Joel And The Superfans

The podcast, Joel And The Superfans, is mostly to blame for my current path in Voiceover. I was working on getting better audio quality, putting up sound blankets, upgrading the microphones. Then the pandemic hit, and the podcast went on temporary hiatus. This lasted a whole year. In the meantime, I was lead by the Siren Song, to the world of Voiceover, and Fuhs Studio was born. I can’t wait to hear how Joel will sound once we can record in studio.

In the meantime, here’s a transcript of a podcast we did with Richard Smart, about his love of Celebrity Autographs, from January 2020. Enjoy.

Episode 2: Stargazing With Joel

Music: (Joel And The Superfans!) 

Joel: Hello everyone. My name is Joel Caldarola. Welcome back to another episode of Joel and the Superfans. It's a show where I talk to superfans about their passions and then we fight to the death at a summit of a mountain to prove my superiority.

Music: (Joel And The Superfans Theme)

Joel: Today's guest is Richard Smart. And Richard is a big fan of meeting celebrities. So let's just jump right into it. How are you doing today Richard?

Richard: Very good. Thanks for asking.

Joel: That's good. That's good. It's what I like to hear. Roughly speaking--maybe a hard question to answer just off the cuff here--How many celebrities do you think you've met over the course of your life?

Richard: I knew you were going to ask that.

Joel: It feels like the obvious question.

Richard: Oh man, going over maybe a 10 year period...at least 10 years I'd have to check. I would say at least 10 or 11 years.

Joel: This is like a major commitment.

Richard: I think 2008 is kind of when I started doing it...I' thinking 08/09. So geez... I would probably say it'll be in the hundreds.

Joel Holy shit!

Richard: In the hundreds, yes, if I had to guess.

Joel: Wow. OK. All right. That's not bad. And ten years is like a substantial amount of time doing that. That was my next question. Have you always kind of been like a fan of just like, 'oh shit famous people'? What was it that drove you to [say] I'd like to start meeting these people. What kicked this off for you?

Richard: I've always been a movie guy.

Joel: Okay…

Richard: Like my friends are playing video games I'm watching movies. It's kind of always been that way. Especially in the 80s I was just I grew up watching movies. I playing with my friends too, but it's always been movies with me. The Exhibition used to do it a little bit, like before Fan Expo got really big and all those big conventions.

Joel: Yeah

Richard: Before they started, the Exhibition did a little bit. My buddy did it a couple of times and then he kind of introduced me to it a little bit. My uncle and my stepdad did the conventions a little bit at that time and so they told me about it and it sounded pretty pretty interesting to meet celebrities. You had to pay for it.

Joel: Of course.

Richard: But as long as you pay the money you're guaranteed to meet them. And that sounded interesting to me because I've always been a movie guy and it's my chance to meet some of the celebrities that I grew up watching, and stuff like that, from TV shows and movies. So...yeah, maybe '08 my buddy and I went to Fan Expo for the first time and it just blew me away. Like, Linda Hamilton was one of the first that I actually met.

Joel: Oh really. Terminator. Wow!

Richard: And I got her to sign my Terminator DVD cover.

Joel: That's awesome.

Richard: 'Rick to Rick You're terminated.'

Joel: Ha! Ha! Ha! Oh my God. That is incredible.

Richard: So that kind of got me hooked on it.

Joel: Do you still have that DVD?

Richard: Of course.

Joel: Of course.

Richard: I have Scrapbooks full of all my autographs.

Joel: Holy, crap!

Richard: I'm on the sixth one I've got five full Scrapbooks full of autographs and pictures and photo ops with celebrities and all that kind of stuff.

Joel: You're blowing my mind here. See I walked into this today where I'm like, 'All right we'll sort it we'll trade stories about this. I've met some famous people he's met some famous people. it will work well' Well you are like blowing me out of the water here. I can't compete with this shit.

Richard: What was the first one. That was the first one. There was a film festival once, at TIFF, where I shook George Clooney's hand.

Joel: Wow.

Richard: Right, there you go...and got a selfie with him.

Joel: That's that's pretty good. I always find it hard to get the Selfie's at TIFF. I've dabbled in the world of meet famous people too. TIFF was kind of my stomping ground for that. But it's always really hard on the red carpets to kind of meet someone--depending on the red carpet I guess--because, I mean, I've been to some premieres where.....I met Bill Nighy, the actor Bill Nighy, not the Science Guy Bill Nye. I met him at a premiere and it was like a real quiet, small indie flick. And like, 50 people showed up so everyone got to meet him, it was a really fun thing. And then I'd been to Johnny Depp where [...]if you don't hold on to the bars you will lose your life in this crowd.

Richard: I was there, at TIFF the year Johhny Depp was there.

Joel: Oh, which was which film was he there for?

Richard: Which was it again. It would have been maybe five six years ago. So I don't remember the movie he was doing but he was there. I forget which location he was at, but my fiancée and my friend, and [I] we were all there. We waited there for like about ten, eleven hours, that day, because you know you've got to be there all day.

