We're at the fan Expo this morning right now.
Weren't the Umbrella Corps tent
which you can see is so much fun,
but you gotta be careful some
some hazmat issues we gotta
watch out for this morning.
We've got Courtney Brekkie with us.
She's with the Umbrella Corp.
Denver this morning.
Courtney,
thank you so much for joining us.
I know it's
early for you. Oh no,
absolutely no problem America.
Thanks for having me.
OK, so right behind us is your setup
here and I want you to kind of walk
me through a little bit how you want
fans to come and get things started OK.
Well, we're obviously not set
up completely yet. It is early,
and so we're we're getting there.
But eventually what will happen?
I'm sorry there. Well,
we'll have you walk through here and we'll
have a handy dandy little walkway set up.
You can take pictures in our
zombie cage zombie proof.
It's all good. 100% safe.
You can have your picture taken here.
And then you just come out right here.
And this is where we have our table
with all of our goodies and you can
take pictures with any of our Members.
Ask any questions that you have
for us and that's basically it.
And Courtney, we were talking a little
bit more about what you do here.
Obviously we're having fun,
but it's also for a good cause,
so talk to me about who you
partner with. Well,
we are cosplay for charity group.
We come and all our Members volunteer
their time and we basically ask for
donations for the photos and everything
that we make goes towards the charities
of any given event that we attend.
So for fan Expo it is pop culture classroom.
And we just help raise awareness
and get people excited.
Get people.
Into the genre and people are
usually pretty excited to see us
because we we bring our all here.
OK yeah Joe, I want you to pin
over a little bit to the truck.
We've got the what is the really
cool mask you've got on there?
I mean obviously there's
movies and and and video games.
Everyone should be familiar with,
but we've got some really
cool zombie promptly we do.
We have our nemesis guarding the table.
We have random zombie props everywhere.
We have our Raccoon City police
officer over there, just different.
Areas for people to kind of check out.
We got a lot of hidden stuff,
little hidden fun things
that people just kind of.
Oh my gosh, they really think
of a lot and everything.
Yeah, I know you're not fully set
up but you're already killing it.
This is so much fun.
We've had so much fun kind of walking
around and checking everything out.
And I asked you, who are you most
excited to meet this weekend?
It's gotta be Billy West,
so I'm huge Futurama fan. I
love it. I love it y'all.
There's going to be so many
amazing celebrities here.
You can meet.
You can get their autograph signed.
You can get pictures with them.
You can come here and you can
donate to a wonderful cause.
Courtney, thank you so much for joining
us this morning. Absolutely
thank you so much. Erica,
y'all. I'm having too much fun
out here but I am gonna get in
character for this next interview. So
let me put my helmet on
alright, we're ready to go
so we are talking to I.
I told you in the tease these
are the bad guys doing good.
They're the villains,
but they're doing it for a good cause.
These are the gentlemen
of the five O 1st Legion.
This is MJ and Sebastian
with me this morning.
Thank you so much for joining
me. Absolutely thanks for
coming in for having us.
OK, so for somebody who's not familiar
with what y'all do, tell everybody
just kind of the good you're doing.
We are a worldwide Star Wars costuming
organization who does appearances
and fundraising for charities.
We have over 16,000 members worldwide
and over 33,000 approved costumes.
And you know how long have both of you been
involved with the organization? I've been
involved since 2019 and
in 2016 that's September.
And what would you see?
What brings you the most joy like
seeing these children get to see
these really amazing like life size
figures and seeing the costumes.
And you know if they're not doing well,
like bringing that joy to them,
what does that mean to you?
The look on their faces is priceless,
so we're wearing masks,
so there's a lot of tears.
Sometimes when we do run into them.
And that's probably
absolutely the best thing.
OK, so talk to me about this.
This is kind of our artist scale.
Really, really super cool feature here.
Talk to me about Sebastian.
What throughout the weekend you'll see.
We have a few awesome props including
a full scale probe Droid and then
RG 11 and Baby Yoda out there which
is actually gonna be on auction
layer for charity. Ohh my goodness,
that's amazing Joe.
