Oz Comic-Con

iZOMBIE: 37 times Rahul Kohli & Robert Buckley cracked us up at Oz Comic-Con Melbourne (and the one time we ‘Aww’ed)

By Ange | July 8, 2017

There was no shortage of laughter sitting through the iZombie panels and listening to stars Rahul Kohli (who plays Ravi), Robert Buckley (aka Major) and Aly Michalka (who plays Peyton) at Oz Comic-Con Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia last weekend. If you follow the cast on social media, you’ll already know that Kohli and Buckley have a strong bromance and are always riling each other up much to our entertainment. Seeing them live on stage, this cheeky duo did not disappoint and were definitely the highlight for this Nice Girl during the weekend. Here are some hilarious moments from the cheeky duo during the two panels last weekend (because let’s face it, they made us laugh more than 37 times – they were just so quick witted that these 37 were all we had time to make note of)…

iZombie stars Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley & Aly Michalka

1. One of the first questions off the rank was whose brains they would like to eat; Kohli nominated his girlfriend… so that he would know what it feels like to kiss himself. As the crowd broke out into laughter, Buckley then rationally quipped “or we could just ask Aly”, who was sitting beside the guys on stage and really made the answer that much funnier. Buckley on the other hand would eat his mom’s brains because he always wanted to be good at crossword puzzles, but also wants to know if he really is the favorite child.

2. Don’t ask the guys if we’ll ever see an iZombie musical – there may been some musically gifted members in the cast but Buckley and Kohli don’t think they’re one of them and jokingly walked off stage when asked this dreaded question. They returned only to reply with a “Hell no” from Buckley and a firm “NO!” from Kohli.

3. “You would have been Taylor Lautner out of Twilight, busting out of your shirt and that would have been weird.” – Buckley to Kohli after the guys were asked whether they had read the iZombie comics before joining the show and how the show deviated from the comic material.

4. To make way for Michalka in the show’s opening credits, Kohli is convinced that his title card was cut by a second to fit her in but none of his other cast members had their title cards trimmed. “You got to kiss her. You should have been cut,” retorted Buckley.

5. The brain tubes taste like go-gurt revealed Buckley before declaring, “I’m 36. I’m never saying go-gurt out loud again. It’s so dumb.”

6. “He’s so handsome that no one thinks he’s funny.” – Kohli on Buckley. To which Buckley replied, “I feel like if people saw how ugly I was on the inside…”

7. Over the seasons, the show has had a lot of guest stars from creator Rob Thomas’ former show, Veronica Mars.”I think they need to get their own show!” declared Kohli. “I want to know what damning information they have on Rob Thomas,” added Buckley. (Buckley had obviously momentarily forgotten that he appeared on the Veronica Mars spin-off web series, Play It Again, Dick! – it’s okay, we’ll blame it on the jetlag.)

8. Think the bromance between Kohli and Buckley’s characters is a little too real? You’re right. “Quit stealing from our real lives!” yelled Buckley. “They totally stole our gaming thing,” added Kohli. Remember the scene where Ravi and Major were playing Diablo? That was a game that Kohli and Buckley were playing together in real life at the time of shooting.

9. When Michalka said that the Dungeons and Dragons episode was the most fun episode to shoot and that none of them had ever played the game before, Buckley retorted, “Speak for yourself. I have played,” earning a laugh from the crowd for his sass.

10. No doubt that Major on teenage girl brain was one of the best things EVER to come out of the show, it also set the scene for one of Buckley’s favorite pranks – in the scene where Major shows Clive the selfies he took on his phone, Buckley thought it’d be fun to mess with Malcolm Goodwin, who is just as serious as his character, and amongst the selfies of himself, Buckley took a close of his thumb, which at a certain angle looks like something else if you know what I mean. Needless to say, it broke Goodwin (and the crowd at the panel once they heard the story).

11. Buckley to Kohli: “Did you hear bondage moments?”, when the trio were asked about cast BONDING moments.

12. The guys hated the dog that played minor and were not afraid to mince words. Kohli was quick to jump in, “He was awful. He stank… Stupid dog.” “I hated him. I’m so glad that you left him on a bus,” he told Buckley. “Let’s just sh*t talk this dog for 30 minutes,” joked Buckley.

13. When asked what brains would they love to see Liv eat next season, Michalka helpfully suggested a WWE wrestler, unlike Buckley who jumped in with “A mute so that she shuts her damn mouth!… I’m so getting fired.” (He was kidding by the way.)

14. If you didn’t know, Michalka is a talented musician and has been in a band with her sister AJ for years and will be releasing new music soon. Despite being anti-musical, the boys were quick to offer their services to work with the sisters – Kohli offered to rap and Buckley nominated himself as a back up dancer. “We’re anti-musical not anti-Aly and AJ,” said Kohli,

15. Buckley likened the vision face to the moment where you’ve realised that you have farted in public.

16. “You’re not going to see Momoa up here talking about shitting his pants.” – Kohli

17. We’re not sure if Buckley could ever top teenage girl brain and although there was the suggestion that maybe next season we could see Major eat a goth teenager or emo kid brain, he would be down for doing teenage girl brain again. “I do shirtless, I do power pouting and I do teenage girl. I have three speeds,” revealed Buckley about his repertoire. He also dished later in the panel, “I naturally behave like a teenage girl… I just behave how I normally do when I’m not at work.”

