-Months ago at The MONSTER-MANIA Horror Convention in Cherry Hill, NJ, I was with NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE director Jonathan Straiton and his wife Brie helping to promote NoSS at a table they had there. It went off very well and I was asked if I could be at the NoSS table at DAYS OF THE DEAD in Indianapolis, IN from 6/30-7/2. If it were totally up to me, I’d be at all of them (including the ones in the UK), but sadly I can’t at this time. It was a little rough for me to coordinate things on my end for this one-not the least of which is the distance factor. Indianapolis is around 645 miles from Syracuse. In addition, I’m currently a overnights person, but doing this requires me to shift to days quickly-and then back again. Not an easy thing to do. As such, I had to miss the first day cause I’d be spending all my time driving up there. The same for Sunday for the most part as well, leaving only Saturday as my only full day there. It’s one of the bigger Cons and Jonathan had stressed that he’d really like me to go so………..
-6/30/2017-Had to get up early to get the rental car. I left around 2:15 PM from Syracuse. Unfortunately, I had to stop a few times for power naps. I was also kind of going to Indianapolis blind cause, while I was set to room with Jonathan as well as Brett Janeski & Trey Harrison at their room, I didn’t receive the address for the hotel till around 11:30 PM that night. By that time, I was just getting close to Columbus, OH-so I was already pretty behind. However, I had to pull over and take “power naps” due to the afore mentioned time shift difference. In the end, before leaving Columbus, I decided to get a hotel room there because one-at my current rate, my ETA in Indianapolis wouldn’t be till at least 2:30 AM and I didn’t want to keep the others up and two-a thunderstorm had just started and I didn’t feel like driving through unknown territory in heavy rain so…BTW, I did video tape a little of the rain-which is on my Instagram page 🙂 …………
-7/1/2017-Nice way to start July huh? Got up early so I could basically make it to the convention right when it started-which I didn’t-HA! I ran into Jonathan and Trey right away-being held up by security. Was it due to the nature of NoSS that word got out on the potential chaos that would ensure if NoSS cast / crew were in the area? Did Jonathan bring “Muffy” (vagina prop w/ teeth) and “Richard” (long prop dong) and, due to that, was not allowed inside? Was Brett somehow a factor in all this? 😀 None of these-it was actually due to Trey having bottled water that he bought at a store in the lobby, but wasn’t allowed to bring it inside. OK………..
-The NoSS table was set up next to the table for THE BARN It was great to see them again-and with new Barn Swag. Love the plush dolls-they kinda look like the old Hulk Hogan ones (maybe that’s what happened to them-HA!). They also now had a board game in addition to their video game. Nice. Maybe NoSS will get swag like this 🙂 We were also across from a celebrity table-former WWE wrestler Lita (Amy Dumas). Other celebs there included Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Sting (Wrestler-I actually didn’t recognize him initially), Linda Blair (who was way more petite than I expected), Sid Haig and more……….
-It’s always great to introduce people to NoSS and try to get them onboard The NoSS Love Train 🙂 It was great meeting and talking to all the people that came up to our table. I had a few hardsells, but it was basically like Cherry Hill when it came to selling-getting NoSS into someone’s hands way more often than not. Both Trey and Brett were also pushing NoSS so that helped…A LOT of NoSS product was sold just on Saturday alone. I also found out about NoSS being off VoD at that time-and being re-introduced via TERROR FILMS (which happened on 7/7)-now available in the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Ireland, the U.K. and Pan-Russia.. . Go NoSS! 🙂 The DVD with the new cover was here for sale-as well as a smaller 11×17 poster which came free if you bought the limited edition DVD / blu-ray. Of course, all of us would sign whatever people wanted- and no, with NoSS, I haven’t had to sign anything besides merch as of yet (I know that’s what you were thinking-HA!). I have signed “other things” multiple times in regards to my band CAROLINE BLUE, but I digress……….. 🙂
-Afterwards we went out for food with the Barn crew for dinner. In what’s becoming a tradition, we followed them (they were following their GPS) and, when we got to the place, it was either closed and / or out of business 🙂 We eventually went to a Mexican place called EL MESON. Good food. Afterwards, we hung out outside where the conversation was on future projects, film techniques and critiques, etc. I have to admit that, after eating-on top of the time shift-I was starting to fade so I walked off to a gas station to get coffee. I have to say that, all the coffee I got in every gas station in Indiana-as well as on the way home from Ohio, was awful. Maybe it’s just me………..
