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My First Horror Convention...Monster Bash 2011
Its Saturday the 25th of June and I just had a blast at Monster Bash 2011. I had never been to a Horror Convention before (and never thought I would be),but I decided that its time I get to at least one in my life. If anyone here lives in Western PA, then you may have heard of this. Its a clasc horror convention that takes place in Butler (just outde Pittsburgh) at the Days Inn Conference Center. I happened across this event while reading the paper a few months ago and thought it might be worth checking out. After I did some more checking I found a few anchors that would be there and that just sealed the deal.
I entered the convention at 11:00a.m. this morning a tad nervous. I had never been to one of these and didn't know what to expect. The moment I hit the door I was shocked by how many people were in attendance. The entrance was packed wall to wall. I had no idea where to begin, I knew who I came to see but I didn't want to rush them like a crazed fanboy. So I decide to hit a few dealer tables first. After some riffling I found a Son of Frankenstein post and a decent Halloween T shirt. There was tons more to buy,but now I wanted to make my way to the VIP tables.
The first VIP table I hit was Dawn Wells. If you don't know she was Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island and was also in The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The line wasn't to long and I made my way up. After a little chit chat I got an auto and a pic with her. She had to be one of the nicest people I ever met. She could just talk and talk,very friendly.
My next stop was that of east coast TV legend Chilly Billy Cardille. He hosted Chiller Theater back in the 60's and 70's and clips can be found on youtube. Also he was the TV news reporter in Night of the Living Dead. He instantly started talking to us when we hit his table. He had a stack of NOTLD posters next to him and we asked to have 3 with just his gnature and one personalized. Well he did more than that. He gned all the posters and gave us 3 FREE mini posters all personalized. After that we got a picture together and talked for about 20 minutes. Another really great person,who was nothing but nice.
The third person I wanted an auto from was actually a surprise. As I was in line for Chilly Billy I looked to my left and seen the name John Russo. I thought isn't that the guy who wrote NOTLD. So I looked at my poster and damn sure it was! I just moseyed on over,said hello and asked if he would gn my poster of NOTLD. he was more than happy to do so and we talked for a few minutes. Another cool guy and man what a surprise that he was there.
My final auto that I wanted was one that has been on the list for 15 years. Its actually pretty sad, because I live very and I mean VERY close to this man,and also ran into him 3 times over the past 10 years. This is the Man,The Myth,The Legend, Tom Savini. I just admire his work so much that when I had the chance to meet him I always clammed up. But not this time, I wasn't leavin till I actually talked to him. My 1st attempt he was eating so I just spun of to another table. After 10 minutes I figured he was done and made my second approach. I walked up said "Hi, I like to do FX too. just small budget stuff,and can I have this pic here gned". He said yep, looked at my son and said "gotta start 'em young", then gned the pic. No small talk, just straight to the point. I was glad, cause I had no dere to make an ass of myself. But I was happy I finally got his auto and said a few words to him.
Well, that about sums up my Monster Bash experience. I am very happy I got my ass out to one of these and extremely happy that none of these people were dicks to me. I had such a great time I'm actually looking for another one to hit sometime soon. Hope you enjoy my breakdown of my experience at Monster Bash and here's a few pics of my autos and stuff I bought.
I entered the convention at 11:00a.m. this morning a tad nervous. I had never been to one of these and didn't know what to expect. The moment I hit the door I was shocked by how many people were in attendance. The entrance was packed wall to wall. I had no idea where to begin, I knew who I came to see but I didn't want to rush them like a crazed fanboy. So I decide to hit a few dealer tables first. After some riffling I found a Son of Frankenstein post and a decent Halloween T shirt. There was tons more to buy,but now I wanted to make my way to the VIP tables.
The first VIP table I hit was Dawn Wells. If you don't know she was Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island and was also in The Town That Dreaded Sundown. The line wasn't to long and I made my way up. After a little chit chat I got an auto and a pic with her. She had to be one of the nicest people I ever met. She could just talk and talk,very friendly.
My next stop was that of east coast TV legend Chilly Billy Cardille. He hosted Chiller Theater back in the 60's and 70's and clips can be found on youtube. Also he was the TV news reporter in Night of the Living Dead. He instantly started talking to us when we hit his table. He had a stack of NOTLD posters next to him and we asked to have 3 with just his gnature and one personalized. Well he did more than that. He gned all the posters and gave us 3 FREE mini posters all personalized. After that we got a picture together and talked for about 20 minutes. Another really great person,who was nothing but nice.
The third person I wanted an auto from was actually a surprise. As I was in line for Chilly Billy I looked to my left and seen the name John Russo. I thought isn't that the guy who wrote NOTLD. So I looked at my poster and damn sure it was! I just moseyed on over,said hello and asked if he would gn my poster of NOTLD. he was more than happy to do so and we talked for a few minutes. Another cool guy and man what a surprise that he was there.
My final auto that I wanted was one that has been on the list for 15 years. Its actually pretty sad, because I live very and I mean VERY close to this man,and also ran into him 3 times over the past 10 years. This is the Man,The Myth,The Legend, Tom Savini. I just admire his work so much that when I had the chance to meet him I always clammed up. But not this time, I wasn't leavin till I actually talked to him. My 1st attempt he was eating so I just spun of to another table. After 10 minutes I figured he was done and made my second approach. I walked up said "Hi, I like to do FX too. just small budget stuff,and can I have this pic here gned". He said yep, looked at my son and said "gotta start 'em young", then gned the pic. No small talk, just straight to the point. I was glad, cause I had no dere to make an ass of myself. But I was happy I finally got his auto and said a few words to him.
Well, that about sums up my Monster Bash experience. I am very happy I got my ass out to one of these and extremely happy that none of these people were dicks to me. I had such a great time I'm actually looking for another one to hit sometime soon. Hope you enjoy my breakdown of my experience at Monster Bash and here's a few pics of my autos and stuff I bought.
Stilesp1985
Sunday 6/26/2011 at 01:38 AM | 77742
