-Here’s a recap of my time at the WE NEED A HERO Convention in Utica NY last weekend. Got some pics with celebs Tiamak (The Last Dragon), Nadia Verrucci (voice of Juno in Assassin’s Creed games / Being Human / For Honor), Jayne Heitmeyer (Sirens / Andromeda / Earth Final Conflict), Noelle Hannibal (Star Trek First Contact / Star Trek Voyager / Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and more 🙂 Pics can be seen via the link below to my acting page on Facebook.
-April 22-23, 2017-Around two months ago I received a message from James T. Manson-the man who was putting together the We Need A Hero Convention in Utica, NY. He asked if I’d like to be one of the guests there and I agreed. This was the first time he put together a con, and the first time I’d been asked to be a guest at one. I made the mistake of not asking about a table-assuming that, as a guest, I’d just have one. I found out a little too late that I didn’t. While James and his team did offer me one at the event, it was too late to get all the stuff I needed together, let alone head back to Syracuse to get it, so I just loaded up my backpack with Night of Something Strange & Tales of Dracula DVDs (I didn’t have any other titles on me-another newbie mistake) and spent a lot of time just talking / networking with people walking around or those who had tables……….
-The first day, I got there while all the venders were loading up. My friends Sarah Randall and her guy Aaron Brown provided me transportation on the way there-which was awesome, considering that I hadn’t slept too much the few days approaching this day. Having said that, I was awake the way up (but nodded off on the way back). Mad Angel Films had a table here-and I found out it was on the fourth floor-right across from where the movies were to be played. Two of the films I was in from MAF (“Brackish” and “Slade Collins & The Tree of Life”) were to play there, but set up was late and the movies didn’t show. Likewise, there was talk of a panel to be held discussing fighting in films which would of consisted of me , Ryan Santiago, Matt Peters-and even Taimak (“The Last Dragon”) and Kevin Duhaney (“Power Rangers Dino Thunder”)-in which case me, Ryan and Matt would probably not say anything-wanting to hear what those guys had to say too 🙂 Unfortunately, the panel didn’t happen. It was cool seeing a number of people I knew-as well as making new associations and friends. In a way, not being chained to a table worked to my advantage. I managed to sell out of all but 1 of my NoSS DVDs as well as some copies of NoSS on blu-ray and some Tales DVDs. I also got a chance to check out some venders and artists here-which was cool……….
-The band Wicked was playing in the evening but, sadly, I couldn’t attend due to work commitments. I ended up only getting three-four hours sleep and then, trying to get up-which, due to lack of proper sleep the last couple of days, was kinda hard to do. Getting old sucks 🙂 So Sunday I arrived later than I should have. In fact, by the time I got there, the MAF table, and several others, had already packed up and left, so I took the time to visit the celeb area, which was on the second floor……….
-I ran into scream queen Genoveva Rossi Saturday and hung out with her on and off thru the two days. Her schedule makes mine look like I’m napping most of the time 🙂 Artist Jonathan Myers presented to both me and Greta Volkova his poster art for “Tales of Dracula”-which was awesome. I got to meet his wife Lola-who’s also a talented artist-and their daughter Sara. There were also several celebrity artists and actors here that I got to meet and take pics with. They were all very wonderful and pleasant to talk with. A few highlights-I showed the trailer to “Night of Something Strange” to actresses Nadia Verrucci (voice of Juno in Assassin’s Creed games / Being Human / For Honor) and Jayne Heitmeyer (Sirens / Andromeda / Earth Final Conflict) and they seemed to get a kick out of it-as well as the Tales of Dracula stuff. I found out actress Noelle Hannibal (Star Trek First Contact / Star Trek Voyager / Buffy The Vampire Slayer) was friends with people from Star Trek Continues (the competition!-HA! 🙂 ) Actor Solon Tsangaras (Deathhouse) loves zombies so he grabbed up NoSS-I believe he and actor Carey Means (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) were going to watch it soon while eating 🙂 Had some great conversations with artist Steve Geiger (Marvel), Rusty Gilligan (Rusty Ink!), Jim O’Reiley (Topps / Upper Deck), Nigel Carrington (Starr Skills Comics) and many more. Unfortunately, the time it took for me to meet and interact meant I either wasn’t able to meet several celebs or, in the case of actors Brian O’Halloran & Scott Schiaffo (Clerks), I was only able to talk briefly cause they were tearing down their tables and I didn’t want to get in their way……….
-One actor I did get to meet, and even talk to for about ten minutes, was Tiamak. Kind of funny, before they left, the guys from MAF had left him a DVD of “Slade Collins: In & Out of Time” with several autographs on it-but not mine-so that was the perfect conversation starter. I ended up signing that copy and he signed a copy of his autobiography (audio book) that I bought. He’s a very calm person-you could say he had the “glow” of ultra-chill about him. 🙂 We hit on a few different subjects including, of all things, how Facebook fan pages have limited interaction with your fans unless you pay to boost the exposure. I’m a big fan of his performance (and Vanity’s) in “The Last Dragon”-so meeting and talking to him was a fun experience……….
-“Tales of Dracula” did screen on Sunday and the room was filled to half capacity 🙂 I was told by the people who saw it that I made a great Dracula so that was cool. I also talked with James M. here and there. Putting together your first big event like a con will always teach hard lessons and I know James is determined that things are much better next year. I had a good time-hopefully the next con I go to I’ll have some time to get proper sleep 🙂
WAYNE W. JOHNSON 