Check out that baby Yoda,
he's one of my fit grow who
though is the correct name right?
Gorgo is the correct name.
OK So what else is going
to be out here for fans?
They can obviously take
pictures with all this,
but what can they do when they come
out and see y'all at the fan Expo?
So the cool thing is we're going to
have different costumes out here.
I just going today with Members
and then you can come talk to us,
interact with us.
Any questions about joining the
organization, love it and then get
involved with us in the future.
Sebastian MJ, thank you so so much y'all.
So much to do I'm gonna keep showing you
because I don't think I can even hit it all.
We're just having a blast again.
The fun kicks off today at 4:00 o'clock
at the Colorado Convention Center.
Right now we're gonna be talking to
Andrew Moise, who is actually the
vice president of the Fan Expo HQ.
So I'm going to bring him in right now.
Andrew, thank you so much for joining
us Bright and early this morning.
Oh, thanks for being with us.
OK, so I've just been having a ball out here,
but we want to talk about is.
In the last couple years,
you said Fan Expo HQ got involved
to help out and it's actually
all for a really great cause.
Yeah, no, we're delighted to be
collaborating with pop culture
classroom and incredible not for profit.
That brings literacy to kids through
the comic book and pop culture medium.
So they built this show and we're
really excited to be working with
them to deliver it again this year.
Yeah, it's so massive,
even more than I thought it was gonna be.
And and you mentioned the kids
and I'm glad you did because
as I was walking around,
it's not just for adults,
there's so much to do for the kids too.
It's actually a huge focus as well.
Oh yeah, I mean just over here,
the kids lap lots of interactive
activities so they can actually
get hands on making potions.
All those sorts of things.
But yeah, often people come up
to me and say I had no idea that
this would be a show for me,
but truly, fandom has no barriers.
There is truly something for everyone.
Hi, Levin, obviously there's gonna be
a lot of big names celebrities here,
which we're all really excited about.
Who are you most excited to meet?
I'm really excited to see the four hobbits.
I mean, what an incredible once
in a lifetime opportunity to
see them all on stage together.
Really great guys, Kevin Smith,
Jason music here.
They very rarely signed autographs,
so that's kind of a once
in a lifetime opportunity.
And they're doing photo
OPS together in character.
So everyone's gotta head to
fanexpodenver.com to check out
all the celebrities and all
the unique things that they're
doing here this weekend.
And you know, it's exciting
because we're back here in person,
bigger than ever post pandemic.
I mean what does it mean to be able
to see this large scale again?
It means so much. I mean it means
so much to us as the promoter.
The city where filling hotel
rooms were feeling restaurants.
All our vendors who have been
able to see their customers.
I mean, we had a limited
edition experience last year,
but this is back full scale
so the impact is really gonna
reverberate through the city.
And we're excited to be bringing
a signature event back.
Once again,
what would you say of this event
this year back in person, you're,
you're is like one of the coolest
attractions. If we could say one,
well, you know, for me,
the fans of the stars of the show,
we talk about the celebrities,
but these are passion driven community.
Events people come here
because they love pop culture.
They love bumping into someone that's
wearing the same costume as them.
Costumes not required I must say,
but definitely encouraged.
You know, when?
It's that sort of energy.
You just can't replace that online.
You have to be here.
Live and in person to create those moments.
And that's what I get excited about.
It's so incredible.
And of course, like you mentioned,
tickets are still available.
Tell us that website again.
Yes, if an expert denver.com
you gotta get in, you gotta get
your tickets because all of our
weekend passes are now sold out.
We only have single day tickets
that are available, of course.
On our website and they'll be
available here at the Colorado
Convention Centre as well.
Wonderful and like Andrew mentioned,
it's three days of fun.
If you can't come out today,
you still have Saturday and
Sunday to do it, so of course,
thank you so much for joining us.
This is the whatnot booth area.
It's really, really cool.
They literally have.
This is all mirrors.
It's like a selfie hallway room.
Really what this is for is
probably just to get you over here.
My boy sketch,
who we're gonna talk to you in a second?
