Philadelphia Comic-Con: Bruce Campbell

I’m glad I didn’t miss Bruce Campbell‘s panel. When Bruce hopped on stage, I first noticed his weight loss. Burn Notice hadn’t premiered yet, and I wondered how they planned on explaining it.

He started the panel with a Bruce Campbell tattoo comparison contest and, after ten minutes, he refused to answer audience questions until people stopped queuing on line and asked from their seats. I can’t remember his reason, but watching him hold hundreds of people hostage was hilarious. Campbell ran the room like most insult comics: brash and direct. Part of the time, he was his own ringmaster and stirred up mayhem wherever possible.

Just like Spider-Man has his spidey-sense, Campbell has a special BS-detector. I had grown accustomed to actors not calling out blogger fan-crap during conference calls; but, here, Campbell yelled BS wherever possible. When a fan tried to get a couple punchlines on him, Campbell dominated the conversation while ending it with “No, you’re not the funny one, sir.” When the aforementioned fan pulled the same shtick (and question) in another panel, I ceased feeling sorry for him and realized that Campbell’s Bullshit-detector was far better than mine.

Campbell reminded me a lot of Tim Omundson. Clearly, when you’re a veteran actor and you’ve seen it all, you don’t fear anything. You don’t need to couch your statements. And, you don’t need to kowtow. In fact, I need to use a couple more clichés to describe how not a cliché Bruce Campell is. Bruce Campbell marches to his own tune and he beats his own drum. He gives as good as he gets and, is salt of the earth. In fact, because of his openness, Bruce is almost a writer’s worst nightmare come true because he’s an open book. Literally. Everything I might want to ask him about Brisco County Jr, Xena, Hercules, or Jack of All Trades, he’s already said.

Although he has the eyes of a man who has seen and done it all, that still means you should definitely see him.

Bruce Campbell quotes:

• Thoughts on Marvel Zombies: “I don’t think about it, sir.”
• Reason for making the Evil Dead movies: “We intended to finish a movie and scare the crap out of people.”
• Favorite Burn Notice memory: “Well, we’re not canceled, yet.”
• On possibly doing porn in the future: “I do it all the time. You’re just never going to see the footage.”
• On Burn Notice ad-libbing: “It’s not an ad lib-fest … That’s probably why it’s still on the air.”
• Will he ever do the Spidey re-boot? “No Sam Raimi, no Bruce Campbell.”
• Who inspired you? “People who are dead.”
• On the shift in the movie system to a younger audience: “Now old people go to cable … with shows like Burn Notice.”

Clacked by An Nicholson
on Aug 04, 2011 @ 13:00 EST5EDT