Do you really think this would happen at this point in the game? Perhaps if Mr. Frid had continuously attended Fests and gotten "comfortable" as you put it---
Frid attended fests, fan conventions (that were not official fests) and other fan events from the early 1980s to 1993. In some instances he attended 3 and 4 a year and did the Q&As and the rest of it as well as a reading of his own chosing. He was more than comfortable with it. In fact, he was on the planning committee of some fan cons back in New York. He wanted fans to have a good time.
I've seen those pictures where he's kidding around with Mr. Karlen for example, so it could have been tending in that direction.
Actually, Karlen would be the last person to tease Frid about lines, etc. He has repeatedly said in interviews on camera and at the fests that Frid had the most on him in DS, on most days, had more lines and more to do overall. He and Frid were very good friends during the run of DS (helped each other move from their respective apartments, had dinner together) and when they got together at the fest they liked to play. Frid does have quite the sense of humor so he and Karlen can be quite the pair at the fests.
But if he came back, just once, after so many years away, I'd almost bet the fans would be so overwhelmed by the gesture that thoughts of such dippy questions would fly out of their heads.
The DS questions don't bother Frid - he simply doesn't remember enough about the plots or many of the lesser known characters that well to discuss them or given an opinion. He has not viewed the show that much or consistently enough since to have any better knowledge. That fact has nothing to do with not liking to watch DS as much as Frid doesn't watch much TV let alone videotapes of a serial. He doesn't watch many videos of things he does love to see all that much either. That's not a way he chooses to spend much of his time.
I'm basing that on having gone to a couple of Mr. Frid's shows in the past, where people asked questions about DS of course, but it didn't get too silly, he seemed OK answering them to the best of his recollection, and the audience accepted that.
You bring up a good point. Somehow it has gotten into some heads that Frid doesn't like discussing DS or distances himself from it. Yet, on his website for the entire time it has been up (1998) DS has been mentioned and illustrated. Frid's thinking is why put up a website all about something everyone who visits it already knows about hence his putting up things DS fans probably are not familiar with about him. When Frid did a Christmas show at Lockwood Mathews (where scenes from HODS was filmed) he had a special tape made showing scenes from that movie that took place outside and inside Lockwood Mathews so that fans attending this reading could see them during intermission. They were sitting in the rotunda area listening to Frid and that's where Barny-boo got the spear in the film. He thought the whole thing was a cool coincidence.
Granted these were much smaller groups and there's always a few loose screws in big crowds, but do you really think that fans who could not attend his Readers' Theater shows or his stage appearances, but have longed to see him in person for SO many years would insult him in that manner?
Well, it's happened - repeatedly but you need to understand that making fun of lines or whatever to Frid doesn't "insult" him as much as clue him in on what those fans wish to focus on themselves. Frid wrote a foreward to the INTRODUCTION OF BARNABAS book the festival put out some years ago and talked about seeing fans sitting in rooms laughing at scenes. He said he was too "hard hearted" to let that bother him. He attended fests knowing that went on and knowing that people loved to talk about the bloopers. He participated in those discussions.
It's up to him naturally, whatever he decides to do and if he feels well enough to rise to the challenge, and we must accept that, but is this issue really a serious concern?
Fans have stopped coming to fests for periods of time because they were burned out or tired of the same old thing over and over again. At any Q&A event at the fests, at the DS reunion and other functions you hear more about what Frid did wrong than right. Obviously, he didn't do anything so wrong since the show continues today with the marketers using his face on everything. It's what most people would want to see. Frid can log on his site or the many other DS sites and see most of the discussion about him having to do with silly stuff mostly teleprompters and forgetting lines. That doesn't exactly make one think his presence at a fest would be anything more than about this discussion. It's old. I think it's more of an "oh okay that's what they are into . . . still " than some insult. Frid thinks DS was a serious show and not one to be made fun of. The blooper culture is more of what fans are about now. There's nothing wrong with that if that is what entertains the fans who watch DS. The fans make the show whatever it is. But don't expect people who feel very differently to buy into that or want to spend time in that environment. It's not about insult but more about not wanting to participate in something that is boring.
Of course too, you have the problem of fans who have attended Frid's one man shows, copied down his license plate and then through motor vehicles gotten his home address (which is unlisted for a reason) and started sending video tapes of the festivals and other things. That kind of behavior is upsetting and annoying. For a man who is very private, he has to wonder too if this kind of behavior won't become worse if he makes another public appearance.
Geez, I certainly prattled on about this longer than I intended to - sorry! LOL!!
Nancy
