I recently attended the New Jersey Horror Con and Festival in Atlantic City, NJ.  It was a great mix of vendors, cosplayers, panels, and of course, celebrity guests.

I personally had a great experience with every guest that I met, whether it was me conducting an interview as "The Horror Nerd" or me simply meeting them as a fan, and getting an autograph or photo op.  They were all very nice, and spent a good amount of time interacting with me, chatting about their work, and some of them asking me about myself and my family.  There were none where I said to myself, "Well, that person wasn't very nice."

However, I did hear from a few people that some of the guests that they met were not nice to them.  I will not mention the specific guests because that's not the point of this post.  In my nearly 20 years of going to cons, I have only had a handful of what I would call "negative" experiences with conventions guests.  Of course, I have heard many stories about guests being rude or unfriendly or some other complaint about a celebrity.

Now, obviously, I have no way of knowing exactly what happened in each of those encounters because I was not there.  What I will say though is that over the years, I have seen far more bad fan behavior than bad celebrity guest behavior.  Fans can be rude and demanding and sometimes ask very inappropriate questions.  But, fortunately, they are in the minority.

I think that in most cases where a fan feels they had a negative experience with the guest it's because they have a somewhat unrealistic expectation of what the encounter is going to be like.  Trust me, I am a fan like anyone else, and I love meeting my favorite stars, but I think some people build up the meeting so much in their heads that when they finally meet the person, if they don't feel that the guest is EXACTLY how they pictured them, they become disappointed.  They don't seem to understand that they are only going to have a couple of minutes with the guest, and they are not going to have time to have lengthy discussions with them.  

Also, not everyone has an outgoing, gregarious personality, and movie/TV/music stars are no exception.  Someone could be the nicest person in the world, but simply not be extremely talkative.  Like anyone else, some celebrities are just a little quiet and reserved by nature, and sometimes fans perceive this as being rude.

We also need to remember that these celebrity guests are just people.  They happen to be in a profession where people want to meet them and take pics and get autographs, but they are still just human.  Sometimes, they've had a bad day, or got some bad news or had a bad encounter with another fan.  Anything could have happened to affect their mood.

Having said that, I do also feel strongly that, as someone who lives in the public eye, the celebrity guests need to try to manage that, and try not to let it affect their fan interactions.  I know it sucks and it's an unreasonable expectation, BUT, they are there to meet and greet fans and they are making money while doing it, so I do sincerely believe that they need to "put on a happy face" when meeting their fans.

To wrap things up, I don't want to come across like I am picking on fans.  I'm not.  I've just been going to cons for a very long time and I have observed a lot, and in my personal experience, when someone tells me that a celebrity guest was "a jerk", I always try to filter that, and usually it turns out that the guest wasn't really mean or nasty, it's just that the meeting didn't fulfill the person's expectations, which is not fair.

That's not to say that there are not some celebrity convention guests who have a reputation for being shitty.  There definitely are!  To be honest, I don't know why some of them keep getting invited to cons.  I guess the demand is still high enough despite their reputations.

In closing, my advice is, if you want to meet a celebrity at a convention, go for it, no matter what you may have heard about them.  You are more likely to have a positive experience than not.  Just keep in mind that the person on the other side of the table is human, just like to.  Be cool and respectful towards them, and you'll find that they will treat you the same way in return.

The weekend of September 21-23 I had the pleasure of once again attending NJ Horror Con and Film Festival, a New Jersey based event organized by filmmaker/promoter Ryan Scott Weber ("Mary Horror Trilogy", "Pretty Fine Things") and Robert Bruce ("Comic Book Men").

This was the fourth NJ Horror Con (the first was held in Spring of 2017), and the first to be held at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ.  I must admit, there was some concern about moving the convention from Woodbridge, NJ down to Atlantic City.  Was it "too far" from Northern, NJ?  Would people be willing to make the trip?  Well, from what I could see, the concerns were unfounded.  The convention was busy, and I saw a lot of familiar faces.  Remember folks, horror fans WILL travel for a good show!!

Let's start with the venue.  For those that don't know, the Showboat is no longer a casino.  It is now a hotel/convention center.  It's kind of strange seeing a horror convention in a casino-like atmosphere, with all of the garish colors and flashing lights, but it works!  What I really liked about it was the wide aisles and wide-open spaces.  Even when the convention was busiest on Saturday afternoon, I never felt that "crush" of people.  It was easy to browse the many vendor tables without being shoved, and everything was accessible.  There were also large, open spaces which were great for photo ops.  It was easy to stop and take photos of people in costume or just selfies with friends without being "in the way."

Quick side note.  I try to stay away from mentioning anything negative, but I do need to be thorough and fair.  There were some issues with the hotel, mostly with check-in and with the bars and restaurants seeming to be unable to handle the number of people who were staying in the hotel for the convention.  However, these issues in NO WAY reflect on NJ Horror Con itself.  In fact, the convention staff were very quick to help with any issues that arose.  Hopefully, the Showboat will correct these issues for the next event.