18. “I’d love Peyton to have some taste in men… because she obviously has some serious daddy issues.”

19. If you’ve been living under a rock Kohli (okay and Buckley) is a massive gamer and has appeared on Funhaus’ channel and when asked if he would like to do more work with them, Buckley got a bit territorial. “I swear to god if you leave us, I will burn Funhaus to the ground,” he threatened.

iZombie stars Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley & Aly Michalka

20. On the second day of the convention, Buckley met Jason Momoa right before the panel and couldn’t resist rubbing it in Kohli’s face. “Guys, I just met Jason Momoa. The hype is real,” he gushed.

21. Questions from the audience were on their A game on the second day of the convention. One of the standout questions was linked to Veronica Mars where the cast was asked if the teen detective was investigating them for an indiscretion, what would she be investigating? “Mine would be social media related… someone spamming the school with lewd pictures,” said Kohli. Michalka said hers would be social media stalking while Buckley got a bit side-tracked – “When you [Kohli] said yours, I was thinking sex video… what would mine be? Good old fashioned shoplifting, going back to my roots.”

22. With the show being set in Seattle but filming in Vancouver, the cast was asked if they did any research on Seattle. Kohli said it gave him an excuse to play a lot of InFAMOUS and call it research, to which Buckley quipped “They don’t have Google in London apparently.”

23. The thought of potentially being a zombie next season is quite daunting for Kohli and he believes that Rose McIver makes it looks so easy. He’s not too keen on the look either: “I absolutely don’t want white hair and a beard because I’d look like Colonel Sanders.”

24. “You’re like James Cameron. Every 10 years, you’re like ‘I’m still alive’,” – Buckley remarking on Michalka and her sister’s musical comeback after a 10 year hiatus.

25. Kohli revealed that he uses David Anders’ trailer when he has an upset stomach. “It isn’t an iZombie panel unless Rahul Kohli talks about pooping; whether if it’s in his pants or in David Anders’ trailer,” remarked Buckley.

26. Keep Domino’s Pizza away from Buckley if he has a shirtless scene coming up – it’s his “kryptonite”. “I can’t say no thin crust,” he revealed. Probably not a thing to reveal in front of Kohli, who on an occasion or two has been tempted to send food to Buckley’s trailer when he knows he has shirtless scenes coming up because Buckley loves to eat.

27. Kohli might want to go ahead with the above plan though because Buckley revealed that for the last three years he had been stealing the name off the back of Kohli’s chair because “I knew you’d be pissed”. Going off Kohli’s astounded reaction, it seems like he never suspected that Buckley was involved. Buckley apparently has quite the collection of these chair backs. “I stole Wilmer Valderama’s and was thinking of putting it on your chair,” he told Kohli.

28. When asked what haunts him more from his One Tree Hill days, crazy nannies or stalkers that look like his dead wife, Buckley said neither and it was more his bad dancing that haunts him.

29. Buckley also revealed that on his first day on One Tree Hill he broke creator and executive producer Mark Schwahn’s car – his character drove expensive cars on the show and at the time Buckley “wasn’t the best driver” and they actually used cars from Schwahn’s own personal collection. Anyway, Buckley managed to break the glove box of the red car on his first day. LOL

30. After Michalka said that she was Team Ravi in regards to who she ships for her character but then also acknowledged that there are quite a few Blaine fans out there, Buckley injected “Yay, we love child murderers! It’s so sexy,” and lamented that child killers have a better chance with Peyton that Major does.

31. When the trio were asked what’s something that they’d like to be asked that they haven’t, Kohli said that he doesn’t get asked about how he prepared for the role of playing a medical examiner but it’s quite interesting because he and Rose McIver actually went to a real morgue before shooting the pilot. “Is it hard knowing that no one gives a shit about how you do your job?” tormented Buckley.

32. Useless talents? “Acting!” declared Buckley. Michalka can talk with her mouth closed and fold her thumb, while Kohli can wrap his leg behind his head and demonstrated.

33. An audience member asked that with Ravi potentially being a zombie next season, what advice would Buckley give to Kohli to help him play one. “I don’t want your acting advice, mate,” said Kohli. The “experienced thespian” dished some out regardless, the brains aren’t as bad as season one, “the brains in the tube just taste like strawberry yoghurt; it’s great.”

34. “Guys, I just figured out my useless talent – it’s pretending not to fart on the AbMat!” – Buckley

35. Kohli revealed that his first fan gift was an international mail package and inside it was what looked to be a penis made out of clay…

36. Kohli said that his uses his own personal experience when playing Ravi and when he was 14 or 15, he was in love with a girl and listened to *NSYNC lyrics that would make him cry and his how his love for boy bands like Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC emerged. Kohli thinks Ravi does that with Peyton. (Kohli didn’t reveal during the panel which song it was, but this fan had to know and later asked him what that *NSYNC song was and he told me it was “I’ll Never Stop“)

37. When asked if they were stuck on an island who would they eat first, Buckley doesn’t think that it would be him. “One of you guys because I’m always eating,” he said before telling Kohli that he “eats like a bird”. “I’m the most manipulative of the cast and in everyone’s ear,” refuted Kohli.

And the one time we awwed: “I love the relationships [on the show] and don’t want to see anything change.” – Kohli. Aww!

EDIT: Thanks to Rahul Kohli for his seal of approval on this article!