Mr. Park, you made this geek smile

It's only mildly embarrassing, but I must admit that I went with Natalie, Vanessa and May to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo over the weekend. I was curious, ok? Just experimenting with pushing my participation in geek culture. And it was pretty much what I expected: comic books and sweat.

A distinctive smell.

There were also a number of people in various costumes: Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, anime I don't know and a few people in random full animal costumes (the latter being a little creepy... and smelly). Nintendo was there and so were many known artists, authors and a few actors: Robert Picardo (Star Trek), Morena Baccarin (Firefly), Ray Park (Star Wars) and Lou Ferringo (The Hulk).

A variety of panels were held, but the most notable was the SciFi Panel with the first three of the above actors. It was an hour-long Q&A with not too many interesting questions and more than enough questions from people who are too far into the science fiction genre to allow for answers (eg: Mr. Park, can you elaborate on the 7 lightsabre styles and how you used these in your fighting style for Darth Maul?... yeah... no.)

But in the middle of things, one guy asks Ray Park to demo some of his signature moves. At first Park suggests that might not be a good idea in a room full of people, but then a space near the stage seems to open up a bit more to give him room. Then another Darth Maul comes out of the audience with his double-bladed lightsabre and Park seems to have no choice.

I didn't think it would happen, but then:



That made me smile like an idiot. Pretty neat stuff to see one of the cooler characters/actors from a franchise you enjoy do his thing live. Park even mentioned that it's fun now-a-days to pretend you're a Jedi, especially with the new toys out there.

Oh yeah, and for all those of you who care, he explained that Toad didn't die in the first X-Men movie. In fact, there were real plans to bring him back for a big fight with Nightcrawler, but those fell through due to budgetary reasons. Park even says that they mentioned they would be finding a role for Toad in the third movie, but he admits that with so many other characters from that universe, there isn't too much need to bring back a minor character who appeared to have died in the movie one.