September 13, 2009
Con Report: Dragon*Con 2009 Welcomes Back TAPS
For the uninitiated, Dragon*Con is a huge fan convention held in Atlanta, Georgia. Over 20,000 fans, many in costume, gather to celebrate pop culture, science fiction, and whatever will hold our attention. I'm splitting my con report up over several posts. Here, I'll attempt to cover TAPS' first panel at Dragon*Con. The panel covered a variety of topics, and I'm not going to attempt a complete panel transcript. Please ask questions in the comments section if you're interested in a particular topic.
The "Welcome Back TAPS" panel was in a huge ballroom, and by the time the Ghost Hunters appeared, the place was packed– at least 800 attendees. In attendance were Dustin Pari, Joe Chin, Steve Gonsalves, Dave Tango, Jason Hawes, and Grant Wilson. The crowd gave them a rock-star reception, screaming like teens who caught a glimpse of the Jonas Brothers.
Grant and Jason spoke briefly. Grant announced that their camera crew was in the audience, filming the panel for an episode of Ghost Hunters. So I guess that there's a small chance I might wind up on Ghost Hunters after all! Distantly, and in a crowd shot, but hey. They also revealed that Amy Bruni, Kris Williams, and Grant's wife Reanna were all in the crowd and asked them to stand up. Jason mentioned that his wife couldn't make it because their kids were starting school.
Their other big announcement was a new book coming out on September 29th. They never mentioned the title, but according to Amazon it's "Seeking Spirits: The Lost Cases of The Atlantic Paranormal Society." According to Grant, it contained cases that weren't on the show, "some of the darker stuff, running to the occult, things like that. [...] Usually, the cases you see on the show aren't very serious cases. You can comfort the family pretty well before you leave, and then keep up from phone conversations." A bit later, Jason claimed that when they're not investigating cases for the TV show, they investigate "specifically for certain churches" and deal with a lot of "negative-type" hauntings and possessions, which they can't show for confidentiality reasons.
Interestingly, the GHI team worked very hard to showcase Joe Chin. They had him do a British accent (he actually used the word "guv'nor") and talked about the fun side of his personality rarely seen on the shows.
They took questions from the audience. The questions seemed fairly spontaneous, and after each questioner left the microphone, a production assistant with a clipboard would pounce on them with what I assume was a release form. Most of the questions were fairly mundane, asking for the scariest situation they'd been in (deranged clients) or generally complimenting them. Toward the middle, the following dialogue occurred:
QUESTIONER: I was wondering, if you're uncovering evidence of actual, used-to-be-living people haunting the earth for all eternity, don't you think that deserves a little more serious attention than running around in the dark with infrared cameras?
GRANT: Than running around what?
HOST: With infrared cameras.
GRANT: Well how else would you go about it?
QUESTIONER: Well, if they're really spirits of dead people, shouldn't you be trying to talk to physicists and scientists who-
GRANT: Good luck! That's what this show is all about, to try to get awareness to people to cooperate with us. You wanna check out the skeptics panel, see how willing they are to cooperate… it just doesn't happen. (Over audience laughter and applause) We'll work with them if they'll work with us.
Other quotes of note: Grant referred to the K-2 meter as "primarily a debunking tool" and said that they never base a haunted verdict on it. The team mentioned that they actually spend multiple days on-site, and try to wear similar clothes on multiple days to make it easier on the editors.
They also took time out to make joking reference to the Internet rumors surrounding them, with Grant saying sarcastically, "We've all slept with Kris Williams at some point."
An audience member asked them what they believed that ghosts are. Grant responded that he didn't even know for sure that ghosts existed at all, but that they had theories on what they could be: dead people. He and Jason also mentioned a fold in space-time as an explanation of residual hauntings.
When asked about their favorite pieces of equipment, Jason responded quickly with "Our minds. Common sense." Grant had a lot to say about digital recorders. He said that just by catching a voice that wasn't there, you have evidence, but by listening to the voice you can get clues about the identity of the ghost. He claimed that they had solved a sixty-year-old missing person case with an EVP. He didn't go into detail, and I'm not sure if he's referring to a case they've broadcast.
Overall, I thought that the TAPS members, particularly Jason and Grant, were quick and media-savvy, as one would expect. I was particularly impressed when Grant answered a vague question asking about Jungian psychology by relating it to the idea of poltergeist phenomena produced by adolescents. Everyone seemed comfortable with each other and with the audience. These guys are smarter than they look.
Filed under Ghost Hunters, Posts by Stephen
 |
| ^ Please Support our Sponsor |
Comments on Con Report: Dragon*Con 2009 Welcomes Back TAPS »
alicat @ 11:10 am
Thanks Stephen. Jason had posted they only had 700 with 750 seats available but what's another 100 or so? Maybe they were the skeptics and he doesn't count them anyway. Frankly, the kind of adulation you mentioned scares the heck out of me because it says these individuals are lacking real heroes in their own lives and I find that particularly sad.
I'm not surprised Jason and Grant came off as "smarter than they look". Not only have they had 5 years of preparation, they have a PR people with RR, Pilgrim and possibly Syfy to guide them along. They know what people are going ask because they go to these lectures, personal appearances, have the Boot Camps, deal with the press and public questions on a continual basis and they read the comments about them both pro and con so it would have been very stupid to come to a major event and not be prepared. No one goes in unprepared. They prep and are prepped for these events. It happens all the time. I think you touched on this yourself when you mentioned the Kris Williams "rumors" and their trying to showcase Joe Chin who has been the basis for a lot of comments about his personality and total uselessness. By the way, I remember Jason and Grant make a concentrated effort to distance themselves from GHI and claim they were a totally different entity they had nothing to do with. Isn't GHI where Joe and Dustin reside at the moment? And, on the Kris Williams issue, perhaps if she stopped posing very suggestively for Jason in his hotel room and he stopped posting the pictures on his Twitter, that would squelch the "rumors". This is a smart guy?
