Meeting James Marsters

I met James Marsters yesterday at GalaxyCon.  If I remember, I'll share a post about GalaxyCon in general tomorrow, because that was a first too.  Today though, I'm going to focus on meeting Marsters.  For those of you not familiar, Marsters played Spike on the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  My wife and girls grew up on Buffy, and I'll admit I'm a fan too.  In fact, the primary reason I went to GalaxyCon was so my younger daughter could meet James Marsters.  Since my lovely bride is also a big Buffy fan, she happily agreed to join us.

We arrived shortly after the doors opened for the day, and essentially headed directly to the James Marsters table for the meet and greet.  The line wasn't horribly long, but we waited approximately 90 minutes until it was our turn.  Daughter was virtually bursting with excitement as we snaked through the line, and it was definitely an exercise in patience for her.  Fortunately for me, I don't go nuts in lines, a skill I picked up from the military.  We all chatted with others while waiting in line, which was a very pleasant way to help kill the time, and eventually it was our (daughter's) turn for the meet and greet.

While waiting in line, daughter indicated she was twitterpated, and she didn't disappoint.  Marsters greeted her and she responded with "You're my second crush."  Marsters didn't miss a beat and replied by saying "You're welcome, who was your first crush?"  Her mind went blank for a half second, before she recovered, telling him that her first crush was Johnny Depp, specifically Captain Jack Sparrow.  "Have you met Johnny," he casually queried?  "He's a really nice guy."  He then turned his attention to my wife and me, noticing that we were both wearing Star Trek attire.

"Oh, you're both Trekkies, nice!  Are you enjoying the convention?"  I replied informing him that it was my first time attending any convention like this, and he said he was a big Trek fan and attended his first convention when he was 13 years old, back when it was all Star Trek.  He then suggested that we spend time talking to other attendees, saying that in his opinion, the fans are the best part of conventions.  He then spent a few more moments talking to wifey and daughter as he signed some memorabilia daughter brought expressly for that purpose.

Backing up a bit... as we waited in line, I caught bits and pieces of his conversations with other fans.  Marsters had talked with a guy shortly before us in line about music.  (Marsters is in a band, Ghost of the Robot.)  The fan was a bass player, and Marsters said something about bass being too hard on the fingers, and said he plays acoustic with ultra light nylon strings.  Yes! I thought.  Not about bass, because that's my primary instrument, but about light strings.  My acoustic guitar has very light strings as well, though they're metal instead of nylon.  I never understood the appeal of heavy strings.  Even my bass has relatively light strings.  I had kind of hoped to chat about music, but I was more than happy to let him and daughter lead the conversation.  I was just a supporting cast member in daughter's show.  Heck, I didn't expect to have any lines, but I was happy to participate.  My overall impression was that he did a spectacular job of finding a connection with everyone who came to meet him.

A short while later there was an opportunity for a professional photo shoot with Marsters, and daughter seized that opportunity as well.  Despite the fact that he had met dozens of fans between our meet-and-greet and the photo session, he appeared to recognize us and said "Welcome back."  This, again, left me with the impression that he was doing more than just going through the motions.  He seemed to genuinely be paying attention to the fans.

That evening, Marsters did a short concert.  It was just him on stage with his acoustic guitar, and we were in a small, intimate room.  We sat at round tables, which lent to an atmosphere of a small lounge.  He played for about an hour, telling a brief story about each song before he played it.  I split my attention between enjoying the music and stories, observing his guitar technique and chord progressions, watching how he worked the audience, and noticing how the audience reacted to him.  It felt like Marsters made eye contact with everyone in the room at one point or another, which again impressed me.  It seemed like he was genuinely interested in his fans, and he came across as someone who was truly happy that people enjoyed his music.

Taking another conversational turn, this time talking as a musician, I have always considered myself a rudimentary musician.  I can play a few chords on guitar, and I can hit the right notes and hold rhythm on bass.  I feel like I have a decent voice and slightly better than average vocal range.  But I will never be a lead guitarist, blistering bass player or vocal virtuoso.  I've written, arranged, and recorded one song that I'm very proud of, but I suspect that if I were to become a songwriter, my songs would very quickly all sound the same.  With that said though, Marsters improved my assessment of my own ability to play.  I have a wider vocal range than what he demonstrated, and his guitar playing was basic chords and simple strumming patterns.  Don't get me wrong.  I very much enjoyed the concert.  His songs were well constructed lyrically and his guitar technique was advanced and varied enough that he didn't come across as a novice trying to pass himself off as a virtuoso.  All I am saying here is that when I left his concert, I thought damn, maybe I'm better at guitar than I've been giving myself credit for.

Now, having said all of this, I should say this is the first time I've been this close to any celebrity, and I've kind of always wondered what it would be like to brush elbows with someone famous.  Based on my reading, it should be obvious that my experience was positive.  He seemed genuinely interested in his fans, and down to earth with his interactions.  Most importantly though, he gave my little girl a day that she will remember for the rest of her life.  As much as anything else, I'm glad that I got to share in her happiness.