Joel: Oh yeah.

Richard: In front.

Joel: Absolutely…

Richard: We were right in front. The gate was like right here and he was supposed to come out just over here. He came out. We could take pictures of him. You could almost you could almost spit on him he was so close. He decided to go over here and do all the people across the street. So we never actually met him.

Joel: I've had that happen a few times. Jake Gyllenhaal across the street, right before meeting me.

Richard: Yeah. For me Zoe. We were there for like ten eleven hours and he went across the street instead, to people who had been there for like an hour.

Joel: That's a that's the one bummer about TIFF.

Richard: That's TIFF. That's luck of the draw. Luck of the draw.

Joel: That's the thing. There's pros and cons to either way of doing it. Like if you're going to do a TIFF, it's like you're meeting them for free. It's a really fun atmosphere and everything....

Richard: Yup.

Joel: ...but there is always the chance that you could wait eight hours and have a street car pull in front of you before you can meet him. That happened to me.

Richard: Yeah. And you're relying on the weather as well.

Joel: That's the other thing. It starts raining, and like, is it worth waiting here to meet whoever it is. Yep. But on the other hand it's like it is free and I'm a baller on a budget so I don't like the idea of having to pay so much. I mean it depends. Certain people I definitely would go for.

Richard: Sure. Sure. Can I just tell you about my best experience at TIFF?

Joel: Oh, oh, absolutely.

Richard: Best experience. OK....I believe it was 3 years ago now. Three or four years ago my fiancée and I met Jim Carrey....

Joel: Oh get out!

Richard: ....and got a selfie with him, okay?

Joel: No way! That is incredible.

Richard: So there's a story here. Okay.

Joel: I would love to hear it.

Richard: Okay. So we're waiting there. We found out that he was going...there's these hot spots along the film festival, right? It's not the red carpets. There's the hot spots where the celebrities sometimes go and do interviews, like a little restaurant area and these kind of things.

Joel: Yeah.

Richard: And when we got Jim Carrey, it wasn't really huge yet. I mean for Jim Carrey everyone got word he was gonna be there so the crowds became really really big. But it generally wasn't really huge. So we were there for I don't know a few hours maybe because we knew Jim Carrey was supposed to show up there and we were right in front. We were waiting there we didn't. No water no bathroom no nothing. Because you know it's hard to get your place back there. And so then Jim eventually shows up. he's going in--there weren't any barriers here at the time in front of me--so I was standing in front my fiancée was next to me she's just a short little thing. So Jim Carrey is walking up.....he's looking kind of spacy 'cause he's there's so much going on. He's walking right in and I actually was aggressive--and you have to be aggressive sometimes, okay?...

Joel: Yeah.

Richard: So.....he was going into the restaurant upstairs and....I got on impulse so I just ran up. I said, "Jim," and I ran up to him, right in front of him. The security guard was there right in front of him. I got my phone out. Picture. He posed for it and [I] ran back down to my spot...

Joel: That's wild!

Richard: ...and they let me do it. That turned out great.

Joel: As long as you're not being like aggressive at those things, they're usually pretty good about....yeah you can take a photo.

Richard: I showed a little aggression because it was [he] was almost in the restaurant at this point.

Joel: Fair enough.

Richard: Right? But I had to do what I had to do right?

Joel: I mean you got that impulse and it worked.

Richard And it worked great. 

Joel: Sometimes that stuff pays off.

Richard: The picture turned out really good. He smiled. That was beautiful. It was awesome. So then. But my fiancée she was a little upset because she didn't meet him, right?

Joel: Aw!

Richard: so my OK. He's gonna come back out eventually. Let's just wait. OK. So this is the good part now. So after like 20 minutes he comes back out he's with--people who are swarming now. The barriers, forget about it. Everyone's swarming him right? They're all around him. Okay. And he's just looking all spacy, you know looking like this. Not sure where to go or what to do, right? It was really funny....I'm pretty tall right. Yeah. And Jim's kind of tall too so I was able to reach over and just tap on his shoulder like this. I just tapped on the shoulder. He turned around. My fiancée is really short. He's right here. I point like this. He looks down at her. He comes towards her. He leans down. She gets a selfie with him.

Joel: Ah! That's incredible!

Richard: That's what I had to do though. I had to reach over and tap him on the shoulder.

Joel: Hey, I mean it works for you.

Richard: He turned around. He was looking spacy. I'm pointing--not for me--I'm pointing to her and he looks down and he goes down and she gets it and she was so happy right? So we both had a good experience. That was the best experience I've had at TIFF. I would say.

Joel: I mean that's amazing though. And the fact that you're able to get her to have that same experience...that's a good thing.

Richard: I had to do what I had to do because otherwise she didn't want to look at my picture with him. 

