Ooh, Fest reports! I love to hear about everyone's experiences, as usually I'm missing half the fest doing god knows what- running to New York, chatting with friends, rehearsing skits... sigh. It's almost like a busy schedule and I never have time to actually go to the festival. LOL!!
Newark was the pits like everyone else has stated. It literally is just a gross area. What is to be said? It probably wouldn't be safe to take your dog for a walk in the park there. haha!
We drove all night from little ol' Tennessee, and didn't arrive to New Jersey until 6AM. We went to the pool instead of sleeping, because, well? Why not? And then we went eat at iHop even though our GPS gave us directions, we didn't turn in time but ended up facing an iHop anyway. Go figure.
We went back to the hotel to get some shut eye before the fest. We went down there at about four in the afternoon and got our booklets and fest tags or licence plates or jail tags- whatever you want to call them. Marie Wallace was speaking with John Karlen, so we somehow managed to get a seat near the front of the auditorium, second row on the left side. They played a Dark Shadows episode, and the speakers were WAY too loud to be sitting next to. Most of the front rows had their hands over their ears.
Marie Wallace came onstage and spoke for a bit. I was wondering where Johnnie was, and here he came waltzing down our side of the aisle. He stopped when he saw us, a grin splitting on his face as he kissed me, my sister and my mom's hands before going up onstage. OK, So you're probably like, "what is she talking about? She must have been more tired than we thought." no, that's not the case. The thing is, my first festival in 2006, somehow John Karlen took an enormous liking to us for reasons which are rather unknown (to me, anyway). Since then, he's been our buddy, every festival and in-between. So after their talk ended, in which even Johnnie remarked that if you were going to Newark, you might as well not have gotten off the plane, "cause you're not going anywhere." and he's absolutely correct.
So he came off the stage and I saw him shoo Marie Wallace and Jim Pierson who was trying to beckon him through the back stage door. "Just a minute." he said to Jim, "I'll be there in a minute." And he came back over to us to give us a hug. "I knew you'd be here!" He said. He then, apparently had to go, so he went through the stage door where Jim and Marie had disappeared.
My mom and me went to the restroom, and my sister came with news that Johnnie wanted us to go outside for a chat. So we went out there, and he was surrounded by many people who were talking to him and taking pictures. "There's my wife and two girls." He said to the crowd as we walked out. If this was surprising, the next phase was worse... The people had bought his word and were asking us a multitude of questions. "Oh! Where do you live?" A nice woman asked. "Tennessee." Johnnie answered promptly. Which there is a give-a-way of his great lie, as he lives in California. "What a beautiful family!" The woman gushed with admiration. How embarrassing! lol! It was funny though.
We then went for a walk with him around the parking lot. "Let's just keep walking and not come back." He said. He confessed that Jonathan wanted him to do a skit with him, "It doesn't even make sense! It was all his idea." he exclaimed.
Then he went on to tell us more details about his criminal past and his time in Korea, and the girl he was going to elope with. It was all very interesting. He had to go back inside for autographs, so we walked with him indoors.
....
We then met a guy named Dave, who was extremely friendly, enthusiastic and very nice. We practiced our skit with Bob, Angela, and Ryan, and Dave came to watch as we rehearsed giving out suggestions. It was getting late, so we returned up to the room and finally got some sleep!!
....
Day 2-
We went and practiced our skit with Suzanne in her room and we showed the Barnabas portrait my mom painted to her. She liked it a lot.
I met DJ that day, though regretfully didn't have time to talk to her too much. She exclaimed, "Wow, you're tall!" when she saw me. Hahaha! Well, I'm 5.7"... I'm average to the shortest tall you can get.
We sat down on the floor next to the stage because there was no chairs and floor space is better than standing.
It was evident when the cast reunion came on that Johnnie was in a horrible mood. He sat down in the furthest chair away from everyone, looking quite huffy, drinking a cup of coffee. I was thinking about the play we were doing later and how I had to get ready, and how hungry I was, when Johnnie threw a mint at me that landed perfectly in my lap. I was wondering if the sky was falling as I was kind of zoned out at that point when it fell. But then I realized that he had thrown it. He asked us, from behind his microphone, "What time is your show tonight?" as he had known that we were going to do the festival gala thing.
"7." Chelsy replied.
We didn't see him again until later that night as me and my mom left in the middle of the cast reunion panel because it was going over schedule as Jonathan Frid seemed to be on a roll that day, taking more fan questions-- he's lovable, but a little gabby. LOL! But the reason we left was because we still had to sign up for the gala, get our make up on, and my costume and wig for Carolyn Stoddard.
Johnnie wanted us to come outside before the gala thing, and so we did, and he pulled out all these chairs! Hahaha!! He's so funny. Then our pal Dave came out, in delight talking to John Karlen. They ended up getting into a heated discussion/argument about what it was to be a Polack. LOL. He tried to get rid of Dave, but he was unsuccessful. We had to go in at that point and we did our skit, though there were some technical difficulties (grr, always is) it went alright. It was funny.
