Chiller Theater Expo - October 2005

My trip to see Kari started out with a big surprise ... at least to me. President Bush was in town giving a speech and that meant the highway and the airport would be packed and backed up big time. Thankfully I managed to board my flight on time but wound up sitting on the runway for over an hour before we even took off.   Ugh!!   I was supposed to arrive at the Convention by 5:00 PM and actually got there around 6:30 PM. So much for helping Kari set up her signing table.


I arrived at the Sheraton Hotel and the line to get inside was extremely long and actually ended at the hotel next door! The picture below will give you an idea of the line just to check in to receive the wristband one needed to enter the Expo.

I check into my hotel room and gave Kari a ring on her cell phone. She said come on down and say hello and I did just that. All the Celebrities were together inside of a (semi) heated tent ..... sitting at tables signing photos and posing for pictures. The line to get inside the tent seemed to go on forever (again) and the waiting time ran as high as several hours! Thankfully being Kari's Webmaster has its privileges and I had a VIP Pass to come and go as I wanted.

While waiting to get inside the tent, fans were treated to replicas of the Batmobile (From the Batman TV Show) & The Black Beauty (From The Green Hornet). The only problem being that if you wanted a close up look, you needed to get off the tent line and not many people did that.

As you can see from the photo below, the inside of the tent could have used better lighting once the sunshine disappeared :) It was crowded inside the tent and only a certain amount of people could get in at a time. Hence the long line outside and the long wait. I felt bad for the folks freezing outside but I took full advantage of my VIP Status.

Now the real fun began as with over 50 celebrities in attendance, finding where Kari was located wasn't going to be an easy task. Andrew put his thinking cap on and figured I should just look for the longest line of guys and that would be where Kari's Table was. Bingo I was right! There she was surrounded by mostly drooling guys. I tried to sneak up on Kari and surprise her but I don't think she recognized me? It was Ali (from our message board) who finally told Kari I was standing right in front of her! Kari joked that she was deliberately ignoring me. (lol)

Kari had treated me to this vacation (paying for my airfare and hotel room) and didn't want me to "work" at the show so I spent my time mingling with the crowd and talking with the fans; answering their questions and helping to take pictures for them.

I'm pleased and proud to say that Kari was raising money for the American Cancer Society by signing pictures in exchange for a charity donation. I don't believe any other celebrities were doing that. Also nearly all the "other" stars there were charging a separate fee to have your picture taken with them. Kari happily posed for pictures regardless of whether one had "purchased" a signed photo and made a donation. Kari was there to meet her fans and help out a charity.

While Kari offered a wide variety of pictures to choose from for her to sign, some fans brought their own collectables. I noticed everything ranging from movie posters and laser discs of her movies, to copies of Razor & Stuff Magazines, and General Hospital Photo Books. What surprised me was that so many fans remembered her most from her time on MTV's Remote Control. Very cool.

Hey It's My Webmaster! Hi Andrew!

After saying my hello and taking some pictures, I left Kari to do her charity signings and went in search of the other Stars I wanted to meet. As this was Halloween Weekend, I did run into some strangely dressed characters. Being more of a Sci-Fi Geek than a Horror Fan, I honestly didn't know who most of these people were dressed up as?

Besides seeing our Lovely Kari, there were three celebrities in particular at Chiller Expo that I had never met. I am a huge lifelong Karen Allen Fan and a longtime "I Dream Of Jeannie Fan". I've had the pleasure of meeting Barbara Eden several times but now was my chance to meet Larry Hagman & Bill Daily.

   

Kari & I were supposed to have lunch together Saturday but the line of fans waiting for autographs never seemed to lessen. So her sister-in-law and I ran out to the hotel lobby and bought some food for our poor starving Kari to eat back at her signing table. We made plans to meet up later at a private movie screening but as the evening went on, Kari wasn't feeling very well and needed to get some much needed Zzzzz's. She pboned me later that evening and expressed her guilt that we hadn't had much one on one time and did I want to meet up for a late dinner. I knew she still wasn't feeling well and advised Kari to get some more rest and order room service and relax. As much as I wanted to spend time with her, her health and well being was far more important.

Kari called me again to let me know she was still feeling lousy and might have to head home early on Sunday. Since there was a chance I might not see her before she left, I thanked her for inviting me to the Convention and tried to lessen her guilt over not spending more time with me. It was great to see KW face to face after nearly two years and the Show itself was more fun to attend than I thought it would be. I'm laughing as I recall this but the highlight of the weekend for me was escorting our Kari through the crowd as we ran to get her to the ladies room.


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