Joel: See I always feel bad about--jumping back to Johnny Depp for a second--I had a similar scenario where I was there with my girlfriend at the time, now fiancée, and we were both there and we're both big Johnny Depp fans she was a big Pirates of the Caribbean person. And that was one of those ones where we waited like eight hours in that crowd. We managed to get right against the barrier and then things got busier and busier and started....you know crushing, and we're slowly being squeezed to death at the front of the barrier. And then at the last moment the TIFF people decided they were going to move the barriers. And when they moved the barriers all hell broke loose. People rushed in and they were rushing around…

Richard It's hard to control that.

Joel: ...and I got to the front of the barrier and I got like my arm around her. But then as Johnny Depp got out of his car she was swallowed up by the crowd and I got to meet Johnny Depp. And that was very fun for me, but she--yeah she got lost in the crowd. That wasn't a very good experience for her

Richard: Oh no! So you got it and she didn't?

Joel: Yeah, she didn't get to meet him. She took it pretty well. But I could tell she was a little bummed out and I remember on that day being like at some point the future I've got to make this up to her. I don't know if I have yet, but we'll get there eventually.

Richard: And that's why when I got Jim Carrey I knew...I had to get his attention somehow. It's lucky I'm tall and I was able to tap him on the shoulder.

Joel: Yeah that's that's that's playing with your natural advantages.

Richard: You just gotta do the work. Okay, but there's other situations where you know you're there, you're waiting for hours, and they just skip right over you. Happened a lot. Or they go over here and they don't go to where you are. It's happened a lot.

Joel: Or sometimes you get the ones where you wait for someone only to find out at the last moment that they're, like, not big on meeting people, so they get out of their car. Then they walk right in.

Richard: Most of them are.

Joel: Most most of them are I would say.

Richard: But, what's happened in the last couple of years, especially now, is that you're at these hotspots. They tend to--a lot of them--sneak out the back. They don't come back out.

Joel: I know there have been a couple of those where you hear that there's the hot spot and then at the last moment someone tells you, "Hey they're planning on leaving out the back. So you rush around, try and meet them at the back. I met a director out back of a place one time but I didn't actually know who they were. I'd seen some of their films but now I can't remember for the life of me who it was. But yeah, sometimes you just have to play that stuff.

Richard: That' the film festivals. Tiff. Yeah it really is hit or miss.

Joel: And that's all that you have to go into it. I think if you are going to do the whole like meet and greet celebrity all of that kind of stuff you have to sort of amp yourself up a little bit for either possibility. That's right. I'd like if they're not going to meet you. That's you know that's the way of the game. You have to be prepared for that. Like sometimes you do wait out eight hours and that's a bust. Sometimes you wait eight hours and it's amazing. And if you plan out your day, well sometimes you can hit--like while you're waiting for the eight hours there might be two or three other premieres that come through. So...I came here today to meet Matt Damon but there's Michael Fassbender or Helen Mirren....

Richard: You gotta prioritize too, who you want more.

Joel: And that's the thing. Sometimes it is like well, Johnny Depp's over here but there are three or four slightly smaller celebs that are going to be passing through this theater on this day, so maybe it's better if I wait there.

Richard: It's just now it's harder because a lot of the hotspots people--too many people know about it. So it's like the crowds are a lot bigger now.

Joel: It is. And honestly I even feel a lot about the festival. I feel like since I've started doing the festival, the Festival has grown quite a bit. And compared to my first year it is way busier now than it was back then.

Richard: Sure it is.

Joel: And that was only back in my first year, [which] was 2013. And comparatively from 2013 to now, It's not the same at all.

Richard: No no it really isn't. Last year it was like that for me a lot where just a lot of celebrities are skipping over me or walking in front and I can get pictures of them. But getting selfies or autographs.

Joel: It's a lot harder.

Richard: It's a lot harder now. Like last year--the only good thing happened last year--it happened on the very last day of the film festival when I was there. It was a Saturday, the last Saturday. I got Kristen Stewart.

Joel: Oh yeah.

Richard: And she was on my list.

Joel: Really. All right.

Richard: I mean she's beautiful. Yeah.

Joel: She's awesome.

Richard: She came several years ago and did a movie and apparently she was at Hooters and she got all drunk, or whatever, and she just didn't have any interest in meeting her fans. So this was the second chance and she was great this time.

Joel: Awesome.

Richard: She went to everybody she got pictures and autographs with everybody who's there, and I mean, you got to kind of get in the right kind of spot because you don't know how much they're going to do of the crowd.

Richard: Yeah.

Richard: And we were there for about nine 10 hours and yep she came down and I got her autograph and a selfie with her. It was beautiful. So that was my positive experience from this past Tiff.

Joel: Yeah. And and that's the thing. You were mentioning your previous TIFF experience and all that. I find people are like way too eager to write off a celebrity on like one bad experience they've had.

Richard: I don't know why I just I had to give her another chance. And it paid off.