Now, on to the convention itself!

It's very clear that Ryan, Robert and their staff are getting better with every show.  This time around, I also had a vendor table, and I can say that check-in and load-in were very easy.  A staff member showed me where my table was and there were no issues.

I loved the "convention center" style layout, and in that respect, moving to the Showboat was a great idea.  The layout was spacious, and the vendors were mixed in together with the celebrity guests, although the celebrities were seated together in groups.  This was FAR better than being in a small hotel, where hallways are narrow and you have to search for specific guests by navigating different rooms.  Guest lines were managed well, and I never really saw any of the "choke" points that tend to plague conventions that take place in hotel environments.

There was a great mix of vendors offering all sorts of merchandise.  There were many familiar vendors who are mainstays on the convention scene, but because of the larger available space, there were many new faces as well, which was awesome.

The lineup of celebrity guests was fantastic and varied.  Headliners Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) and Dee Snider (Twister Sister) were, of course, extremely popular and they did not disappoint.  One of the highlights of the convention was that they had a re-creation of the set from Elvira's TV show, where Cassandra was posing with fans for pro photo ops.  That was a very cool addition to the show and was a great idea.  Another amazing opportunity was the chance to take a photo with K.I.T.T., the car from "Knight Rider", along with William Daniels, who was the voice of K.I.T.T.  I must admit, this fan had a true fanboy moment!

There were some other very cool guests as well.  The man, the myth, the legend...."The Hedgehog" Ron Jeremy spent the weekend signing autographs and taking pics with happy fans, and Mr. Belding himself ("Saved by the Bell"), Dennis Haskins, was signing and taking pics at yet another set re-creation from the NJ Horror Con staff....Mr. Belding's desk!  Not only that, but Dennis also hosted a Saturday night karaoke party where he belted out a few tunes.  It made for a truly memorable night!

Some other notable guests were Kerri Cahill and Seth Gilliam ("The Walking Dead"), Ted Raimi and Dana DeLorenzo ("Ash vs. Evil Dead"), Lita Ford and horror legend Linda Blair.  

One guest I want to make special mention of is Violet Ramis Stiel, daughter of Harold Ramis.  I had a chance to interview her, and listening to her talk about her dad actually made me emotional.  I don't get star struck very often, but Violet is a very special person.  If you ever have a chance to meet her, don't pass it up.

Overall, the celebrity lineup was varied and well thought out.  NJ Horror Con has done a great job over the years with their guest lineup and this year was no exception.

One last note about the celebrity guests.....It seems that at this show, the guests spend a lot more time walking the convention and hanging out after show hours which makes for a great convention experience.  It's one thing to stand in line to get an autograph or selfie, and have a few seconds to say hello, and quite another to have a bite to eat or a drink with a guest and interact with them as a person as opposed to a convention guest (if that makes any sense!)

One aspect of NJ Horror Con that I do NOT want to neglect is the film festival aspect.  I think it's awesome that the convention is paired with a film festival, as it not only gives local filmmakers a chance to showcase their work, but it also adds valuable programming to the event.  Unfortunately, due to my double-duty as press AND vendor, I did not have a chance to catch too many screenings, but from what I heard, there were a lot of great films that were shown.  Festival Director Tony Goggles always does a great job programming the festival.

The Saturday night awards, hosted by Tiffany Shepis and Ming Chen were a blast and were very entertaining.   Congratulations to all of the filmmakers who were nominated and who won awards.  Artist Chris Waters did another awesome job in creating this year's trophies.  He is a fantastic artist.

Chris Stiles once again hosted the many Q&A sessions and panels throughout the weekend.  Yet another aspect of the programming offered at this event.  I managed to catch an "Horror Artist" panel and a Q&A session with Cassandra Peterson, both of which were fantastic.

One additional thing I would like to mention is that, unfortunately, there were a few issues with some of the pro photo ops.  I personally had an issue. However, I am happy to say that these issues were handled professionally by the NJ Horror Con staff and were resolved.  My issue was handling quickly and without question or debate.  Why do I bring this up?  Because....every event has issues, and human beings will make mistakes.  It's how the mistakes are handled that matters, at least to me anyway and in my case, the staff did a great job.

In closing, I will just say that I had a blast at this event.  The convention and festival scene is getting very crowded, and fans have a lot of choices as to where to go and where to spend their money.  I think that if there are fans out there who have not attended NJ Horror Con and Film Festival, they are missing out.  The next one is coming March 29th, 30th and 31st of 2019 and The Horror Nerd says.....BE THERE!!

For all of my photos from the event, click the link at the bottom of this page.

For additional information, be sure to visit the NJ Horror Con website at www.newjerseyhorrorcon.com or their Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/njhorrorcon/