If I read Grant's comment correctly about the skeptics, that wasn't what the woman asked. Once again, spin and exactly what the "fans" wanted to hear. He, in essence, played the crowd.
The K-2 meter, the fold in space-time, the digital recorder, solving a 60 year old missing person case with an EVP is just garbage. Show legitimate proof of these things rather than verbally make the "claim" or manipulate the "claim". They can't and the fact that they can show absolutely no proof except their words means they are worthless claims and a joke. 2 days can be considered "multiple days". The cast gets to a location the day of filming, they set up their portion and then overnight they "investigate". That, in my estimation, is considered multiple (2) days. The fact that they do the review in their hotel room is another day plus the reveal. Okay, multiple days. And yes, they have gone back the next day on one or two occasions to clarify something but that is the exception rather than the rule. Reading the press and comments of owners of locations after the investigations, that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, Jason and Grant Twitter about having left locations and complain constantly about having to fly home to/from locations only to go back to do the reveal. To me, it looks like they have a "one size fits all" answer whether it be true or not and no one questions it.
Thanks for the report of your visit. Sounds like you had an interesting trip. Hope to see you on a future episode!
Oubliette @ 1:44 pm
Stephen:
Excellent recap. Many thanks! Looks like most of the audience belonged to the fan base.
What surprised me was Grant's replies to some of the questions. I find it hilarious that when asked about scientists/physicists etc., he takes the stance that no one wants to cooperate with them. Obviously they are reading skeptical boards like this one, and he must know that is an absolutely untrue statement. Contact the Skeptologists; I'm sure some of them would be more than willing to work with TAPS evidence. But then they really don't share their evidence with anyone else, do they? What a crock!
What are ghosts? Grant: dead people. Simplistic answer for a man who has devoted so many years to studying them. Perhaps Jason didn't want to mention membrane theory; I'm actually surprised he used the term "space time continuum".
Again Grant: K2 meter is primarily a debunking tool. They why do they depend on it so heavily and get so excited over the presumed responses? Seems what they say and what they do doesn't quite match up.
Negative hauntings? Possessions? So much for their scientific and supposed skeptical approach. Do they consult with psychiatrists/psychologists? I thought awhile back they claimed not to believe/deal with things of this sort. I'm seeing a touch of Paranormal State here.
Did you get any hint of any hostile vibes in the audience? Any sense of how they really feel about GHI?
alicat wrote:
"And, on the Kris Williams issue, perhaps if she stopped posing very suggestively for Jason in his hotel room and he stopped posting the pictures on his Twitter, that would squelch the "rumors". This is a smart guy?"
Wow you have really hit the nail on the head there. What do these people expect when they go around acting like giddy teenagers in love? I've seen Kris's poses and hey, I'm not even a guy but it's not hard to read the body language. And Jason–he should be ashamed of himself. No one knows the truth behind the rumors, but if they don't like what is being insinuated, then stop providing material that is only feeding these impressions. Now that would be smart.
Agree with your other observations as well. By now, these media savvy people have grown slick when it comes to fielding questions. Though I'm supposing no one brought up sheetie or collargate or the locker image.
Ghost lady @ 10:30 pm
Yeah, these douchebags just get worse and worse. They say they want to work with scientists, but they don't produce any valuable reports. They don't even follow true scientific method. If I were a scientist, I wouldn't work with them either. LOL
Stephen @ 2:37 am
I should clarify about the "multiple days" comment– specifically, they were saying that they spend more time on-site than is apparent from watching the episode, and it's edited down to look like a one-night investigation. They spent nine days at the Stanley Hotel, for example.
I think they intended this comment as a defense against the charge of not spending enough time on each site, but actually I consider this a strike against them. Basically, they're admitting that the timeline shown during the episodes is fictional. I knew that, but I hadn't heard them admit it before. So much for reality.
@Oubliette: Aside from the questioner asking why they didn't talk to scientists, I got the impression that most of the attendees were very pro-TAPS. In my recap I left out a few questions of the "How influential and amazing are you" variety.
The thought did occur to me that if someone had a ghost hunting show, and there were some other programs that were cutting into their market by talking about demonic possession, but this particular someone didn't want to change their show format, they could do worse than to release a book claiming that they were secretly fighting off demons all along. No muss, no fuss, no special effects. I'm sure such thoughts are merely manifestations of my latent cynicism.
Revenant @ 3:34 am
Stephen- "The thought did occur to me that if someone had a ghost hunting show, and there were some other programs that were cutting into their market by talking about demonic possession, but this particular someone didn't want to change their show format, they could do worse than to release a book claiming that they were secretly fighting off demons all along. No muss, no fuss, no special effects."
Good call. By saying that certain things occurred but they are bound to confidentiality, they can essentially write anything. It's like me posting that I'm a super secret agent for the shadow government. I won't give you any real names or locations and I certainly won't supply any proof of any of it. At that point, I can write anything.
Didn't I read somewhere that Jason wrote science fiction? Perhaps nothing published, but I swear I read that somewhere. Certainly a handy ability when writing "real yet confidential" material…
Learjet @ 4:39 am
"…they were saying that they spend more time on-site than is apparent from watching the episode, and it's edited down to look like a one-night investigation."
That's… really quite norti. And a step closer to the on the road magic show I keep wishing they are not.