I'm Ready for My Close Up!

I'm gonna be on TV! Okay, I'm just an extra, but I'm still excited! My big TV debut will be on the CBS show "NUMB3RS" on an episode that will air this Friday, November 23rd at 10 pm. The episode takes place at a fictional comic book convention called ALTCON and involves a murder and the theft of a very rare comic book. Wil Wheaton (Star Trek TNG) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) guest star in this episode (Judd Hirsch is a series regular, so it's a bit of a reunion for Lloyd and Hirsch). I'm going to be playing one of those colorful blurry figures in the background

The way this came about was that Katherine LeBlond, the art director of the show needed to put together a comic book convention really quickly. She talked to Steve Wyatt about contacting some comics creators who could lend their convention materials to the show to be used on the set as though it were a real convention. Steve gave us the pitch at a meeting of the Comic Art Professional Society (CAPS). We could also come in as extras and pretend to hawk our wares for the show if we were so inclined. So Steve Wyatt, Tone Rodriguez, Russ Heath, Dean Yeagle, Michael Aushenker and I came in and did some long hours as extras (7:30 am to 10:00 pm!). Dan Brereton and his son drove in all the way from the SF Bay area to participate in this.

Michael Aushenker and I shared a booth where I hawked copies of Saturday Nite and Vice and he, his own book, El Gato.
I must say, the show did a really good job at capturing the feel of a real convention; sitting behind the booth, it didn't feel that much different from the real thing -- from the way the set looked to the way the "conventioneers" acted.
In between takes, I got to hang out with all the other comics guys and watch the filmmaking process. The show fed us well, and the cast and crew were about as nice as could be. Despite the long hours, it was actually a lot of fun.

Anson