Chris Hardwick, a TARDIS, and a Tale of Four Cities
When Chris Hardwick says he appreciates a fan’s gift, he means it.
Third Beat’s recap of Hardwick’s visit to Toronto last month mentioned a few of the offerings lavished upon him by fans, including “a homemade TARDIS”.
Turns out, this particular TARDIS has legs.
Joe Smith's TARDIS
When he presented Hardwick with the TARDIS – constructed thanks to Smith’s experience as a theatre propmaster – Hardwick was naturally excited by both it and its contents. Smith designed it to house a video library of Hardwick’s greatest and rarest works (view the full gallery).
“One of the things that really stuck out for him was the fact that I was able to track down a clip of him on MadTV from 1996 doing a Singled Out parody,” Smith says.
But there was just one problem.
While allegedly much more expansive on the inside, the project was quite large on the outside as well – too large to fit in Hardwick’s luggage.
Hardwick told Smith that he’d only brought a carry-on with him for the weekend, so something would have to be worked out to get it back to his home in Los Angeles.
Now, performers with a dedicated fan following are accustomed to receiving gifts, and a lot of those gifts don’t see a happy ending (remember the heartbreak of the crushed Conan cookie in Can’t Stop
Not so for the TARDIS!
A plan was hatched. One of the producers who brought Hardwick to Toronto, Ian Atlas, would coincidentally be in New York City the following week at the same time Hardwick would be filming his Comedy Central special.
So the TARDIS accompanied him on his trip, to have a fun-filled romp through the streets of Manhattan.
The TARDIS explores New York City. Photo by Ian Atlas.
Alas, Hardwick clearly likes to pack light. When reunited with his gift in New York, he faced the same luggage limitations as he had a week earlier.
Long story short, Atlas packed up the TARDIS and shipped it from New York to L.A., where it is presumably now in the care of Hardwick’s assistant.
As for its future?
Hardwick promised that “he will give it a home in his office at NerdMelt,” Smith says.
About the Author
Sharilyn Johnson is the author of the book Bears & Balls: The Colbert Report A-Z. Called "one of the city’s most discriminating comedy critics” by NOW Magazine, Sharilyn has been covering comedy for longer than she cares to admit. She served as the comedy reporter for Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine for five years, and was the host of the radio show Laugh Tracks for three seasons. Her work has also appeared in the Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, The Apiary, and on CBC Radio's national comedy programs LOL and Definitely Not the Opera.
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