A Night At The Toyota Mirai Launch With Chris Hardwick

This article is part of #Future, a new UPROXX section that covers where the world is headed and how things have changed since 1989. Powered by Toyota.

I have lived in LA for about eight years now, and in that time, I’ve had some pretty glamorous experiences:

My Glamorous Experiences

1. William H. Macy once almost hit me with his car. But he totally stopped in time and he waved like a gentleman, because he’s William H. Macy.

2. I was once so close to both members of Insane Clown Posse in a nightclub, that I immediately left that nightclub so I could go home and stare into the mirror and ask myself some difficult questions about the current direction of my life.

3. I have been jiu jitsu choked by the guy who played Powderthe second Red Ranger and the guy who made Snatch.

But in all the years of my glamorous Hollywood-adjacent lifestyle, I have never been to a product launch party. And this always made me sad. Because I have spent more than one night lurking at art openings for the free merlot and cheese squares. And while the wine and cheese squares were tasty (as all free food is), I couldn’t help but wonder what the glamorous people were doing at their glamorous launch parties.

And thanks to the fine folks at Uproxx, I was able to answer this question for myself at the launch party for the 2016 Toyota Mirai.

And though I couldn’t find a single cheese square in the surrounding area, it was still a pretty neat experience.

Toyota was timing the launch of the Mirai with the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future, so Hill Valley imagery was everywhere. Even the exterior of the bathroom was designed to look like the Cafe 80s from Back to the Future II. Except it was decorated so well that I didn’t know the part about it being the bathroom right away, so I walked in expecting to see a robot Reagan waiter, and instead found a bunch of guys waiting for the can.

The Back to the Future decorations didn’t stop there. One of the Mirais was even set up with gull wing doors like the DeLorean. Which is very important to some people.

And like the so many art openings I have attended in the past, the Mirai launch had an open bar, as well. But instead of Yellow Tail shiraz and warm Tecate, this bar had some quality booze. Or at least I didn’t recognize many of the brands, which I assume means they were fancy. But since I was on the clock, and my journalism skills are shaky enough even under the most ideal states of sobriety, I limited myself to a single gin and tonic.

CNET editor Brian Cooley moderated a panel discussion with comedian and Nerdist founder Chris Hardwick, Back to the Future II concept artist Edward Eyth and Toyota engineer Jackie Birdsall about the Mirai and their hopes for future technology (amongst many other things). As Chris Hardwick said:

We are so addicted to innovation. But I think we need to be addicted to the right kind of innovation. Not just the innovation that’s good for our convenience and egos, but that’s good for the environment, and that’s good for what’s looking ahead at how we’re going to transform ourselves around the country and around the world when we run out of fuel that’s in the ground.

And somewhere in there they also projected a special message from Michael J. Fox (which I don’t have) as well as an introduction to the Mirai’s hydrogen fuel cell technology (which I do):

After the presentation, the doors to Quixote Studios opened, and the party started in earnest.

Or, in more practical terms, the music became louder and the waiters circulated more trays of food.

A DJ ran through a set of 80s hits, that sadly only included “The Power of Love” once.

There was yet another open bar inside the studio. But this one didn’t just have cocktails. It also had Top Chef All-Stars winner Richard Blais making a liquid nitrogen Mai Tai. And Chef Blais not only tolerated my “Chris Farley Show“-esque shaky ramblings about how dominant he was in my Top Chef fantasy league, but he also spoke about the futuristic cooking technology in Back to the Future II.

[A pizza hydrator] sounds amazing! That would definitely be something we would use in my kitchen. I’m making liquid nitrogen cocktails; as long as science and technology make things better, then we’re all about it.

And though I am terrible at mingling, I struck up a conversation with Edward Eyth about his work on Back to the Future II, as well as his predictions for 2015 in the film versus the reality that we have today.

I’d have to say what actually ended up happening [was more impressive]. Just the fact that I’m holding this smart phone in my hand and the capabilities it has. And the things we couldn’t foresee like the internet and everything else is more mind-boggling than anything we could ever conceive. I’m much more impressed with the existing technology. I’d rather have my smart phone than anything in the film.

And I also met YouTube star Swoozie, who was wearing Nike Air Mags (Marty McFly’s shoes from Back to the Future II) that cost more than my car. And it isn’t that bad of a car.

But Swoozie wasn’t my only celebrity encounter of the night. Because while our photographer was setting up a shot of Chris Hardwick…

I had a momentary lapse of professional composure and I went in for the classic celebrity/sweaty non-celebrity pose. And, in what I hope was a friendly gesture, Chris Hardwick tugged on my beard.

It wasn’t as glamorous as almost getting hit by William H. Macy’s car, but it was a close second.

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