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Post by Randle-El on Sept 29, 2016 20:08:41 GMT -5
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,409
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Post by shaxper on Sept 29, 2016 20:22:26 GMT -5
Really makes those $100 autograph fees look even more insanely greedy. I never paid more than $60 myself and, after a few years of doing it, I sort of lost my sense of being star-struck. I met everyone I wanted to meet, most were disappointments (you spend $40 on an autograph, you expect to have a meaningful exchange with the person or at least have it last more than five seconds -- what's the point of commemorating the experience with an autograph if there was no experience?), and now I prefer seeking out the has-beens who charge far less, will talk to you for a good minute or two, and genuinely seem as enthusiastic to have a fan as you are to be meeting them.
The over-priced celebrity autograph/photo-op experience has got to be a bubble, right? People aren't going to keep throwing hundreds of dollars a pop at this, right?
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Post by Randle-El on Sept 30, 2016 9:37:56 GMT -5
Really makes those $100 autograph fees look even more insanely greedy. I never paid more than $60 myself and, after a few years of doing it, I sort of lost my sense of being star-struck. I met everyone I wanted to meet, most were disappointments (you spend $40 on an autograph, you expect to have a meaningful exchange with the person or at least have it last more than five seconds -- what's the point of commemorating the experience with an autograph if there was no experience?), and now I prefer seeking out the has-beens who charge far less, will talk to you for a good minute or two, and genuinely seem as enthusiastic to have a fan as you are to be meeting them. The over-priced celebrity autograph/photo-op experience has got to be a bubble, right? People aren't going to keep throwing hundreds of dollars a pop at this, right? I don't know that the autograph/photo-op experience itself is a bubble, but I firmly believe that the convention scene is reaching bubble status. I remember reading somewhere about Wizard World scaling down the number of shows they do in the next year due to losses in revenue. There was another interview I read with one of the executives at ReedPOP (who produce NYCC) who said that the celebrity guests are now becoming the bottleneck, since they can only do so many shows a year and there are too many shows for them to pick from. I know that there are convention junkies that go to a lot of shows every year, but I don't see how the market can sustain that kind of behavior in the long term. Personally, I think it's fine to have a reasonable number of media guests at a con, especially if it makes sense -- e.g., actors from comic book related films or TV shows. In that sense, I think Baltimore Comic Con does a great job, as they usually only have 4-5 media guests at any given show, and the overwhelming majority of guests are actual comic book creators. What I really don't get these days is the proliferation of professional wrestlers at these events. Don't get me wrong, I've watched plenty of WWE/WWF in my day, but I always scratch my head when I see wrestlers at shows with the words "comic con" in the name. Oh, and I absolutely agree with you that it's more fun to meet B-list, up-and-coming, or not-currently-active celebs. Autographs/photos are way cheaper, lines are shorter, and you actually get to have a decent conversation with them. The most fun I had with meeting a celebrity con guest were Edward James Olmos (from the Battlestar Galactica reboot), Allison Mack (Chloe from Smallville), and Erin Gray (Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers). |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,409
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Post by shaxper on Sept 30, 2016 9:53:21 GMT -5
There's something about standing in a line for two hours to spend $100 to meet a person who wants you to get out of their face as quickly as possible that just seems horrendously demeaning to me. It's like you have to have a low self-esteem to buy into this kind of thing, and the process only knocks down your self-esteem even lower.
I know there are some great celebrities who try hard to make each exchange with a fan memorable (it's GOT to be hard to smile and make small talk to each person on line), but the very nature of the experience encourages celebrities to treat their fans like cattle on an assemblyline. I'm not at all interested in that kind of experience unless someone is willing to pay ME to do it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2016 10:19:11 GMT -5
America's fascination with celebrity is not a bubble, it is an infinite pool. There are decades old television shows, cable channels, newspapers, etc. whose entire business plays on America's fascination with celebrity and people have doled out billions of dollars over those decades to these businesses just to get some kind of vicarious thrill of a brush with that celebrity. Why would paying $100 and hours in line deter these people who want that experience? Social media and con events like this just fuel the fire of that fascination with celebrity in a significant portion of the population. Signed sports and movie memorabilia has been big business for a long time and sports heroes have been able to fund their retirement doing signings for decades (just look at Pete Rose for an example). All these shows have done is take this phenomenon and package it into a single venue.
-M
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 30, 2016 20:51:57 GMT -5
Stuff like this kind of makes me relieved that so many of my favorite actors are dead. I'd hate to see someone I respected ripping people off like this. |
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 30, 2016 20:58:25 GMT -5
There's something about standing in a line for two hours to spend $100 to meet a person who wants you to get out of their face as quickly as possible that just seems horrendously demeaning to me. It's like you have to have a low self-esteem to buy into this kind of thing, and the process only knocks down your self-esteem even lower. I know there are some great celebrities who try hard to make each exchange with a fan memorable (it's GOT to be hard to smile and make small talk to each person on line), but the very nature of the experience encourages celebrities to treat their fans like cattle on an assemblyline. I'm not at all interested in that kind of experience unless someone is willing to pay ME to do it.
I remember hearing some anecdote about an early 20th century carny who offered to let you "shake hands with a guy who shook hands with Lincoln" for a price. When you paid that amount, he took you to a room, pulled an arm out from under a sheet, placed it in your hand, shook, and let the realization sink in that you just shook the hands of some old corpse who once touched greatness. I imagine the feeling a lot of people have after paying so much for an autograph at Wizard World or wherever is much the same as that.
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