I have been fortunate to have had a few remarkable opportunities to play laser tag with some major names in the industry, like George Carter III (inventor of Photon and father of the laser tag industry), founders of several other laser tag systems, a couple of the “industry princes” and even once with two Olympic athletes. However, I NEVER expected to be able to play laser tag with a real-life ninja turtle (Robbie Rist), a Big Bang Theory alum (Brian Posehn) and one of my favorite Comic Book Men (Ming Chen). And yet, that is exactly what happened this past weekend in Connecticut!
Ok, we are not talking about playing “in the arena”, but rather a short burst of trading tags is technically the minimum definition of a “game” so, what happened here we’ll call impromptu “mini-games”.
I was not actually sure whether or not I could bring laser tag phasers into the Terrificon convention, but I suspected that full-size packs would be out of the question. So instead I showed up with the most “obviously toy” home laser tag kit I could find and was grateful that security had no issue with this.
My first stop was to pay a visit to meet Robbie Rist. While most of the world recognizes him as a talented actor who was both the voice of Michelangelo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies or Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch, I am a longtime fan of his from a very different project. The man was part of the soundtrack of my youth by gifting the world with this banger!
That’s right, he was also part of Kidd Video! And these days “Video To Radio” resonates with me in a whole different way.
As it is very rare to come across their one and only album (as it was only released in Israel), I was delighted to first trade a few tags with him…
…and then I invited him to “tag” this KV memorabilia. My heart is happy!
I love that he referenced his laser tag prowess on this photo of the band.
So as I walked away, still amazed at having actually played a short burst of laser tag with Robbie Rist, my eyes were drawn over to where Brian Posehn (Bert from The Big Bang Theory) was signing autographs. Since I already knew him to be a laser tag enthusiast from a video he recorded for me years ago, I asked him if he would tag with me as well.
I am delighted to say I got a quick “mini-game” with this actor who I literally watch in BBT reruns every night!
And if you are curious to know what he had to say about laser tag…
Perhaps the most amazing thing that happened during this event was meeting Ming Chen of the Comic Book Men and podcasting fame, who I met while I was waiting to talk to Brian. I immediately recognized him, as I am a huge fan of everything/everyone connected to the Kevin Smith ViewAskewniverse and also, I was literally at the Secret Stash in Red Bank two weeks ago!
Our conversation led to a remarkable discovery…Ming Chen is legitimately a laser tag fan! And we had a really awesome discussion about his laser tag past as he recalled having the Worlds of Wonder home laser tag set and asking me about Q-Zar. This is not a reference that gets brought up without context or familiarity, so clearly he is legit and we really did have some common ground here.
As we prepared for a photo he saw the blinking phasers still lit up in my bag, so you KNOW we had to play!
As we continued talking, he generously offered to help promote my website, leading to a photo op that I never would have imagined (or imposed) otherwise, but fortune favors those who show up prepared for anything!
This was clearly an encounter that was meant to be because at some point he asked me if I have a podcast (why yes, I do!) and we traded contact info. I truly could have talked tag, comics and pop culture with him for another hour right then and there, but with a bit of coordinating this conversation continued a few days later and I am delighted to announce that Ming Chen will be my very special guest on this week’s episode of the Laser Unfocused Tag Talk podcast!
So, after three unbelievable experiences playing little bursts of laser tag mini-games while meeting these men, I headed back to New York in a happy little daze thinking to myself…”Did that really just happen?” :)
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
and http://www.lasertagmuseum.com
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