Joel: Exactly and that's the thing. That's an important thing to keep in mind, I think. A lot of people...Who was it? I think it was John Goodman. I remember hearing someone say one time was like, 'Oh John Goodman's awful. He never signed any autographs.

Richard: Really eh? Aw!

Joel: And then I went to a thing that John Goodman was at. And I never met him but he spent like 20 minutes signing autographs. Like maybe you got him on a bad day. Maybe he was just in a rush. It could have been his people rushing him.

Richard: That's very true. I hear Johnny Depp is really good at trying to get as many people as possible but his security people will actually physically pick him up.

Joel: Well that's what happened that our premier. he came up and move him because he just hit you.

Joel: He keeps going. He's got you know he doesn't care.

Joel: I never got a picture or an autograph from Johnny Depp but I remember I'd set myself up to get a selfie with him. And that is what happened. Like he was physically trying to get as many people as possible…

Richard: He does that.

Joel: ...and I set myself up for a selfie, and he posed for a selfie, and then he was yanked away from it like his feet weren't touching the ground. His security people yanked him away. And I sort of made like an audible noise if like. And then he like made eye contact with me is like I'm really sorry man. And then he got pulled the way further I was like All right well like yeah that's not his fault. And it was a good experience even if I didn't get to get a selfie with him. But yeah it was insane at the end when they were dragging him into the movie. He was literally stretching out his arms and his body as far as he could to sign the last couple of autographs. And you could see him just like barely scrawling a signature but just trying to touch pen to paper.

Richard: I believe that. He's known to be like that, yeah.

Joel: Which is really great. I always love the ones who are like really good with their fans.

Richard: Yeah, George Clooney, he's really good. He does everybody, makes the rounds, he does everybody. You know, he's good that way. Javier Bardem—we had a really good experience with him.

Joel: Really!

Richard: Same thing.

Joel: God, I love that.

Richard: But they gave everybody pictures, autographs, whatever you want. Julianne Moore same thing. She was great.

Joel: Man, that's wild.

Richard: Those are the ones that stand out.

Joel: Yeah I mean I would say probably the one that stands out most for me is--not as big a name but I'm a big Kevin Smith fan. Actually, he's the longest I've ever waited for a premiere, which I definitely didn't need to wait that long because he's not quite as big as like a Johnny Depp or whatever, but I waited twelve hours to get tickets to do rush tickets for Kevin Smith's Tusk, back in 2014, I think it was.

Richard: Okay.

Joel: I waited I waited there for twelve hours. I was the first in line for Tusk. I brought my tickets with me and my girlfriend and a couple of different people were there with me, and we saw the movie, it was a really great experience. But then after the movie we came out and this was a midnight madness premiere. So when we came out after his Q and A that he always does after every movie it was close to 3:00 in the morning. And so I was getting ready to go home--like whatever, this is the end, he's going to dart out of here--and then he literally walked out of the doors onto the street, not in any celebrity area, just walked out into the crowd of people and spent another hour meeting every single person. I got my poster signed, I talked to him about the movie…

Richard: At three in the morning…

Joel: ...we took pictures. By the time I got home from downtown Toronto back to my place and after all of that, and everything it was, I think, six in the morning because we had been there for so long and that is great. Like the guy didn't need to do that. Yeah. And I remember his wife was there angry at him, like, 'Come on we have to go'. And he wasn't listening to her. And that was just such a memorable experience. That's good. That's a great TIFF experience.

Richard: Yeah, it's good. I've heard that too that some of them will go out [through] the back door kind of thing. Some of those crowds back there. And they'll get everybody before they go. It is hit or miss, again. Hit or miss.

Joel: And then that's the thing. If you're there going out the back door. You can't expect him to get everyone, it's just more of like, you can ask and that's all you can do. And that's all you gotta do…

Richard: You've got to have no expectations or else your heart's gonna get crushed more often than not.

Joel: Exactly. Now jumping over to a different side of this whole thing we've talked TIFF here, but you've also done the whole Fan Expo side of things,,,

Richard: Yes, a lot of times.

Joel: ...which is a totally different experience from what I understand.

Richard: Totally different. You're right. Totally different.

Joel: Which would you prefer of the two. If you had to pick one or the other what's your ideal.

Richard: That's tough because the conventions you're guaranteed to meet them as long as they show up. Sometimes there's cancellations but usually you know that in a little bit of advance. Yeah but I mean generally, that's tough because the film festival's free. You just gotta wait around all day and just hope they come to your area but Fan Expo and all these conventions... It's [sigh} just that they cost a lot of money.

Joel: They do.

Richard: They cost a lot of money, some of these people. When I start a Fan Expo back in 2008, 2009, whatever year it was, I mean I [could] get a big autograph, a big celebrity for 40 bucks or something. You know 30, 40 bucks. Now the big ones--you're paying like 120, 130, 140, even 200 sometimes.

