Psych-Out! .. Live at Comic Con

The first day of Comic Con 2010 was USA Network day for Red Dot Diva. Together with Evil Twin @_mriel, they turned up at the line outside the convention centre at 5.30 am for Ballroom 20. Just so that they could be up front for the panels. Even though Ballroom 20 was not as cavernous as Hall H, it was still a very large venue that could hold about 4,000 people.

The panels didn't start early either. Red Dot Diva and @_mriel doggedly stayed in line and waited for about 7 hours before we could enter Ballroom 20. "Burn Notice" was slated to be the first at 1 pm, followed by "White Collar" at 2.15pm and finally "Psych" at 3.30pm.

Out of the three, Red Dot Diva thought that the "Psych" panel was by far the most light-hearted and entertaining.


The panel started out with a short funny video of Tim Omundson urging James Roday and Dule Hill to hassle Curt Smith (from band Tears for Fears) to sing a song with them. The clip showed a peeved Curt calling his lawyer after he found out that their song "Shout" was used without permission. That segued to Curt appearing (for realsies!) on stage playing the opening intro for "Shout" with his acoustic guitar!!

And then, Dule and James strolled on stage and joined Curt with mics, singing to the popular tune, peppering the song with "Comic Con!" for lyrics. The crowd went wild. James has a lovely voice indeed and -- Red Dot Diva's heart skipped a few beats.

Here's a short video Red Dot Diva took of James, Dule and Curt Smith singing "Shout"


After the song, James rolled out the introduction for panel moderator, Andy Berman... who in turn introduced the rest of the "Psych" panel members. Red Dot Diva thought charming older dude, Corbin Bernsen totally rocked the relaxed look with shorts, while Timothy Omundson was all sexy suave in a suit and sunglasses, dishing out air kisses to the crowd. Kirsten Nelson, Maggie Lawson (who looked very sunny-cute and casual in shorts too!) as well as creator Steve Franks and producers Kelly Kulchak and Chris Henze were also present.

Kelly revealed that the show will be "cooler" than last season because there will be UFO's, kung fu, and she also revealed that Dule would be tap-dancing! (Note: These episodes have already been aired in the USA.)

Chris Henze also told us that there will be several guests stars this season due to the growing popularity of "Psych" -- Freddie Prinze Jr, Adam Rodriguez, C Thomas Howell and Nestor Carbonell (yayy!!) for a couple of episodes and "might get in the way of Juliet and Shawn". Oooooohhhhh.

It was Kirsten's turn to field a question from Andy, who nosily probed about her chemistry with Buzz McNab. With a deadpan expression, Kirsten said that it depended if it's with heels or without because "Buzz is quite large". The audience roared with laughter. Kirsten started laughing too and admitted she found it hard to say that with a straight face.

Corbin, the most mature member of the cast, was then asked what was his best acting advice or life advice. His answer: "never wear underwear while you work" ... "you must always be free, always be lose".

Moving on to Maggie Lawson, Andy asked her what was the difference between James (her real-life bf) and Shawn Spencer. With a wide smile, Maggie said, "I will say that Shawn Spencer is a boy... and I will say that James Roday is a man." The crowd roared and cheered! Maggie then asked, "Is he blushing?"

The cast members all agreed that Tim was the easiest to break character and he laughs the most during filming. Tim admitted he tends to laughs like a little girl.

As in all the other panels, there was some time for fan questions towards the end of the session. Red Dot Diva noted that there was an amusing fan question about what costumes the cast members would like to wear incognito to Comic Con. The answers were:

Corbin - Pineapple
James - Alf
Dule - Papa Smurf
Maggie - Wonder Woman
Kirsten - Hit Girl

When asked about the pranks played on set, James said that Dule is "very protective of his food" and loves his PBJ's. His good friend knew about this and when he was on set, they conspired to swipe Dule's PBJ, take a big bite out of it and put it back on his chair. The fall out lasted for *hours* and they watched while Dule tried to solve the mystery on "*who* took a bite of my PBJ".

The panel ended with the introduction of special guest - tapdancer and choreographer Jason Samuel Smith. The surprise was that Dule joined Jason in the tapdance routine and ... it was glorious!

Red Dot Diva noted that it was obvious the "Psych" cast/ crew like each other. They were very relaxed on stage and enjoyed interacting with the fans, dishing out good-natured jibes and funny wisecracks which kept the panel going at an enjoyable pace.

The swag that they gave out included a rather big foam "Psych" Pineapple. Red Dot Diva put that into good use during out Comic Con tweet-up (ask her and she'll tell you how.) You might also like to know that she managed to squeeze that precious Pineapple into her luggage across the Pacific Ocean and it is now safely home with her as a memento of very fun "Psych-O" times!