Posted by Temple of Geek was in Austin Texas Thursday night at the Spider House. We were invited to a press reception for the kick off of Wizard World. The guests slated to appear were Lou Ferrigno and Jason David Frank. This was our opportunity to catch up with these guys and speak with them.
We arrived promptly at 6pm and met Abby Ferguson of Wizard World. This woman was amazing! She made sure that everyone there was able to meet with the celebs. Once Lou arrived, she allowed Temple of Geek to sit down with him first.
Jeff interviewed Mr. Ferrigno as this was a child hood favorite for him. It was fantastic! Jeff asked some fun questions and Ferrigno gave fun responses. After the interview was over, Jeff thanked him and we walked away feeling accomplished!
As we sat down at our table, Abby came up and informed us that Charles Martinet was present. This was a fanboy moment for me as I love everything Nintendo! Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, came and sat next to me.
As we were getting setup to interview him, I noticed that the mic was in the off position. I immediately had a gut wrenching feeling that our interview with Lou Ferrigno did not have audio. I thought, surely Jeff turned it off when he handed me the mic.
I interviewed Mr. Martinet and was blown away by his energy. It was so awesome to speak with him and hear all the Mario characters come out of one person. This was my first in person interview and I was at ease because of how awesome Martinet was.
After Martinet left our table, I checked the Ferrigno interview, and it was as I feared. No audio! We had a mic flag on the mic that kept sliding down and turning it off. I told Jeff who was disappointed. I told him that we could interview him again. Jeff asked Abby if it was possible and she made sure that we were taken care of.
Jeff setup to speak with Ferrigno. We removed the flag to ensure no further issues. He appeared to either be really tired or in some sort of pain. The second interview did not have the same, energetic responses that we got from him the first time. Jeff did try to make a joke by telling him not to get angry (you know, because he was the Hulk), but in the end, Jeff felt that we lost a great interview with the first attempt. Ferrigino ended up leaving right after our interview. He did reveal to our amazement that he is voicing the Hulk, rumor confirmed!
Abby flagged down Jason David Frank for us. I was told by Jeff that I needed to do this interview. For those of you who don’t know, I am a huge JDF fan! I shook his hand and started in with the questions. I was shocked that I was able to do two interviews without getting too flustered. I thanked Frank for his time and with that, we interviewed three celebrities!
We walked over to the bar as drinks were on Wizard World. They had two themed drinks, The Incredible Hulk and The Green Ranger. I opted for the Green Ranger while Jeff got a rum and coke (really?!). We spoke with the bar tender, Jackson, who was telling us tales of lore. He even posed for a picture.
We were wrapping up and saw that JDF was taking pictures with people. We took a photo with him and asked him a couple more questions. We exited the building to do a quick intro for our interviews. As I was recording, JDF walked out behind us and was saying by and acted like he was morphing by saying “Dragonzord.” We finished our intro and left.
We had a blast and look forward to possibly attending more events like this. All the celebrities were awesome to take the time to speak with everyone there. With this being our first event like this, you can bet we learned a couple of things! Check out the interviews below and let us know what you think by leaving a comment.
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