San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Adam Savage heralds return of conventions to the Bay Area.
Adam Savage’s storied “cave,” a workshop/recording studio/museum in a secret spot in the middle of the Mission District, has always been crowded.
But now, more than a year into the pandemic, it’s a fullon mess.
“As you can see, it’s a total s— fight in here. … The Aussies would call it ‘a dog’s breakfast,’ ” Savage says, laughing. “There are tons of little jobs sitting everywhere in the cave. ‘Well that can’t happen until that happens, and that can’t happen until that happens.’ And the normal tile puzzle of our lives became a Rubik’s Cube.”
The maker and former “MythBusters” star is by himself with his crew working remotely to support the YouTube channel Tested, the crew that presumably helps organize the movie prop replicas, oneday builds and cool things sent by fans. But he’ll soon be surrounded by people again — at least 5,000, hopefully more — as he takes over the creative reins of Silicon Valley Comic Con, now called SiliCon. Slated to return to the San Jose Convention Center Aug. 2829, it will be the first big Bay Area science fiction/fantasy convention in more than a year and a half, and one of the first indoor mass gatherings of humans in the region. (Harry Styles and Guns N’ Roses arrive at the SAP Center in San Jose the week before.)
Savage cleared a few things off a table and sat down for a “Total SF” podcast interview, talking about the Mission District during the pandemic, his own convention love that started in the Bay Area, and his dreams for SiliCon to become “the maker’s convention.”
SiliCon has announced “Star
Trek” captain William Shatner as a guest, with more names to be announced. Tickets and more information can be found at www.siliconsj.com.
On pandemic changes in the Mission District, where Savage lives and works: I’d say the Mission has felt like a very wonderful and safe place. Mask wearing was ubiquitous here. Social distancing was very clear. I think we had a 14% decrease in the population of San Francisco overall, and I certainly feel that in the Mission. And frankly, a lot of the folks that left are at the high end of the income scale, and I feel that too. Not to denigrate anybody, but the Mission has been feeling a lot like it did in the 1990s, and that’s really nice. It feels much more local.
Each of the places that I go regularly — whether it’s Panchita’s or Ritual Coffee or Papalote or BiRite or Duc Loi (supermarket) on 18th and Mission — I think I’m on a firstname basis with people at every one of those places now. Specifically because we all weathered this thing. There’s a way in which it made the Mission District feel a lot more like a neighborhood again, and I’m grateful for that.
On his first con experience, a “Star Trek” convention at the Hyatt Hotel in Burlingame in the early 2000s: It was amazing. I talk now about cons being a very important kind of theater, in which the line between the audience and performers is not just blurred — it doesn’t exist.
My friend and I walked into the Hyatt, which is something like 28 stories of open space indoors, and everyone you can see is wearing a Starfleet uniform or is costumed as a Klingon or a Romulan and I’m like, “This is magical.”
We just went to get these
SiliCon 2021: Aug. 28-29. $20$400. San Jose Convention Center, 150 W. San Carlos St., San Jose. www.siliconsj.com (Starfleet) badges that whistled and what we were treated to was so exciting. On his first attempt at convention cosplay, at ComicCon in San Diego in 2008: I spent several months really quietly putting together a pretty elaborate Hellboy costume. I thought, “This will be great, I’ll blend right in.” … When you put on a fullbody costume, you do stand out at any con, because it’s a lot of labor and effort to do it, and you are recognized by your fellow cosplayers. I was more of a rock star walking around as a 6½foottall Hellboy than I would have been as a MythBuster. I actually did an interview with a news station, and they said, “Can you tell us your name?”
On what he hopes to add to the SiliCon: The addition for me ... is to add the maker contingent, which is really part of every single con.
I just want SiliCon to be thought of as “the maker’s con.” We’re going to have workshops about the complicated parts of doing cosplay and cosplay performance. We want to bring in Hollywood costumers to talk about the symmetry between what it’s like to wear a costume for a movie and what it’s like to wear one on the floor of a con.
That’s not to say it’s not going to have all the other things that cons have, it’s just that my focus is in the physical making. On mining talent from the Bay Area moviemaking community for SiliCon: I’m excited about bringing in some of my old Industrial Light & Magic compadres to talk on a host of levels about behindthescenes moviemaking throughout history, because many of my friends here in the Bay Area encompass a wide swath and latter 20th century cinema history. I’m so excited to get them on stage and pepper them with questions about it.
On how the pandemic might influence SiliCon costumes: I expect there’s going to be a subset of cosplay this year that actively incorporates filtered masks, and I’m really curious where that’s going to show up.