Joel: I remember when Stan Lee came for his last Fan Expo, and it was like two hundred and fifty dollars to get a photo with him.

Richard: Sure.

Joel: And I was like, 'that's a lot of money'. But now I kind of regret not doing it because I'm like, honestly....

Richard: That's the thing. I've spent a lot of money on these things over the years. I have zero regrets. Because you know I had no tie downs. You know [I'm] hopefully getting married next year. So that's why I've got to start toning these things down now. But at the time I had no tie downs. I had money to throw around. And I enjoy it. You know you got to do something you enjoy, right, even though it is expensive.

Joel: But that's the thing. It is expensive but the money you're spending is like-- you're not just spending throwing money away, you're throwing money like into a guarantee. It's not just a guarantee of meeting the person, you're also saving yourself the eight hours or whatever it would have taken if you had met that person at TIFF. And, when you meet him at TIFF it's a quick like--you get a selfie you get an autograph, bing-bang-boom you're done.

Richard: if you do.

Joel: If you do. On the off chance that it all works out the stars aligning all of that. But I mean I've never done a fan expo but from what I understand it's a little more in-depth than that, when you spend the money you get to spend some time with them as well.

Richard: Well, a quick a quick time. It depends how big the celebrity is. Like photo ops for example. Generally because there's if there is a big name either they'll have a VIP package or it'll be, you know, they'll have like a lot of people lined up and stuff. And if they're only there for a certain amount of time then you'll feel rushed. The photo ops were very rushed. That happens a lot at conventions. Because if they get big ones they're gonna have a big lineups and big crowds and they have to get through them all. For example this past convention in Niagara Falls I went to recently--it's not as big as Fan Expo but--I met The Undertaker. The wrestler, The Undertaker.

Joel: Oh wild! Big Undertaker!

Richard: He was only he was only there for a short time. Right. So the photo ops were generally pretty quick. But I was able to shake his hand and got a picture with him that's still pretty cool, right.

Joel: When you shook his hand did it feel like like real strong. Did you think he'd could still pile drive you?

Richard: He's a big man. 'Cause I'm 6 five and he made me look small. So he's a big man.

Joel: That is really cool.

Richard: Yeah like he was only there for a short time and they had to get through everybody so it kind of goes over time a little bit but it's very rushed.

Joel: OK.

Richard: TIFF is kind of can be rush too. Yeah. But, I don't know, it's just, at least [at] Fan Expo you're guaranteed whereas a TIFF you're not. For me that's the big difference.

Joel: And the peace of mind is kind of worth the money depending on your viewpoint of a the thing.

Joel: Your viewpoint. who it is.

Music: [Commercial break]

Richard: I've met Ralph Macchio twice.

Joel: Oh! That's wild!

Richard: Niagara Falls as well. I met Billy Zabka and Martin Kove. They play sensei crease and Johnny. I met them for the first time. And Johnny is really cool, man, the actor who plays him. Billy Zabka, he's cool. So I got a photo with both of them. So that was pretty cool. That was cool.

Joel: That's awesome.

Richard: Yeah Cobra Kai was a pretty pretty big one for me, because I grew up loving the Karate Kid movies, and now there's that spin off show, Cobra Kai...

Joel: Which I've been meaning to check out.

Richard: If you like the karate kid you should watch them.

Joel: It's such a cool concept for a show.

Richard: You should watch...It's great. Honestly it is. Put it this way, I grew up hating Johnny, right. and now watching two seasons of Cobra Kai you're like, 'I'm liking Johnny.' I'm on team Johnny now! That's all I'm going to say. That's I'm going to say.

Joel: I'm all about the redemption arc.

Richard: Yeah, yeah!

Joel: All right. This may be a dividing question here but...photograph, autograph, which would you choose?

Richard: Photo.

Joel: Photo?

Richard: Yeah. Yeah.

Joel: Photo's the superior one?

Richard: When I started doing them maybe not much, but then over the years, I just find a photo with the person is more personal and something you remember more than just having a signature on a picture or something. So that's kind of my mindset now. You know I prefer a photo. That's why for Undertaker he was expensive. I only got a photo with him not his autograph.

Joel: Yeah I'd have to agree with you there. I mean it depends. Again, I was a big tough guy and I always kind of judge it by, like, do I think given the crowd levels I will be able to get a photo? Or might it be just a bit easier to get a signature. Like I met Robert Downey Junior at TIFF very briefly.

Richard: That's cool.

Joel: It was it's one of my highlights. I got him to sign my Avengers poster but I knew You know what with the Marvel crowd and everything, and this was right after Avengers Age of Ultron. So the MCU was getting pretty big at that point. I knew that that was going to be a wild crowd. So I was like, you know what, I'll just try and get him to sign something maybe say a few words to him. He signed my Avengers poster. I told him that I loved you Iron Man. He winked at me and said, "Thanks kid."

Richard: That's cool, man. That's a good experience. That's a good one.

