HorrorHound Weekend Wrapup

It's always a nice feeling to fit in. That's not how I felt at HorrorHound Weekend.

Mondo Justin and I pulled into the Marriott East Indianapolis, loaded to the gills with copies of Impossibly Funky, postcards, and free DVDs. The plan: Justin would pass out DVDs and postcards to people waiting in line to get in to the convention while I manned the table with Greydon Clark, selling books while Greydon sold his movies, posters, and stills.

It took me a while to get over the idea that I was spending the weekend hanging out with Greydon Clark. I may have gotten a little fanboyish at times but I tried to keep my cool. Had you told me twenty years ago that I was going to work with the guy who directed Black Shampoo, my head may have exploded.

On Friday we got a little bit of a late start as we ran over to WFYI for an interview with film guru Matthew Socey. Wanna hear what happened? Easy enough -- click here.

Sitting at the table most of the weekend, I didn't see too many other celebs. As we were setting up, however, Sid Haig came up to our table. It was nice to see him and Greydon chatting; the first time they had seen each other since the release of The Forbidden Dance (Is Lambada) back in 1990.

I spent most of my weekend manning the table with Greydon and his gal pal Marlene while Justin worked the crowd and met up with a few video distributors with whom he's friends. Unlike the other celebrities, major and minor, Greydon didn't get a very good spot on the selling floor. We sat on the end of a row rather than against a wall. Maybe that's why most of the people who said they'd see me at HorrorHound via email, Facebook, or Twitter never showed up.

I didn't do much browsing at the convention. I definitely didn't want to spend any money and there were so many people around that I utilized my all access pass to wander around before the show started. That's when I saw some wonderfully-disturbing masks.

We only left the table briefly on Saturday afternoon for the screening of Without Warning. Again, this could have been better. Everything I had read put the screening in "Room B." Surprise! There is no Room B. There's Salon B but, even then, we were in Room 2. It was an adequate space with an inadequate A/V system. Rather than showing the movie on the large screen in the room, the video projector had crapped out and we ended up having to screen the movie on a 43" TV. Everyone huddled in the front of the room.

I had a blast watching Greydon work with the people that stopped by the booth. Seeing him talk up his movies and why people need to see them gave me a glimpse into how he probably got funding in the past. I tried to mimic his patter to move books but I couldn't hold a candle to him.

In all, I sold seven books and gave away three. I don't know if it was my sales technique, the content of the book, or the context of the event. There's not much horror in Impossibly Funky. Other than Greydon, I doubt that I mentioned anyone at the convention within its pages. Well, maybe Corey Feldman...

Seven books couldn't even pay for a tank of gas from Detroit to Indianapolis these days. It certainly couldn't pay for Greydon's hotel room, meals, and airfare. Fortunately, Greydon offset the outlay of cash by splitting all of the sales with me right down the middle. Still, none of us (including Justin) came close to breaking even.

Monetarily, the weekend was a bust. Socially, it was fun as I got to hang out with Greydon and Marlene, see quite a few social network pals that did manage to show up, occasionally catch up with Justin, and have dinner with my pal Richard Edwards and his wife, Sybil Brownfield.

I had a blast people-watching and interacting with some very interesting people like the guy who showed up that wouldn't buy anything but wanted to entertain us with his cartoon impersonations.

On Sunday Justin and I interviewed Greydon for an upcoming episode of The Projection Booth. Stay tuned...

Thanks again to everyone who patronized the table. If you're looking for Greydon Clark gear, be sure to check out his website GreydonClark.com.