On Tour: Day 2

Last night’s premiere went really well. It’s only been two days but things are starting to come together. We’re figuring things out, we’re getting faster. But today I don’t care about any of that.

I met a fan. I don’t mean one of Tucker’s fans. I mean a real actual person who liked my writing. It was awesome.

During the signing people usually want their picture taken with Tucker. Instead of using their cameras, which causes all sorts of problems and delays, we have someone take the picture on a DSLR and at the end of the night (or the next morning) we upload all the pictures to flickr so that they can download a high quality shot. It keeps the line moving, ensures the quality of the pictures, etc, etc.

Last night I was working the camera as people came down to get their books / shirts / posters signed. There was a pretty good line and I sort of mentally checked out, just shooting the pictures and thinking about everything that still needed to be done before we could head over to the bar for a whiskey or two. One girl got her picture taken and as she was walking away from the table she sort of leaned over and said to Tucker, “And who’s Corman?”

I could have dropped dead from happiness right there.

I know it’s a relatively small thing. There were hundreds of people there to meet Tucker and out of 600+ people over the last two days, one person knew my writing. But it was enough. It’s all I can think about today.

And she was super inspiring. I got to talk to her a little bit and hearing about her travel plans was rad. I love to hear that people are out there, living crazy stories and having fun.

But like I was saying, things have been going well. I sat in on the movie for about half an hour last night and the audience reaction was awesome. Lots of laughs during key scenes and the theater broke into applause when the credits rolled. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen the film at this point and I thought I wouldn’t be able to watch it on this tour but the crowd makes it fun. Watching them enjoy it allows me to watch it again with fresh eyes. I hope that lasts.

These two premieres have been a really good test run for what’s to come. Right now Jeff and I are on our way back to LA then we pack up the van and drive the equipment out to Atlanta. And then things kick off for real. Despite a screaming headache and all the stress, I’m looking forward to it. I’m getting caught up the excitement that people bring to each show.

It’s funny because everyone tells us, “oh it must be such a party, it’s got to be so awesome.” But I don’t think that they really mean it like that. I don’t think they’re really excited because they think it’s just a non-stop booze fest (it’s not) or we go out every night and party like rock stars (we don’t). After talking with people over the last two days I think what they’re reacting to is the fact that we’re part of something. We’re doing something that I don’t think has ever been done for a movie before. If it fails then whatever, it doesn’t matter but if it succeeds then we get to say we were there. We were a part of the 2009 I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell promotional tour.

And I want to say thank you to everyone who came out last night in Seattle, especially to the girl who was buying me shots at 4:30 in the afternoon while I was supposed to be working. You rock and you made the whole night go smoother, at last for me.

I had an awesome time and everyone I met was very cool. Except for the guy who tried to tell me that every guy who showed up at the premiere was just there because they wanted to fuck Tucker. That was creepy.