As fun as it is to collect autographs by mail, there is nothing like meeting your favorite celebrities in person.
Yesterday, June 7th, I had the opportunity to attend Terror-con at the Rhode Island Convention Center.
http://www.terrorcon.net/
The best part about a convention like this is that you can meet as few or as many of the celebrities there, chat with them, get photos, autographs, as well as visit vendors who are selling there wares and offer many unique items and collectibles.
When I attend these events I'm like a kid in a candy store. It's just so much fun to chat with some of my favorite celebs and I always leave with a story and unexpected surprise.
Now I've never been to one of these conventions outside of Rhode Island (where I live) so I can't vouch for other sites such as NYC or San Diego which I hear is really out of this world and I can imagine the amounts of people that attend. I really love our con's here in little RI; you would think that it would be long lines and almost impossible to get to the Celebs but it's not. It's very well organized. Most of them you can walk right up to, there were a few that had actual lines you had to wait in but it moved very quickly and it wasn't the chaos one would think.
Friday night, my cousin brought over a box of Music Trading Cards from the 80's we had a blast going through them and I was delighted to find cards from Twisted Sister, Ratt and Lita Ford as they were all going to be at Terror-Con. What a perfect way to get these signed.
We started the day by checking out all of the merchandise and people watching. Now, I'm not a horror movie fan so having the likes of Freddy Kruger walking around freaked me out. Nothing freaked me out more than this one guy walking around in a weird dead clown outfit, every time I turned around there he was. It was all in good fun, I just tried to walk on the opposite side of them.
After browsing all the merchandise, (and I have to say there was this one guy there who sold these key chains that were replica's of the old hotel style key chains, you know the ones from back in the day before swipe cards, they each had a different hotel printed on them such as Bates Motel and The Shining - I thought it would be a very clever use of them for party invites) We finally hit celebrity row.
First was Stephen Pearcy, lead singer of the band RATT. Stephen was pretty cool, we chatted about some of the newer Rock Bands and turns out he likes one of my favorites, Shinedown. I had Stephen sign my trading cards but I do have to say he has a very scribble like signature.
I did not have far to go to meet Rock Legend Dee Snider from Twisted Sister. Dee has appeared on Celebrity Apprentice and currently hosts radio show House of Hair. If Stephen Pearcy was pretty cool then Dee Snider was Ultra Cool (and tall). He wore about 6 rings on his fingers and had told us that Stephen Pearcy had just given him one today (from one rocker to another). Pretty cool. As I walked up to him, I got a Hey there babe! He signed my trading card, a photo and we took a photo together. Really nice guy.
When he signed the trading card he said he would sign it small in case I met the other band members.
Next was Lita Ford. Lita was part of the all girls rock group the Runaways (with Joan Jett), went solo and you actually may remember her duet with Ozzie Osbourne, When you close your eyes. Sad to say Lita was sitting at her table all by her self, there were 3 guys who were some kind of body guard hanging around talking, one was talking to Lita, I waited patiently, Lita finally had to tell him I was waiting to see her. I thought there would be a bigger line to meet her but nope, it was just me. She was the only one there who had a sign up on her booth that said "No unauthorized photos". Meaning, you couldn't even snap a photo from afar, no crowd shot or anything. We chatted a little bit, I asked her about who her favorite touring partners were and she did said that Def Leppard was one of her favorite, she said they were really great guys to tour with, she also signed my trading card.
Cherie Currie, also from the Runaways was at Terror-Con but not at her table when I was there.
Richie Scarlet, Guitarist, who has played with Ace Frehly (Kiss), Sebastian Bach, and Alice Cooper was there. I passed him as he was walking in and could tell immediately that he was stoned out of his mind. I passed on meeting him. I have no tolerance for that. Really...you come to a convention where there are people of all ages and you can't get through the day without a little help. No thanks. moving on.
Erin Murphy, you know her as Tabitha from Bewitched was an absolute doll! Very pretty lady with personality to match. We spoke about how things were for her being a child actor and how things are different today. Her thoughts on the matter is the only difference is that now we have social media so everything is out there.
Of course when you attend these events there are always the people who will get my award for being Jerky and the people who will win the surprise personality award.
The Jerk of the day award goes to Pat Priest, best known for playing Marilyn Munster. When planning my visit to Terror-con, I looked over the list and made note of the people I most wanted to meet. Pat was on this list because I have fond memories of watching the Munsters as a little girl. Pat was less than enthusiastic to be there. I tried to start a conversation with her and from a distance I hear someone ask her if she enjoyed her lobster dinner last night. As she turned to have a discussion with this other person, clearly one whom she knows, my cousin caught the rest of the conversation, "I guess I went too late because all I got was a tail and not a whole lobster". Allegedly a little miffed. Well, perhaps if she got the whole lobster she would have been a little happier to meet fans. If you are going to attend one of these events be happy about it, if you can't enjoy the fact that at 77 years old there are still people willing to meet you, don't come. Stay home.
The surprise of the day award goes to.........John Altamura...... John was at the show to promote Toxic Avengers III, ok, so not my kind of movie, but he had this familiar face. Me, never for a loss of words and not known to be shy (though I can be a little bit on certain occasions) walked right up to him and said "where do I know you from"....he went through his list of movies and ding ding the words....Chuck Norris.....Yes, that was it, as a big Chuck Norris fan (little known fact about me) that had to be where it was. We talked for awhile and what a wonderful, nice guy. Very friendly, very charismatic. Ok and very good looking. We even played the game that I made up with my son....Who would win Chuck Norris or........ John said back in the day Chuck Norris, but today he could take him.
That concludes my day at Terror con. Looking forward to Comic Con in November.