Joel: That's a good moment.

Richard: That's your Jim Carrey experience right there.

Joel: It is somewhat Yeah, It's a comparable level.

Richard: It's a good one, yeah.

Joel: I mean I always go for the photograph when I can. It really depends on the situation there.

Richard: The other thing for me is like I don't care about ever making money on these things--like the autographs. I'm doing it just because I want to have their autograph right.

Joel: Yeah it's a fun thing to have.

Richard: I get them to personalize it to my name.

Joel: Of course.

Richard: And that's just because that's an experience for me. Yeah. Meeting them and having them personalize something. So they would be worthless to me, you know, just selling them. That's not that's not why I do it. Yeah. That's why a photo with them is more valuable to me than an autograph anyway.

Joel: Yeah. And I have to feel the same way about that, I think. Do you have a favorite thing that you've gotten signed. Is there something that like is beyond…

Richard: Oooh, I like that question could go a couple ways. But the first one that pops to mind--I met Ray Park a couple of times. He played Darth Maul.

Joel: Darth Maul, yeah!

Richard: OK. I'm a huge Star Wars guy. Everyone knows this.

Joel: Absolutely.

Richard: So I mean I met Mark Hamill too, and got a VIP with him.

Joel: Oh man, you're blowin' my mind.

Richard: OK That was five hundred bucks.

Joel: Holy crap! [laughs]

Richard: Five hundred bucks to meet Mark Hamill, and I paid it. That's the most expensive one to date that I've ever paid for over the years.

Joel: That's a question I wouldn't have thought to ask you.

Richard: For a Star Wars guy. There's just no price on that. Meeting Luke Skywalker.

Joel: You met the hero of a generation…

Richard: That's right!

Joel: Of multiple generations.

Richard: Yeah, so the VIP--you got an autograph, you got to you got to meet him of course. It was still kind of quick but you got to meet him, say a few words--autograph, personalized--and then you get a professional photo with him.

Joel: I've heard he's great too.

Richard: But Ray Park experience for me was a little different because...I don't know, out of all my Star Wars Star Wars characters I'm more of a Sith guy than a…

Joel: Oh you got to be. The bad guys are the coolest.

Richard: I've always thought that so... One of my most prized possessions is a replica Darth Maul light saber--not the double I have like one, just one lightsaber, not the doubleshot, right. And so when I went to meet Ray Park for the first time at Fan Expo It might have been maybe five six years ago, maybe. I brought the light saber, right, just so he could see it. So I met him and I got the light saber and I got a couple of pictures autograph one for me one for a friend of mine who's also a Star Wars fan. And then he saw the light saber he told me to sign your lightsaber for you. I'm like, 'oh I don't have any more money'. He said, "no no for free for free or whatever."

Joel: Yes!

Richard: So he signs a light saber right, and he actually signed it. He says, 'To Rick the Sith will rise again. Feel the power of the Sith.' And then he actually sign[ed] it 'Darth Maul, Ray Park.'

Joel: That's incredible [laughter].

Richard: So that's one of my most prized possessions to date.

Joel: That's amazing. Does he sign the hilt or the blade? Where do you sign a lightsaber?

Richard: The Blade. I play with it sometimes. You know it's it's a really cool light saber. It wasn't cheap. Yeah. And then it makes all the noises and all the effects and everything and it's all there and it's gonna be there forever.

Joel: That's incredible.

Richard: So that to me as prime my favorite favorite thing that's ever happened to me at a convention. My most prized possession would have to be the Darth Maul replica lightsaber signed by Ray Park. Even though meeting Mark Hamill was really really huge for me. Just Ray Park is such a great guy.

Joel: And Darth Maul--like that lightsaber and that character are just so iconic. They stand out--in a film that some people aren't huge on. I feel like Darth Maul reaches heights that you don't hit in some of the other Star Wars films.

Richard: Yeah, like the Phantom Menace, I didn't really care about much it was all about kind of character building a little bit, and you know, it was Anakin and all these kind of things. But but for me and the phantom menace it was all about Darth Maul. Yeah. Oh yeah. He was the coolest thing about the Phantom Menace.

Joel: To this day, when I re-watch The Phantom Menace I'm doing it for Darth Maul.

Richard: That's the only reason why I would ever watch it. I actually we just fast-forward to the scenes that he's in.

Joel: Just watch the Supercut on YouTube of all of them.

Richard: That's kind of what I would do. Yeah. And now whenever I watch him I it's like I met him had a conversation with her and at the time he wasn't very busy when I went--I forget what day it was, it might've been during a week like a Friday or something when I went to see him--and he didn't have a huge crowd or anything on that day. So I was able to converse with him and talk to him a little bit and he offers to sign the lightsaber. It was a cool experience. Whereas Mark Hamill, because of all the crowds and there must have been a lot of VIP tickets sold because it was really, really busy with him. You still only had a short little spurt of time to talk to him, whereas Ray Park was more of an experience 'cause I had a little more time to converse with him which was great.

