By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
I have been going to different pop culture conventions for over a decade, and I have never been disappointed. This is honestly surprising to me because I never even went to many concerts growing up. Maybe the appeal is because you can see celebrities from your favorite movies and television shows, or maybe it’s because there are so many vendors selling both the new and latest things while also offering ‘throwbacks’ to a different time in your life. Or maybe it’s the people who, just like you, are trying to have a good time.
Then again, maybe it’s all of those things. And more. Yeah, that’s it. There are too many moving parts to those things to pick out any one aspect as the defining ‘what I like’ about pop culture conventions after all. And I have been incredibly fortunate to have seen, at least to a degree, most of those parts.
When I first started going to these conventions it was simply so my daughter could get a picture with Matt Smith from the BBC Television series Doctor Who. But from the beginning I enjoyed the ambience of it all, or the ‘vibe’ so to speak. It was a complete and pleasant shock to me, for instance, to see thousands of people shoved into a limited space with everyone wanting something and no one being rude.
I actually had a Dalek (one of the metallic shelled bad guys from Doctor Who) roll up behind me and in a robotic voice apologize for bumping into me. If you’ve ever seen the show, you can appreciate the irony – Daleks are short on manners and long on ‘exterminating.’ Of course, this particular Dalek had been constructed by a very creative and talented fan of the show because he really wanted to take part in all of the wonderful chaos these things generate. And he wasn’t the only one.
Conventions are definitely a place where people can go ‘all in.’ And it doesn’t matter what type of convention it is. People dress up as movie and television characters, dress their kids up, and even family pets. I once saw a family of ‘Deadpools’ (from Marvel Comics and the movies) with momma and papa Deadpool pushing a baby Deadpool in a stroller, all with a chihuahua Deadpool in tow. And from all indications – including people stopping them to take pictures – everyone was having a good time. Which is what it’s all about after all.
Like I said, I have been doing this for a long time from all different angles. I have been an attendee, just buying my ticket like everyone else and enjoying it from the floor. I have been media, interviewing celebrities and attendees alike. I even went to a couple and set up a booth as a vendor. And there have been several times that I have spoken in the seminars conventions are known for. But this year I truly went behind the scenes, in the belly of the beast, so to speak.
This year I volunteered at ScareFest in Lexington.
The ScareFest Weekend is one of the largest Horror Conventions in the United States. It celebrates everything in the horror genre of entertainment from movies and television to video games and other media. They do a great job bringing in celebrities and celebrity reunions, where they will bring in most if not all of the main cast of those shows and offer Q&A panels and photo ops, so fans get to meet their favorite celebrities. They also bring in popular paranormal celebrities from television and other media.
And I got to be a (mostly invisible) part of all that.
It was exhausting, exasperating, and incredibly fun. There was a lot of checking the big screen televisions set up all over Central Bank Center that ran a looped feed of panel and photo times to make sure they were working. The escalator became my constant companion as I went up and down the different levels to check other audio and video equipment. And I never would have thought in a million years when I first saw the movies that I would be escorting the monsters from the Hellraiser movie franchise up and down that same escalator. Ironically, we passed someone dressed as Pin Head going up the escalator as we were going down. Really, you can’t make this up.
It was a lot of work, because it takes a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that attendees never see how much work it takes, so they can just focus on having a great time. But it was also a lot of fun because seeing how the trick is done doesn’t really spoil the trick. Honestly, it just makes the trick more impressive if for no other reason than you see just how much can go wrong and doesn’t. Or gets fixed before most people even notice. I definitely recommend the experience.
But you know, I guess I am as big a fan as anyone else. This year when my wife and I found out that David Naughton (the lead from American Werewolf in London) was going to be at ScareFest, I thought it would be a great idea to dress up as a werewolf and give him a Dr. Pepper. In case you don’t remember or didn’t know, Naughton was also the guy singing ‘I’m a Pepper’ in one of the first Dr. Pepper commercials. (Don’t ask why I already owned a werewolf costume.)
Well, it worked out great. Naughton was a good sport about it and even took pictures with me. I got his autograph, and we talked a lot about werewolves and soft drinks. I also got to discuss why the original Fright Night movie was terrifying with the director and some of the cast and got to hear the experiences of multiple people who have played Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Good times; and surprisingly not terrifying at all.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
