OK, for my big story from the second Star Wars convention. I was posted at the
end of the Carrie Fisher autograph line. That was kinda fun, I made friends with the people at the
end of the line and kept turning folks away. Folks did EVERYTHING to get in
that line. One guy came up and told me he had JUST left the line a second
before to go to the bathroom. Since I had been there for an hour and
someone else was there before me keeping it closed I knew that was a lie.
The next guy told me he had permission from the WOTC people at the start of
the line. I told him to go get one of them to tell me to let him in and I
would. That was it for him. The next guy got smart and tried to bribe me.
Now I have a price. Not sure what it is exactly for things like this, but
bribing me might have worked. BUT he only tried to bribe me $10. Whatever
my price is, it's NOT $10. So I gave him the boot.
Meanwhile I was scheming away. There I was in the Carrie Fisher line. I
just HAD to get an autograph. But the WOTC folks said no, that they
couldn't even get autographs...and I didn't have an autograph ticket, which
was being sold in another room. So oh well. But then salvation came in the
form of Chris, from the Hothlanta
Rebels. And he hands me a autograph ticket. I love this man.
So the line ends, and I meet up with the trooper at the front of the line.
He's also scored a autograph ticket from a friend. So we go in, the last
folks to get autographs for the day. I get a picture of Carrie getting
hauled off by Jeremy Bulloch in imperial officer garb with a trooper
leveling his blaster at the camera. Carrie signs it "Love to Evan" with an
arrow pointing to the trooper. I knew it. She has a thing for me. I'm
certain her room number was encoded in the message somewhere but didn't
decipher it in time. Blasted rebel codes.
So me and the other trooper happily go to the exit, just to get blocked by a
wall of people with cameras. That was a new experience for me. We couldn't
get out. It was totally blocked by this crowd. So we just went back in the
room. Carrie Fisher was exhausted, she just came out from behind the table
and laid down while security tried to figure out how to get her out of
there. They decided to move her to a room just down the corridor that had
an exit, so we just had to clear a path about 50 feet. But we weren't sure
how to do that. I tried to call more troopers on FRS, but only one Han Solo
responded (turns out everyone was at the concert.) So the three of us went
out, moved folks back and cleared a line, and stood guard facing the
crowd I was thinking that if they pushed we were gone, so I spoke to several guys
in the front of the line and they agreed to help hold the crowd if it did
push. Then Carrie swept out and they shot towards the door. The crowd was
VERY well behaved, no one shoved or anything, just lots of pictures. And
then she was gone.
But I got to play bodyguard to Carrie Fisher in full Stormtrooper armor in
front of a huge crowd. That RULES!