Yep, that’s right, Brooklyn Comic Con 2010. I was in NYC last week being an extra for an episode of HBO’s Bored to Death. It was pretty epic. And again, many many many thanks to Tito and Jen for putting me up while I was in the city.

I’d say about 80% of the extras there those days were comic fans/artists (none I recognized, aside from the creator of Action Philosophers since he was at C2E2), with the other 20 being actual actors/fledgling actors and professional extras. At times it really felt like I was at a comic convention, since there was a fair amount of people in costume (sadly, they didn’t need me in my Crichton costume). The costumes included:

Joker
Fallout suit of armor (this poor guy ended up getting heat stroke from the costume/lights/hot ass set)
Julie Newmar catwoman
60’s Batgirl
Comedian
Harley Quinn and Black Cat (twins sisters, kinda hot)
Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill in motorcycle outfit
Green Power Ranger
2 Green Lanterns
Captain Planet
V from V for Vendetta
Avatar the last airbender
The Spirit (comic, not movie)
Joker
Flash
Supergirl
Riddler
Storm
Spock
The Prince from Katamari
Pacman
A T’wilek (sp?)
And a Wonder Woman (though she was an actress)

I got to see Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zack Galifianakis on set, which was neat. Ted Danson is enormous…that or Jason Schwartzman is tiny. Ted Danson kept cracking jokes between takes for the extras. Working for film/television is pretty strict. They required either a passport for id or a driver’s license and SS card. I also had to give up my time sheet for the costume they gave me (a Super Ray tshirt based on a fake comic that Galifianakis’s character writes), and I had to give up my license for the props they gave me (the pictured Brooklyn Comic con bag and a Xeroxed comic).

The fun part of the shoot was, well, I was on a television shoot. It’s cool to see all the behind the scenes stuff they go through for one shot. (multiple takes, different camera angles, scrapping everything to do the scene differently). There are 3 scenes where I might be on screen. One was a pan of the line for Super Ray (me and another guy are taking pictures of eachother in front of a banner). Another is a shot of Zack talking to a fan, and I cross the aisle his table is at heading to another table, and the third is a fight breaks out while I’m in line for Super Ray, and during the fight I run off camera.

The not so fun part was the hours. The first day (Wed), I got to the shoot at 9:30 and sat in holding till 1. They broke us for lunch and at 2 I actually went down to extra. Not counting the hour lunch, that first day was 10.5 hours. Thursday was worse. I had to be there an hour earlier, and we started working immediately (they gave us 30 minutes for breakfast which they supplied, but it was right to work after that). Thursday was 11.5 hours of shooting (again, hour lunch not counting towards that) and I was on the set for most of it. It was cool, but man that’s a hell of a schedule.

I will say this, I saw more pizza boxes on that set the first day for the dinner meal then I’d ever seen in my entire life. There must have been at least 60, not counting what had been eaten already by the time I left holding and saw the crew’s pizza stack.

I don’t know what the episode’s title is, but I heard that it airs in September (whether that means this episode or the season as a whole I don’t know), so if you’ve got HBO and know what I look like, check it out.

That is so cool! Bored to Death is an awesome show.

Soon Goji is going to be to big to hang with the PoPulation.

Pleasure having you stay with Jenn and I.

No Sleep Till Brooklyn!

Actually, it was no sleep from Brooklyn. I had to work Friday, so I needed to be back. I was up at 6:30 Thursday to get to the set on time, didn't leave till 9pm, then caught a delayed train back to where I parked and still had a 90 min drive home. I didn't get to my bed till 5:30 Friday morning, and then left it at 7:30. That was a rough day.