The morning of Thursday, July 20, at SDCC 2023 was a leisurely morning for us, at least in terms of San Diego Comic-Con standards. We didn’t have anywhere to be until 11:30am, which was our time slot for the Interview with the Vampire offsite activation, so we were able to sleep in a bit.
We didn’t sleep in too late though, because we wanted to go for a run before it got too hot. Josh got a bit of an earlier start than me, as he was planning to run 6 miles and had a little bit of remote work to do, while I only ran 4 miles. It was a nice view, running along the harbor toward the airport and back. It was the first time I’ve seen the USS Midway, the Star of India, and the Kissing Statue!
After breakfast, we headed over to the Hilton Gaslamp area, where the Interview with the Vampire offsite was located. Although our tickets were for the 11:30am time slot, it said to get there 15 minutes early to check in, so we gave ourselves plenty of time to walk over from our hotel, the Manchester Grand Hyatt, as you never know how much congestion there will be trying to make it through the crowds.
On our way there, we walked along the Promenade and saw some offsites we had not yet seen, including the WhatNot Hero House (which always had people out front handing out free branded yellow tote bags all weekend), Bandai Namco’s activation featuring Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon and Tekken 8, and the Peanuts Camp Snoopy pop-up (which had a huge line all weekend).
Tickets for the Interview with the Vampire offsite activation were made available on the Monday before SDCC at around 6:30am PT and were gone within minutes. Luckily, I get up early before work to workout, and was in the middle of a rest during a strength training session and scrolling through social media when the ticket link dropped, so I was able to snag a time slot. You could only reserve up to 2 tickets. However, those who were unable to obtain tickets to the event would be able to wait in a standby line.
Check in for the event was very smooth and well organized. I can’t speak to how the standby line was handled, but the line management for people with tickets was great. There was a check in desk, and if you had tickets, you were directed to the appropriate line. Upon arriving, the 11:00am group had already gone in (the activation opened at 11:00am), and there were chutes labeled for 11:15am, 11:30am, and 11:45am. I showed our QR code for the tickets to the person handling the 11:30am line, who scanned it, and then put wristbands on us. He also gave us a Visitor’s Guide to New Orleans brochure and made sure to point out that there were 3 stops we needed to make and get stamped. We then joined the back of the 11:30am line, and waited for our turn to go in.
When it was our turn, our line handler had us follow him in a single file line to the entrance, where our wristbands were checked and we were given a tote bag reading “Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe.” Although we had been calling it the Interview with the Vampire offsite, it actually also included elements of Mayfair Witches, another AMC series that takes place in, you guessed it, Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe. I had not seen or heard of Mayfair Witches, but I did watch the new Interview with the Vampire series on AMC, and really enjoyed it, so I was pretty excited about having scored tickets for this offsite.
Once we entered the activation, we found ourselves on the Street of Immortality, and immediately felt immersed as if we were on the streets of early 20th century New Orleans, just like in the Interview with the Vampire show.
But before we could get very far, we were quickly directed into a room that appeared to be a speakeasy. It was dark and there were tables set for us to stand around. A man with a N’Awlins/Louisiana accent started talking to the room about immortality and the Elixir of Life. He referenced a man named Lestat (a character on the show, who is a vampire) who lived at the house at the end of the block, and had lived there for so long that even his father had done business with him. This man claimed to have obtained the Drink of Immortality from that house, and that all it took was one sip. Shot glasses of a blood red colored drink were distributed to all audience members, and we all raised our shot glasses to toast to immortality.
We had just enough time to drink the elixir before a “policeman” burst into the room, demanding to know what was going on! Everyone was then ushered back out to the Street of Immortality to explore.
While wandering down the street, we encountered a tap dancer, an artist, and even a set up for the 3 shell game, where you hide something under one of the shells, mix them up, and then someone tries to guess which shell it’s under. We were also approached multiple times by actors warning us to look out for strange things going on, and telling us about the dangerous men who lived at the end of the block.
We then began our mission to get our brochure stamped for each of the three stops: Talamasca Notebook, Mayfair Talisman, and “Come to Me” Sheet Music.
For the Talamasca Notebook stop, the actors there were trying to recruit us into their secret society. Once we agreed to join, they gave us each a notebook where we could write down any strange things we saw going on.
Next, we headed over to Mayfair Talismans, where the proprietor explained that she offered charms that would protect us from the dangerous things that have been happening. We were able to choose one of three scents: Mint, Rosemary, or Bay. Josh chose Mint and I chose Rosemary.
Lastly, we made our way over to Nawlins Records to collect our “Come to Me” sheet music. While we had been waiting by Mayfair Talismans, a woman had been singing over there, while a man accompanied her on piano.
After obtaining our last stamp, we made it to the end of the block, to the house we had been warned about. On the front doorstep, there had been several “offerings” left in a white circle. As a woman left an offering, one of the actors came up to her and asked if she believed in “all this voodoo stuff.” She responded that she wasn’t sure!
That about brought us to the end of our journey down the Street of Immortality. Before leaving, we were each given one last collectible: a nice Interview with the Vampire poster.
In total, it took a little over 20 minutes for the whole experience, but certainly could have lasted longer depending on how long you engaged with the actors. I liked how the actors were all very well dressed in their period piece costumes, and each used either a Louisiana or French accent. This was a very fun, interactive, and immersive experience that I’m glad we got to take part in!
Below is a photo of all the free swag that we got from the activation. Not pictured, we also got a free code for one month of AMC+, which was inside the tote bags.
Stay tuned for more articles about our experience at SDCC 2023!
