Planet Comicon 2017: The Funny, Fabulous Felicia Day

All of the guests at Planet Comicon that I saw were very popular, but I think Felicia was the most loved. Audience member after audience member stood up and said that she had changed their lives. Usually they mentioned The Guild, a webseries that Felicia Day created and starred in. Day makes being a geeky girl and a gamer cool and acceptable. She is an inspiration to many.

She brought Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, made of balloons, with her. They got handed out to audience members during the panel. She was always a fan of MST3K, along with her brother (see our coverage of the new show here). She met Joel Hodgson at a convention and went to take a selfie with him just to rub it in her brother’s face that she met him and her brother didn’t. They got along famously and some time later she got the email asking if she wanted to be in the return of MST3K. It was her second best email, the first being the one from Joss Whedon that simply asked, “Can you sing?”

Felicia Day and the balloon robots:

Some #MST3K amazingness at Planet Comicon in Kansas City! pic.twitter.com/ooYqkvFXpX

— Felicia Day🇺🇸 (@feliciaday) April 28, 2017

I think she’s right that the Whedon email was the best because Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog was really the beginning of everything. I remembered her from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, of course, but I think that Penny was her breakout role.

Felicia is mad scientist Kinga Forrester in the revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the daughter of the original Dr. Forrester, who plagued his hapless employees. She was asked what the worst movie was that she had inflicted on them in the current show, and she said it had to be either Avalanche or The Beast of Hollow Mountain.

Of Charlie on Supernatural, she said that Charlie was stronger and braver than she was. She liked that she got to be geeky. She thought Charlie was inspirational because she was gay and geeky.

GeekNation’s Clare Kramer asked how she felt about Charlie’s death, and pointed out that as a woman on Supernatural it was inevitable. Felicia said when she first got the call and they said she was dying, she asked “Permanently?” But she knew she was really dead when they burned her body. When her hair burned. “If you burn your hair, you can’t resurrect somebody.” Nevertheless, if they wanted to bring her back, she was ready. Felicia thought she did well because she lasted for four seasons.

Felicia had a baby girl in January that she named Calliope. She had a few things to say about new motherhood. She said she was freaking out about the ten pounds she still had after having the baby, but realized that she could buy new pants! In a bigger size! “Look,” she said,”new pants!” A simple statement, and funny. But at the same time it has deeper meaning. Why do women stress out so much about those things?

She also said,”Do you know how hard it is to get milk out of a breast?” Then, perhaps thinking of the mommy wars, she added that it was hard to feed them in any way. If you can keep a baby fed and alive, it’s a miracle. You put them down on a bed and they decide to roll off and fall down the couple of feet to the floor. (Yes, Felicia, babies don’t make good decisions)

They mentioned a few more of her creations without getting into too much detail. Geek and Sundry, the youtube channel. She wrote a memoir called You Are Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). She’s done some voice acting for games.

Someone asked what her favorite board game was and she talked about Scythe, and about cute little cows, and admitted that she was all about the accessories. She said “I don’t have people at my house except to play games. I’m not going to talk to you.”

Someone asked if she had had a real supernatural experience, and she said when she was about five, there was a plant with no flowers on it and half an hour later it had one and she was amazed.

She was asked what her inspiration for writing was and she said it was embarrassing situations. If it was personal, a little bit scary, and she hadn’t told anyone about it, it was fodder for a story. She firmly believes that more women should be making stories.

It was a great experience to be able to see and hear Felicia in a panel. She’s as delightful in person as she is on screen. I can’t wait to see where she pops up next.