Shockingly, I arrived for my second day at NYCC with enough time to walk around the convention a bit before my first & only scheduled interview for the weekend. I didn’t mention it in yesterday’s coverage because I wanted it to be a surprise but one of the reasons I headed home early after NYCC yesterday was to watch THE BAY. Why did I need to see this flick you may ask? Because my roundtable today was with the legendary Barry Levinson, director of THE BAY as well as some other flicks you might have heard of like RAIN MAN, DINER, and SPHERE. Speaking with him was an incredible experience and I will have a full recap of the roundtable posted soon.
At the roundtable I ran into Mike Spring of DVDSnapshot.com, who I first met at the convention a few years back. We chatted for a bit before I once again made my way to the show floor. Seeing the massive wait at the IGN theater and the general overcrowding of NYCC, I decided it would be best to skip the panels since they were going to be live-streamed anyway for anyone interested in checking them out. I also assumed they would be made available afterwards although that seems not to be the case, at least not officially.
While passing the Magnet Releasing booth, I saw that director Glenn McQuaid was signing posters for VHS. I stuck around for a few minutes to get a really quick interview, which you can check out right here:
After some more aimless roaming of the overcrowded show floor, I stopped by the Archaia Comics booth to say hi to our good friend Dan Fogler (FANBOYS, BALLS OF FURY). We talked about setting up an interview in about 2 weeks to discuss DON PEYOTE, as well as a plethora of other projects he is working on.
My Sunday at NYCC consisted of more of the same; navigating my way through waves of costumed fans eager to throw down hard-earned cash. The one exception being the hour or so I sat down for a panel. My first and only for this year was an impromptu panel hosted by Sean Astin, which was created last minute thanks to a petition he himself started. He was one of those people with a decent-sized line of fans waiting to meet him the past three days in the autograph area.
Watching Sean Astin take command of the whole room, telling incredibly detailed and personal stories about his entire career, I gained a newfound respect for the man. Unfortunately the panel ran long and I was unable to interview him afterwards as I had discussed with whoever was assisting him for the day. Shortly after, security began their “hard close” of the convention and I was yelled at for not exiting promptly.
Jerry Cavallaro – www.JerryCavallaro.com