-Initially, my plan was to take off Saturday night and drive thru the night till I got to NY early Sunday. Return the car a day early you know? I’m glad I didn’t-I wouldn’t have made it out if Indiana that night. In addition, Jonathan had something planned that I didn’t know until I arrived-and I wasn’t going to miss it. At some point there will be another version of NoSS on blu-ray released. On the one out now, the commentary is from Jonathan and Ron Bonk. On this one, it will be me, Jonathan, Trey and Brett. My first time doing something like this-so I definitely wasn’t going to miss on this opportunity. Of course, we had to get back to the hotel first……..
-Jonathan offered to take me to a Starbucks for some coffee before heading back cause I was starting to fade. I said sure. Of course, when the GPS finally did get us to one, it was closed. 🙂 On top of that, it turns out that-at the Hotel the convention was at-there’s a food place there that served Starbucks coffee. Nice huh? So we finally get back and they’re going to drive me to my car so I can get my stuff. That took awhile due to Brett’s mis-adventure with a Power Ranger (I’ll let Jonathan tell this story cause he tells it better 🙂 ) and, in the process, drives to the hotel-but I still need to get to my car 🙂 So obviously, with all this happening, we got off to a late start, but we got done at around 2-2:30 AM I think. Then it’s time for bed-of course, with all the coffee in me I’m wide awake and, thinking that, for some reason, the guys preferred to have the room hot (no AC on), I was up for at least another hour. Not to mention I was sharing a bed with Brett and he kept inching closer-no means no Brett! (HA!)………………….
-7/2/2017-I was up by 8:30-9 AM to catch the continental breakfast-which wasn’t bad. I skipped the one the night before cause it was so sparse. I ended up hanging out at the NoSS table for a little bit-and even got to sign some more merch (as well as a bunch of posters) before leaving. It’s funny-cause it’s like being on a film set. You make new friends / reunite with old ones and, before you know it, it’s over. I did manage to snag a unique item this time around-the Cornelius statue that was first seen in NJ. Now if I can snag the Dracula one (based on me as Dracula from the film TALES OF DRACULA), I’ll be happy. 🙂 It’s just so incredibly flattering. This was actually Brett and Trey’s first convention and I hope to see them, as well as other cast / crew from NoSS at future cons-as well as the crew from “The Barn.” There was even talk of a possible Cornelius cross-over in a future Barn project. That would be a lot of fun…………….
-So on the road I went. Within the first hour I had pulled off to a rest station and fell asleep. This happened several times through out the night. Better to be safe than sorry right? I’d texted Trey and he said they were dining with some of the cast / crew of SPACE BABES FROM OUTER SPACE. Jonathan had mentioned something about dining with space chicks that night-and I’d be included-but you’ll have to see the pic to show what that really meant (HA!) 🙂 By the time I reached NY, I was pretty beat, but I was getting towards the home stretch. I believe I finally got home around 4-4:30 AM and quick fell asleep………….
-A lot of things have come up since then, so sorry that it took so long to get the pics / recap up. I had a great time and thanks to all the great people who visited the NoSS table. If I didn’t tag you in the pics, feel free to do so. Thanks also to Jonathan, Trey & Brett for having me along for this one and look forward to more in the future. Pics can be seen on my acting page on Facebook.
WAYNE W. JOHNSON 