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<TITLE>Re: [Groop] NY Big Apple Con and Broadway Report</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana">George,<BR>
<BR>
Thanks for the report. What a delight to hear how much fun your kids had with Sergio and vice versa! Not that it comes as any surprise, it’s just fun to hear.<BR>
<BR>
Chris (Glorko)<BR>
<BR>
on 4/8/05 1:43 PM, George Karalias at george@karalias.com wrote:<BR>
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</FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana">Hello everyone,<BR>
Well, it's a week late, but here is my Con report.<BR>
For pictures go to: http://www.karalias.com/NYCon2005/NYComic2005.htm<BR>
<BR>
SEEING SERGIO.<BR>
Last Friday, we started off by arriving at the Hotel Pennsylvania to be greeted by one the worst rooms my family and I have ever been in. I've stayed there on business and the rooms have been great, but obviously they had run out of the good ones! We were able to move over to the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, which was absolutely beautiful.<BR>
<BR>
I popped into the Con at about 7pm on Friday night to see if Sergio was there. He was and was about to be interviewed on camera. He took a couple of minutes to say hi and meet Caroline, my 10 yr old daughter. I then asked Sergio if he had plans for dinner. He said he did not! We agreed to meet up at "Bubba Gump's" in Times Square. It was an absolutely wonderful time. Lindsey, my 7 yr old daughter, found a new best friend in Sergio. He joked and doodled on scraps of paper with her. We exchanged some great stories, and of course, talked about Gary for a bit. (All good, Gary... not to worry!) As my wife Susan said, he is one of the easiest people to talk to!<BR>
<BR>
On Saturday, we all went to the Con and met several other artists and ended up talking to Neal Adams and his wife for a while. (Susan and I had met them a few years ago at a video game conference) However, this is the funny part: Neal started talking to the kids and telling us about the animation side of his world (his production company recently completed the "Nasanex" commercial with the animated bees) and how we liked the con so far. Then, he told the kids: "...you know, there's an artist here who is a great kid-friendly cartoonist. You should check out his stuff. His name is Sergio Aragones..." Lindsey's eyes went wide at that point and she announced that we had gone to dinner with him the night before! <BR>
<BR>
After looking around the show for a little bit, we went over to Sergio's table and bought some books for the girls (and myself... he had the new "definitions" book there). I ended up staying at the table for a bit before Sergio's interview. All of us met up again at the interview and enjoyed Sergio's stories. After that we said our good-byes to Sergio and headed out into to windy, rainy streets of NYC. (We weren't leaving NY till Sunday, but we had other things we were going to be doing the rest of the time...)<BR>
<BR>
GROO GETS A JOB ON BROADWAY.<BR>
That evening we went to dinner at Chevy's and then went to see the show, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Groo was there... I kid you not! Let me explain. First, let me tell you that the show was excellent. We all loved it. Beautiful scenery, excellent performances by all the cast, and technically a marvel! For a couple of the scenes, the car actually leaves the stage and flies and turns around over the audience. Incidentally, the show was in its 7th night... so they were still working out the kinks. That said, here are the "Groo" incidents.... Groo's first job backstage was "audio technician." About 15 minutes into the show, the entire sound system rumbled, crackled, hissed, hissed again, and then completely went out. No microphones were working from anyone on stage or the orchestra! It had turned into a Sergio-pantomime! The actors finished up the scene as best they could and the house lights came up and they spent the next 15+ minutes fixing the problem... and moving Groo to another job. They figured if they gave him something to do at the end of the show, he wouldn't have time to wreck anything else during the show. Brilliant. However, the job he was given was to fire off the confetti cannons at the end of the performance. Well, I can only guess, but I think Groo decided to check the suspension holding the cannons. During intermission, one of the cannons came loose from the ceiling/rafters and crashed down to the floor, triggering the very loud, very startling confetti explosion. The seat it hit was demolished. The person sitting there was either in the bathroom or getting candy... thank God! The gentleman sitting next to it was white as a sheet. I was thankful that our seats were in the first row under the mezzanine balcony.<BR>
<BR>
On Sunday morning, I finally got to meet my "old friend" Larry Steller. We had a great time chatting and having coffee at the Howard Johnson's next to the Marriott Marquis. Larry's a great guy and told me about his future career plans that sound really exciting (I'll let him fill you in) Since Boston and NY are so close, I'm sure we'll be meeting up again soon.<BR>
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Needless to say, this is a show and a weekend that my whole family will never forget!<BR>
<BR>
-George<BR>
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