Vic Mignogna: Adored Voice Actor and Star Trek Geek

On thing I learned after three days of SacAnime was that Vic Mignogna was and will continue to be one hell of a Star TrekTOS (The Original Series) fan. Kicking off the 2010 anime convention season during the weekend of January 8th, the Sacramento anime convention featured the usual array of vendors selling anime, cosplayers dressed up as anime characters, and anime programming shown in darkened video rooms. In a rare occasion for me during conventions, I decided to attend a panel featuring Vic Mignogna and other guests of honor of the convention-arguably the main draw of the convention-to listen what they had to say.

Adored by fans for voice acting characters including Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchmist, Broly from Dragonball Z, Junpei from Persona 3, and many other prominent roles from anime I never got around to watching or games I never played, Vic Mignogna was one of the big stars of SacAnime whose panels drew in large crowds as he joked, performed fan requests, and talked about his work. And then came the Star Trek.

In less than 15 minutes into his Friday panel with fellow voice actor Travis Willingham (Roy Mustang, Full Metal Alchemist), Vic began showing off his love of Star Trek TOS by announcing his work on the fan series Star Trek Phase IIwith their high quality production values. He played a character and directed an episode for them. "It's like a childhood dream," he commented as he reminisced about his young days idolizing Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. After that he confessed to liking the new Star Trek film solely as an action film, but he did not like the new rebellious punk of a captain Kirk that contradicted the original William Shatner duty bound and hard working incarnation of Captain Kirk. But he did like the choice in casting like Simon Pegg. Then came the attempts to stump Vic in Star Trek. Whether pointing out continuity errors, identifying titles of episodes based on simple summaries, or other trivial trivia, he managed to answer them quickly before countering with another trivia question that he would also answer just to show off. Attendees even turned to their parents via cellphone to look for some minor Star Trek trivia that might stump Vic. But nothing worked. Vic admitted that before the days of TiVo and even VCRs, he would record Star Trek episodes onto a tape recorder that he would listen to while sleeping, which probably helped him memorize such trivia.

It is nice to see that beneath the talent, fame and charisma, the adored voice actor is deep down as geeky as his fans. I guess the geekiness helps him get more involved in his roles and gives him a common ground among his fans. So while the anime fans can continue to voice past and present characters, why not impress Vic during his next convention? Ask him a tough Star Trek TOS trivia question. Who knows, you might stump him enough to remember you.