MonsterMania 61 happened this past weekend in Oaks, PA. I was all set to attend, but my 14-year-old son injured his knee in fencing practice two days before and could barely walk. I decided to stay home with him and my youngest daughter, who has no interest in horror films anyway. My oldest daughter went with her uncle, dressed in her “Amanda Young” cosplay from “Saw”, complete with the custom reverse bear trap mask I made her a week earlier for Halloween. She was a star of the show in that, with many guests stopping her to pose for photos. Even Shawnee Smith, “Amanda Young” herself, got in on the action.
As for guests in attendance, I had my eyes on a few prized additions to my collection. “Alien” stars Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright and “Aliens” stars Paul Reiser and Carrie Henn. Reiser was charging too much and the lines were too long for all of them, so I was denied.
Also on my list was Mark Metcalf, the actor who played the “What are you gonna do with your life?” dad from the Twisted Sister music video for “I Wanna Rock”. He also starred in one of my favorite 80’s comedies, “One Crazy Summer”, as the lobster-loving villain Beckerstead. When my daughter and her uncle found him, he had no line, and was happy to engage me in a brief phone conversation to talk about the fun he had being in “One Crazy Summer”. He didn’t have any photos from that film, just his more recognizable stuff like “Animal House” and “Sienfeld”. He signed a photo from “Animal House” with the phrase, “Eat More Lobster!”. Great guy!
