Rants from the Alright Guys: Celebrity Gencon

I've gone to Gencon for an undetermined number of years now. I just spent a few minutes trying to figure out how many consecutive years and I think it's somewhere in the area of 8 years in a row.

One of my things I like is observing the actors that come to the show. I've had a chance to meet some of them, but I've managed to take pictures of more. I thought it would make an interesting article, so without further delay.

Celebrity Gencon!!

John De Lancie - John was my first Gencon Actor that I ever met. I knew him mostly from his Guest Star roles on ST:TNG. About .5 seconds before I took this shot he was smiling for the camera and then someone says.. "HEY JOHN!" and distracted him from what would have be a nice photo. He was signing autographs in what was almost an assembly line style. I pay one guy, give my name to another guy, and then John signs and delivers. Seemed a little impersonal to me but then again, he's signing alot of shit. He seemed irritated that day, like the whole world was hard at work chewing on his soul.

Jeri Ryan - I knew this person from the ST:V days and she's slightly more notable for Boston Public nowadays. I never got an autograph because the days she was there she had an unbelieveable line. So much so that she entirely ran out of pictures to sign. I remember hearing her instead taking down scores of names and addresses so when she returned to the home base she could get more and mail them. I thought that was pretty cool. Plus she actually smiled for the camera. The only one who ever succesfully smiled for the camera in fact. This is definately someone I'd reccomend meeting if available.

Robert Picardo - Another ST:V guy, but he's been in a ton of movies with a few sitcom cameos as well. I remember he was on an episode of "Home Improvement" where he played a butcher and he declared that he was the "meat man." He was actually at the booth with Jeri Ryan and after Ms. Ryan was gone, the line was a bit more manageable and I did get a signing from him. He had something wrong with his eyes that day. I believe it was some form of light sensitivity. He entered wearing sunglasses and only removed them once signing commenced. Definately a very friendly guy.

Marc Singer - I knew him from V and The Beastmaster. I never walked up to him, but he did walk up to Mista Collins and myself. Asked us how we were enjoying the convention gave us a hand shake. I should also point out that this person is very tall. Extremely friendly in person. If I saw him again, an autograph would be nuts.

I have only a few other pictures from people I've only seen in passing, but I'll post them for completeness.

Lou Ferrigno - This picture is not blurry, this is how he looks in real life and how he affects the world around him. There are no known photos of this guy out of his Incredible Hulk getup that do not create opticle distortions.

Hugh Quarshie - This guy was sitting REALLY close to Lou. As such, the distorsion field bagged him. He was signing photos from Star Wars 1: The phantom menace. I may also have his name wrong.

Walter Koenig - I've probably seen this guy here for the last 3 or 4 years. Never spoke to him but I've often passed by. My father is a pretty big fan of ST:TOS. So much so that he nearly missed his wedding because of a re-run.

Ethan Phillips - another ST:V actor. Had I worked at it dilligently, I may have had a shot at the whole cast someday.

Don S. Davis - I took this for my father who is an avid fan of Stargate SG-1 it was only a little more recently that I took an interest in the show. It's really quite good.

Claudia Christian - I only remember that she was in Babylon 5. I having never watched the show can't tell you much more. I might even have the name wrong.

That's it, there's nothing really more. I did see John Rhys-Davies and Traci Lords sitting at booths but neither of them looked anything like what I had expected (for all together different reasons). Regardless their lines were immense and I passed them by