Vice Principals - A Comic Con Story

I’ve been to 15 straight San Diego Comic Con’s so there are tons of dumb, enraging, and fun stories. Here is one from 2 years ago...

Anyone who has been to SDCC before knows how insanely crowded it is. On Saturday’s we usually spend most of the day outside of the con as it’s just too congested inside. Outside isn’t much better but it offers something different. Huge marketing campaigns take over the grounds surrounding the Convention Center and throughout the Gaslamp District. Promotions vary from year to year but it’s mostly designed to promote movies, television shows, and games.

This particular piece is about how we got our paddles. Get It!

My buddy Ron, my business partner Pete, and myself were getting sunburnt and snagging some cool promotional freebies and seeing some killer exhibits when we saw a dude walking around with a wooden paddle that is from the HBO show, Vice Principals starring Danny McBride and Walton Goggins.

I ran up to the dude and asked where he got it. He said there was a bus driving around and if you got on for a bit they gave it to you. He said to be obnoxious as hell and you’d get it. Lucky for us we had a Ron. Having a Ron with you is your golden ticket to attention. Ron is not subtle. Ron is an actor and a comedian and does not give a shit what you think. Having Ron at a funeral is not good. Having Ron around at SDCC is like having super powers. Ron also loves con freebies from pins to t-shirts to in this case...a weapon. We were now on the hunt for a big blue schoolbus.

An hour or 2 and nothing. Then finally...jackpot. We spot it rounding the corner and run to it. We flag em down and the doors open. The bus was fairly empty. Just a few passengers and a handful of folks working the event. As we entered they handed us each a brown lunch bag with a snack and a juice box. Tasty. We asked about the paddle and we told they only had a handful and they only gave em out to select folks who made an impact. That matched the random dude’s story of being obnoxious. We knew what we had to do.

After housing our snack and juice box like children we started shouting about the show and HBO out the windows to the thousands of folks we passed by. Those in charge did not seem impressed with our tactics. After a few more stops and picking up a few more passengers who added absolutely nothing at all...the sugar from the snack and juice kicked in and Ron unleashed his inner child. Bingo! I was able to only catch about a minute of the madness but this initially lasted for several minutes. I’m guessing that the folks that lined the streets had no idea what was happening. That makes me happy.

End result. We were granted our paddles and all was well in the world. We were the only 3 on the bus to get them. We never saw another the rest of the con. They were very strict in handing them out so we were thrilled to have em.

Last part of the story is a few hours later we were walking around in the con abd passed by the WB booth. They were holding a signing for something. We usually avoid every signing possible as it’s just like hearding cattle. You literally cannot move with the dumb crowds pushing and shoving, trying to get a glimpse at whoever is there. As we are waking I see on the screens above none other than Walton Goggins and Danny McBride promoting Vice Principals. I yanked my paddle out of my bag and made my way to the exit line. I held it up high, waved it around and yelled “Walton!!! Danny!!!” They both looked and smiled and laughed. Danny gave me a thumbs up. 👍🏻