Crypticon 2009

Dates: 10/16-18, 2009

Location: Reliant Center- Houston, Texas

Guests: Courtney Gains, Michael Berryman, Edwin Neal, Eileen Dietz, Kristy Swanson, Lloyd Kaufman, Teri McMinn, Dee Wallace Stone, Jonathan Breck and Adriane Barbeau among others

Review:

Hell-o, Horror geeks and freaks! I’m here to tell you which Horror conventions were worth the buck or a flying f*ck! Of course, all of them progress as they have future presentations and they all try their hardest to put on a good show. For a fan, this is almost a success on their part every time.

I will give you the scoop on the convention from the outside as a fan/ customer and the inside, from “behind the booth” of the event. The dates and locations will differ. I have attended conventions from the north to the south so far. The west is soon to come.

This particular convention took place in the far south, my home state (and almost town) of Houston, Texas. I am talking about the first annual Crypticon Houston. My fellow/ favorite Horrornews.net reporter, her “man friend (as she calls him)” and myself got there early Friday so we could get settled and scope out the territory. At first, the wait for the passes was a little slow. We both had different passes for the event. She was Press and I was V.I.P.

We finally got through the doors and the first day moved along a bit slowly, which was an extremely good thing, indeed. All of the guests were polite and willing to talk to their fans with the given extra time available. Most of them would talk about anything and everything. Very interesting topics arose, which I must fail to mention here.

Some of the coolest guests in my opinion were Michael Berryman (a very down to earth dude), Kristy Swanson (sweetheart) and Lloyd and Edwin Neal are always a pleasure and pretty much two individual, one man shows within themselves. You never know what they will say or do next. As Edwin Neal saw what I had for him to sign (M-S-P poster and flier), he loved it. He took the poster and flier and showed it to a few people. I brought an extra mini-poster just for him and he thought it was awesome. I’ve met him three times so far and there is never a dull moment.

I bought my Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for Kristy to sign. She recited the entire line and signed the entire front cover of my DVD case with her line from the film (at no charge). It is a most cherished item (and even non-Horror, which is very rare).

Michael Berryman is seriously one of the coolest dudes I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. We agree on a lot of things. He even made me aware of a popular true crime case in Houston that I did not know of (If you’re reading, Michael, I will look for that movie). He told me many interesting things I had no idea about… about many different people. Teri McMinn was a doll and recited over seas title for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as she did on an episode of (Horrornews.net‘s) The Gash. She signed my Texas Chainsaw Massacre by her picture on the hook (huge and) with a red marker.

The booths were well organized and set up in rowed columns. The up-and-coming films and smaller venues were at the entrance and on the other side were the celebrities. All of the celebrity booths were on one side and facing another row of celebrity booths. Although this is not the biggest I’ve seen by far, it’s by far one of the coolest I’ve attended. This brings us to the first installment of…

BEHIND THE BOOTH:
One thing cooler than attending a convention is working at it or having your own booth. This time around, I was an assistant of the legendary film maker, Lloyd Kaufman. I played The Toxic Avenger in the mask for two days at the Troma booth. It was awesome. I had professional photo shoots and many other pictures taken with Troma and Lloyd Kaufman fans. I got to talk with Lloyd about the Mother’s Day re-make (my favorite Troma film of all, along with The Stendhal Syndrome and Bloodsucking Freaks). I have met Lloyd two other times prior to this and he has been a cool mother f*cker all three times. Not only did he sign my copy of Mother’s Day that I brought to the convention, he let me pick out another free DVD to go along with the free signing. His assistant kicked ass as well and it was a pleasure working for them both (she was sweet and hot as well, “of course”).

I held down the Troma fort as they left and we switched off. It was a blast and I will work again for Lloyd any time he is in the area. The booth traffic was at a normal to medium pace with pictures and customers/ fans. I got to have my picture taken with Michael Berryman as Toxie also. A possible upcoming segment on a Troma release will be Get your own damn Troma Tattoo. I was the (verbally introduced by Lloyd) cameraman during his segment introduction. His lovely assistant got her a cover job with a Tromeo and Juliette tattoo.

All in all, a blast was had all weekend. For a small convention (which will grow with time and sequels… Remember, this was the debut) with not a lot of people, the guests were awesome and a fun time was had for all. The prices on autographs went up at this one. I hear this is the agents’ doing and a growing epidemic on the convention circuit. Some complaints were made from inside volunteers about the organization. It will get better as the convention grows. This was Jay, undead and semi-live from Crypticon Houston 2009. I give this origin of a monster, FOUR HORNS UP.