Johnnie told us we did good, but he still seemed grumpy and moody, so it's best not to cross him too much when he's in that sort of mood. We went in for our bow and that was about all I remember of that night, I rode the elevator with Kathryn Leigh Scott and she's always nice. She asked how the gala went. She was on level 9. Then my parents had the bright idea to go drive to New York in the middle of the night. We sat in traffic at the Holland Tunnel for like an hour. It was ridiculous and stupid.
We got home around 4, because we walked around Times Square.
Day 3-
We went downstairs and got some jewelry at the dealers room, they were really cute little charms with Dark Shadows characters on them. We went to get Kathryn's autograph, and Marie Wallace- we talked to her for a bit, because she's really nice. Also got Lara Parker who has always been cold and unwelcoming, but oh well. I didn't get to see Jerry Lacy which disappointed me. I love him!
For some reason, we ended up going to New York again, I guess because we didn't have banquet tickets or something. We went to eat at the most gourmet restaurant ever-- McDonalds!! woooh! LOL, Sorry. Couldn't resist.
How's this? You don't even get refills on your coke in NYC. What's up with that?
We were driving around endlessly, I thought we were supposed to go to Central Park... I don't know how we ended up in China Town...
Uh...
Friend Angela thankfully called, and said, "Where are you?" and told us she wanted us to come back to hang out later after the feast was over (probably even that disaster of a meal at last year's banquet was better than what we had at that smelly fast-food joint where the population of flies seemed a more numerous number than the customers--YUCK!)
So we could go back to the hotel.
The banquet seemed to be still going on as far as I could tell when we arrived around 9:30 (traffic again). I walked down the hall with mom and came back up it. Wondering when it would be over. "Pssst. Hey." A voice said from the shadows near the empty bar table. I turned around, it was Johnnie. "Hello darling." He gave me a hug and a kiss as he did with my mom. He asked us where we had been and we explained that we went to New York but that it had been sort of a mistake. lol. The crowd began to filter out of the banquet room and a line started forming to get a last minute autograph from Johnnie. I stepped aside with my sister who had also come up, and he says, "Hey, where you going? Stick around a minute." So we lingered outside the line, trying to be inconspicuous. Dave came up thankfully and had a ready conversation about how he had beaten Johnnie with "who was a better pole" with the fact that he could actually speak the language, Johnnie apologized that day though he explained that he kept running into him. He then went on about someone who ended up being on TV who he knew. Johnnie came up as Dave was still continuing his story. Johnnie put his arms around me and my sister and said, "Shut up Dave." Dave continued as if he hadn't heard. "Shut up, shut up, shut up." Johnnie said as Dave rattled on. "This guy just doesn't know when to stop." He then went past Dave and dove his hands into a bucket of ice sitting there and rubbed it over his face. To which we started to laugh. This stopped Dave's conversation. "haha, Johnnie, you're so funny." Dave exclaimed. "What? I'm not crazy, this feels good."
My mom came back up with Suzanne and he invited us to sit down at the now empty banquet room table, flashing some cash at the hotel worker telling him to leave us alone. He barked at Dave to go sit at the other side of the table which was quite mean. lol.
Johnnie then told us that we should go to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and that we were good. "Very relaxed on stage." He said we were sincere and "real" people (...ok
I'm cool with that.). Then he went on to tell us how he had gotten his agent, who had seen him in the play Winterset. He confessed to us yesterday that he didn't remember any of those scenes he had to do on Dark Shadows, but he seemed to have remembered every line from this play. "Shut up Dave." He suddenly interjected. This made the forgotten Dave laugh on the other side of the table, he apparently didn't mind that Johnnie calls him all sorts of rude names. So anyway, after we chatted for a long while and he showed us his pant pocket which had gotten stained with the sharpie he had forgotten to put the top on. We also took a picture of him and Dave, the two Polacks (as they call themselves). We started teasing him that he looked happier in the picture with Dave than he had with my mom. He looked at it for a moment. "Yeah, I do look kind of gay there." lol.
Chelsy and I also teased him about how he said "Ebay" in one of those audio dramas of Dark Shadows-- he said it so disconnected as if he had no idea what "E...Bay" was. lol!! After our chat on random things, He said he was still on California time and he seemed a little weary. We hugged and all kissed, telling him goodnight. Suzanne also had to go to bed. So we said goodnight to her. Dave also left after that. And Ryan came in looking for us, We then went into the hotel restaurant with our other Fest friends. It was a fun night and we had fun decorating an old picture of Angelique on the back of an old program.
I also had all my friends sign the program so I'd have something to remember them by.
The next day, we were leaving. I had packed up my pet rats who we kind of snuck in (lol. They probably got em anyway) and we were going out to the car, when Johnnie was sitting outside on the bench. "Hey you girls." Not expecting to see him, we came over and set our things down, talking with him for several minutes as he discussed the American Academy of Dramatic Arts some more and told us to look into it. My mom also came out at that point and we showed him our rats. My mom told me to get "the grey one out" (she's actually a blue rat, but whatev) and I took out 'Naomi'. My mom put Naomi on Johnnie and he watched with interest as she crawled over him. lol!!
We had to go shortly after, but we got to bid him another goodbye.
So that was my festival. Haha!