Joel: That's wild. That's awesome. I'm jealous. You've made me jealous. You've made me sufficiently jealous throughout the course of this episode really.

Richard: Yeah those are the big ones come to mind those two because I'm a star wars freak, so..

Joel: Yeah. I'm I don't know if I've ever met anyone from Star Wars, actually, now that I think about it.

Richard: I'm not sure who I haven't met from Star Wars.

Joel: Oh wait hold on, hold on. Now you've met Darth Maul, you've met Luke Skywalker. I might have a one up on you, right. Because I met Joel Edgerton who played Uncle Owen in Attack of the Clones. So take that!

Richard: I got his autograph at TIFF.

Joel: Really. Not bad. I got a I got a picture with him when he looked like Eminem. I don't know why, I don't know what movie that was for, but he had like blond hair and piercings and stuff.

Richard: I wasn't going to get him but at TIFF I was waiting--this was the Johnny Depp year--I was in that area and a bunch of other people came for other movies while we were waiting for Johnny Depp's premiere.

Richard I met him at the Johnny Depp premiere as well.

Joel: That's where I met him. Yeah.

Richard: OK. I'm wondering it it the Black Mass?

Joel: Yes!

Richard: OK. All right all right. Yeah. I was there. That's right

Joel: I was there too!

Richard: . There they are. At the Elgin theater--you t know when you walk out of the Elgin Theatre, And there's the barricades on both sides? We were right there in front of one of the barricades. And he went right across the street

Joel: I was across the street at the time I was the guy across the street…

Richard: You lucky guy, man. Lucky guy

Joel: That is insane.

Richard: That's crazy.

Joel: That's a small-world moment right there…

Joel: Yeah yeah. Awesome. Awesome. All right. Fine. Now I'm I'm hung up on the whole Star Wars thing though. I surely have met someone else from Star Wars.

Richard: I've met the Emperor too, Ian McDermott.

Joel: Oh you met Ian McDermott!

Richard: I told him, I said, 'I hate your guts. When Darth Vader threw you over there I was really...' ('Oh you hate me, eh?') I said, 'yes, so can you please sign that to my young apprentice?' And he did. And that was cool.

Joel: I didn't tell you to use that hatred, or something like that.

Richard: He doesn't go to the character too much I hear at these things.

Joel: That's yeah. I mean he's like a respectable actor too though. Not that some of the others weren't. But it's like he's like a real classic thespian.

Richard: Yeah, that's right.

Music: [slow keyboard interstitial]

Joel: Is there anyone you haven't met that is on your. Like, what's your to do list of people to meet.

Richard: Well there's there's a bunch of female celebrities that are on my to-do list. If you don't mind, I'll pull out my phone so I can refer to them.

Joel: Oh you have a written to-do list?

Richard: I have celebrities I want to meet and they're all females.

Joel: All right.

Richard: OK. Let's go right here—Top female celebs I want to meet. Okay, let's see...Emma Watson, she's on top of the list. And she had a movie at TIFF a few years ago but she was filming something somewhere else so she wasn't there. It's disappointing.

Joel: She was...I'm not sure the year she was there, had a friend who was like a big Harry Potter fan, and went through like the main trio and met all three of them at different years at TIFF. And he met Emma Watson. I was always kind of jealous of that.

Richard: Yeah. She's the top of the list, man. I've always had a thing for her. One that will probably never happen is Selena Gomez.

Joel: Really?

Richard: She's on my list. It will probably never happen. If she does do a concert. I mean you have to [have] a VIP package and God knows what it would cost.

Joel: I mean occasionally sometimes they'll come to a movie if they did a song or something. I remember Taylor Swift was at TIFF a few years ago. So it could happen. You never know. Like she wasn't like in the movie. She just did a song for it.

Richard: OK. The rest of them are all kind of wrestling related. A lot of them are...OK, it was Mary Mouser, she's in Cobra Kai. So she plays Daniella LaRusso's daughter in Cobra Kai.

Joel: OK, alright.

Richard: I have a thing for her as well.

Joel: I feel like that's doable. That's not like a huge name.

Richard: No, that's right. I think that's possible. It's possible. Anna Golia, she's in a TV show, Degrassi-The Next Generation. Well the next class I think is technically the one she was in. Um...A couple of wrestlers here...Emma Stone is on this list. And she was at TIFF. Her and Clooney were there together and the one year I believe I heard--I wasn't there for it, it was somewhere else--but they actually snuck out the back. The two of them, because the crowds were getting too big. Everyone knew they were in there, and they went out the back. I heard that happened with those two. Because Clooney is really good with his fans. So the fact that he went...but I'm pretty sure I was told that he and Emma Stone went back together. To me means that the crowds must have been ridiculous. But yeah, Emma Watson is the top of the list, but there are a few other smaller one--Page from diary a wrestler. Velvet Sky. She's a wrestler. Alexa bliss. She's a wrestler. I mean it's possible those ones might happen at some point but…

Joel: The wrestlers especially I'm always seeing—there's always like the smaller Comic-cons…I ways see the ads on Niagara Comic-cons. Like, you said you met the undertaker there. I'm always seeing like a couple of wrestlers there and they do a lot of book signings every time that one of them releases a book. I had a friend who met Chris Jericho and Mick Foley when they released their books.