Who knows all the things to know about
the whatnot app said people come out
here and they just be taking pics.
The whole day, which I get it.
Who doesn't love to take a selfie?
Alright,
let's go up here to this is the
what do you call this the virtual?
This is where things are happening.
Booth
this is the this is the
book the Biette people.
If you get to the point
where you're so entertaining,
you'll have a crowd of people
just watching you sell things
live it is incredible.
That's what step is going to be doing here.
You're live auctioning,
really cool items, but here's the thing.
This is for people who physically
aren't at the event. They're on,
they're they're elsewhere, correct,
correct? And this is like the Comic Con in
your pocket that that experience to build.
Into the convention at home is so important
because not everyone can make it out here,
right? Oh my gosh, this is so cool.
So download the app even if you are
coming or just come by and check it out.
Let's go walk because I wanna show you.
This is such a cool area.
So there's a game over here too.
Let's pop over here real quick. What's this
this is the what? Not arcade Crane
with the exclusive what not buddies.
First time appearing here
at Denver Fan Expo and the
cost to play the game insane.
Great deal. It is free.
All you have to do is download the app.
And here you go. Game
y'all Donald. The app right now because
when this is over the the next event that
you're at people can TuneIn on the app
correct? Exactly? So there's a
kind of convention to experience.
Yeah, will be at Toronto,
will be at New York Comic Con.
So every time we'll always have
new exciting things that every show
I love it step alright,
let's go over here because this is an
interview booth where you're gonna
have a gentleman who is interviewing
celebrities that are going to be here.
So like the big names, like maybe,
my boy Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy,
potentially, potentially
we've had thrown as we've had.
Ashley Eckstein,
Young Carlos Vito, Kevin Smith.
All the celebrities are here signing,
going live as well so people
experience see themselves kind of
live on camera and the ability to get
autographs right from their phone.
It's a beautiful thing so
you get another chance.
You can, obviously down at the
other end of the hallway you
can go and you can, you know,
get your signings and your photos.
You can come down here and get
another dose of this celebrity fun
exactly. Or if you don't
want to win that line,
you could just hang out over here and
just like everyone in the by now,
just click buy now and will
be shipped to your house.
Save you a bunch of time,
OK? What do you love the most
about coming to these these shows
and being here at Fan Expo HQ?
Ohg it's cheesy.
It's gonna sound I love meeting other people.
It is such a phenomenal thing.
I'm such a people person and
just meeting everybody matching
profile names to faces.
And the beautiful thing and also
the ability to meet all these
celebrities has been game changing.
Well scaff lovier energy.
This has been super fun.
Thanks for letting us
hang out this morning.
Thank you so much for having
me Eric. I appreciate it so
much. Oh hey, y'all,
fancy seeing you here alright we're back
at the Colorado Convention Center for the.
One and only Fan Expo HQ I've been
having so much fun this morning.
How sick is this car wrap?
I know absolutely incredible,
so this is the owner of
gamers heaven right here.
This is his personal car.
He wrapped it like this and Andrew,
we thought this was so cool we
had to stop and see why did you
deck out your car like that?
Essentially it's just you know,
let you know kids and adults alike.
You know these days that you
know don't be afraid to express
yourself or your love of games,
anime, even cartoons and even.
Disney for Disney fan too.
Don't hide it. Show it off,
you know, be on apologetic and
just be proud of who you are.
You know,
just embrace it and Oh my goodness,
your company is incredible.
Talk to me about some of the things
people can see out here at the fan Expo.
So at the Fan Expo we're
gonna recreate what we use.
You know the markets that you see in Japan,
so when you go into the bars in
Japan and stuff, you get to go ahead
and see all the statues laid out.
Kind of how it would look in your own,
your house and stuff like that.
We're also going to have an
array of Japanese snacks that
they can purchase and stuff,
so a little preview of what they can
get at our stores across the country.
Well, tell
Andrew so incredible.
Thank you so much for letting me hop
in your car and and show the fans.
You're really cool setup so come
check out gamers heaven here at the
Convention Center at the Fan Expo.
You can still get day tickets
today on their website.
I'll send things back to you guys.