As the saying goes, "You should never meet your heroes", and there is a reason this sentiment exists.
As of this writing, I have been going to fan conventions for about 16 years, and I have met countless celebrity guests, including many that I consider "heroes". Most recently, I met Clive Barker at Texas Frightmare Weekend. Meeting Clive has been my "holy grail" of celebrity meet and greets for a long time and I have been waiting to meet him pretty much my entire life. I can honestly say, it was NOT a let down. Clive was warm, friendly and gracious despite the fatigue that comes along with poor health. He made sure that each fan felt welcome and appreciated.
I met many other guests at Texas Frightmare, and I had great experiences with all of them. Unfortunately, according to some social media posts, this was not the case with everyone.
One particular post caught my attention. I will not name any names, as calling people out is not the point of this article, but I just want to make a few statements about the culture of celebrity.
In this post, a woman mentioned that her daughter had a very negative experiences with one of the "bigger" names at the convention. She didn't get very specific, but only said that her daughter was extremely disappointed in the encounter, especially since she had spent $120 for the autographs and photo op.
Of course, right away, many people jumped on it in support of the daughter with statements like, "What a jerk!" or "That sucks, what an a***ole and other things like that. Must be nice to be able to make such comments without knowing the entire story but, oh well.
Interestingly though, the vast majority of people came out in support of the celebrity guest, mentioning what a great experience they had, and how nice the person was. By far, there were more comments like this than anything negative about the guest. I myself posted that I had a great experience, and that I was curious as to what exactly had happened with this woman's daughter. Still, she refused to say, and would only repeat that her daughter was "very upset".
I am still thinking about this five days later as I write this, and I cannot help but wonder what happened between this person and the guest. I am very curious as to what she said, and as to what the guest said that made her so upset. Since I was not there, I can only speculate, but I think that in many cases, fans have a very unrealistic expectation as to what is going to happen when they meet their favorite celebrities. I think they believe it's going to be a lot more than what it turns out to me. As a veteran of these events, I know full well that, especially for a popular/big name guest, there are going to be a lot of people on line, and at most, you are only going to have about 30-60 seconds with the guest. Enough time to get something signed, exchange greetings, and snap a pic. They are not going to spend a long time listening to what you have to say because there are a lot of people waiting to meet them.
Also, we only get to see these people up on the screen, or on TV, or on stage or in whatever other medium they perform. We do not know what they are like in person. Many times they are quiet and shy, and people misinterpret that as being rude. Don't get me wrong. There are some convention guests that have no business meeting the public, but in my experience, those are very rare. For the most part, all the people I have met have been nice.
So....where am I going with this? As I said, I am still intensely curious as to what transpired between this fan and this guest, but I will probably never know. My guess is that there's some middle ground, but all I can say to everyone out there who is thinking of going to a convention to meet their favorite stars is, be careful and be reasonable. They are also just people, and if you just treat them with a little respect, you will almost always have a great experience.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
-The Horror Nerd
As of this writing, I have been going to fan conventions for about 16 years, and I have met countless celebrity guests, including many that I consider "heroes". Most recently, I met Clive Barker at Texas Frightmare Weekend. Meeting Clive has been my "holy grail" of celebrity meet and greets for a long time and I have been waiting to meet him pretty much my entire life. I can honestly say, it was NOT a let down. Clive was warm, friendly and gracious despite the fatigue that comes along with poor health. He made sure that each fan felt welcome and appreciated.
I met many other guests at Texas Frightmare, and I had great experiences with all of them. Unfortunately, according to some social media posts, this was not the case with everyone.
One particular post caught my attention. I will not name any names, as calling people out is not the point of this article, but I just want to make a few statements about the culture of celebrity.
In this post, a woman mentioned that her daughter had a very negative experiences with one of the "bigger" names at the convention. She didn't get very specific, but only said that her daughter was extremely disappointed in the encounter, especially since she had spent $120 for the autographs and photo op.
Of course, right away, many people jumped on it in support of the daughter with statements like, "What a jerk!" or "That sucks, what an a***ole and other things like that. Must be nice to be able to make such comments without knowing the entire story but, oh well.
Interestingly though, the vast majority of people came out in support of the celebrity guest, mentioning what a great experience they had, and how nice the person was. By far, there were more comments like this than anything negative about the guest. I myself posted that I had a great experience, and that I was curious as to what exactly had happened with this woman's daughter. Still, she refused to say, and would only repeat that her daughter was "very upset".
I am still thinking about this five days later as I write this, and I cannot help but wonder what happened between this person and the guest. I am very curious as to what she said, and as to what the guest said that made her so upset. Since I was not there, I can only speculate, but I think that in many cases, fans have a very unrealistic expectation as to what is going to happen when they meet their favorite celebrities. I think they believe it's going to be a lot more than what it turns out to me. As a veteran of these events, I know full well that, especially for a popular/big name guest, there are going to be a lot of people on line, and at most, you are only going to have about 30-60 seconds with the guest. Enough time to get something signed, exchange greetings, and snap a pic. They are not going to spend a long time listening to what you have to say because there are a lot of people waiting to meet them.
Also, we only get to see these people up on the screen, or on TV, or on stage or in whatever other medium they perform. We do not know what they are like in person. Many times they are quiet and shy, and people misinterpret that as being rude. Don't get me wrong. There are some convention guests that have no business meeting the public, but in my experience, those are very rare. For the most part, all the people I have met have been nice.
So....where am I going with this? As I said, I am still intensely curious as to what transpired between this fan and this guest, but I will probably never know. My guess is that there's some middle ground, but all I can say to everyone out there who is thinking of going to a convention to meet their favorite stars is, be careful and be reasonable. They are also just people, and if you just treat them with a little respect, you will almost always have a great experience.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
-The Horror Nerd
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