Richard: Oh, okay. My fiancée met Chris Jericho, at a book signing.

Joel: I'm not a huge wrestling guy, but I would love to meet Chris Jericho because that's a dude that just like transcends the sport that he's in. He's just a cool dude.

Richard: Yeah. Her experience with him was very very good. Yeah. Yeah it was.

Joel: That's awesome.

Richard: Well, yeah, I've got one name on this list, pretty much that's now scratched out that I hadn't met that I met recently that was on the list.

Joel: Who was it?

Richard: Kristen Stewart. So I was last year. Maybe this year I'll luck out and be able to scratch somebody else off the list but that's my general list. I mean as far as male celebrities go that's I don't know. That's tough for me to figure out there's any big celebrities. I mean the Karate Kid people--Karate Kid was huge for me growing up. I've met all the big ones there except for Mary Mouser who's on the list. Other things that I grew up, I'm sure is a lot of 80s people 'cause I was a big fan of the '80s genre of movies and there's there's probably a whole whack of them I'm just not thinking of. But, I've met I've met so many that I just it's hard to keep track of who I've met and who I haven't to be honest.

Joel: I mean I'm having trouble and I've met like maybe fifteen people tops. It's like have I met people from Star Wars and shit? Like I'm juggling around here. I can't think of it. I don't know.

Richard: I even have an autograph DVD cover of Star Trek Next Generation, most of the cast.

Joel: I have the J.J. Abrams 2009 Star Trek 'cause I met Zachary Quinto.

Richard: Zachary Quinto? I met him. I got an autograph.

Joel: You did? All right.

Richard: I did. Heroes as well.

Joel: Right. Right.

Richard: I love him in Heroes. For me that's bigger than Spock.

Joel: See I never watch Heroes I've always heard the first season was really good and I never got around to it. But I was big on the Abrams Star Trek movies, which I then have like recently gone around being like, 'I'm not as big on these as I once was.' But I still think he's a great actor. Actually that was a really interesting year. I went to meet Matt Damon and the crowds were wild and it was a bust and I didn't meet Matt Damon and I was kind of bummed out about that…

Richard: Sure!

Joel: And then I walked over across the street and met Michael Fassbender and Zachary Quinto and they had been like my back up to him. Like, I'll stick these DVD's in my bag. We'll see. And then I walked up as the premiere was starting. I didn't wait at all. And they came right to the end of the line and met me and I was so nervous that I dropped my sharpie for Zachary Quinto.

Richard: [Laughs] That happens though. The nerves can get the best of us when we're in that situation, you know?

Joel: But it's so weird. It's one of those things where ahead of time I'm like, 'I can handle this'. And then in the moment I'm like, 'why am I shaking?' God damn it.

Richard: I've been there I've been there too.

Joel: It got to me. It got to me.

Music: [dramatic vocal interstitial]

Joel: Well it's been fun. We've talked. We've compared notes. You've definitely beaten me in terms of cool, cool stuff. You've had signed, and people you've met. But who knows maybe I can catch up in a couple of years via, I go hardcore with the whole thing. Is there anything else you want to say? Any advice you want to throw it to someone if they want to kind of get to your level of star stalking?

Richard: Spend a lot of money if you do the convention circuit. Spend a lot of money--or if you do the film festival, Toronto Film Festival for example, just you got to go to be able to wait out there for a long time, not eat, not drink.

Joel: Patience.

Richard: Patience is a virtue at these things.

Joel: Yes, in all things.

Richard: It's not going to guarantee you anything, but it's a virtue. And just one question you didn't ask, I want to throw in quickly.

Joel: Oh absolutely.

Joel: Is--the most money I've ever spent on a Fan Expo was--it would have been maybe six seven years ago--Walking Dead people. There was a ton...I spent over a thousand dollars just on Walking Dead people, when I was really into the show. So just you know that's how much money it can take to, you know, to do these things.

Joel: But you know what we've all got that excess money and we spend it on the things that we love. And you you clearly love this stuff. So I salute you for that.

Richard: Thank you very much.

Joel: Thank you for coming on the show.

Richard: Thanks, it's been a great.

Joel: Yeah absolutely.

Richard: Great talking about this stuff.

Joel: And I'm Joel Caldarola. This is Joel And The Superfans.

Music: [End theme music with credit read] Joel And The Superfans is a production of Punctual Media. Technical design and music by Timothy Anderson, produced in Toronto Canada by Timothy Anderson and Joel Caldarola.