an anecdote about the time Elizabeth Taylor threw her in the pool. She indicated that she would embark on another live tour, similar to her “Wishful Drinking” that played Broadway and toured the country.
Fisher also commented on her recent 50-pound weight loss after a fan wondered whether she improvised her dancing in her new Jenny Craig commercial.
“What, you think they wrote it like that? Nooo. Pretty much everything I do is improvised,” she said, adding that after getting stuck at 132 pounds, she started taking saunas and stopped drinking liquids to lose more weight.
Insecurity about her weight has followed Fisher since she was appointed Princess Leia at the age of 19.
“I was afraid they were going to fire me [from ‘Star Wars’] for a thinner girl. And I was 105 pounds at the time,” she said.
Thirty-plus years later, her frankness hasn’t wavered.
The final day of Dragon*Con takes place Monday inside five downtown Atlanta hotels. On-site registration for a $30 day pass is available at the Sheraton from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. For a full lineup of panels and speakers, visit www.dragoncon.org.
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