It takes two to make it outta sight

Thank you, sir, may I have another? Even though I had already met Nicholas Lea and Richard Dreyfuss somewhat recently, how could I resist when they came to my home turf for Chiller?

At X-Fest, Nick's line never seemed to get smaller, so I certainly enjoyed more time and space with him this time around. Sestra and I ran into a longtime friend of mine, Jane, so we all took pictures for and with each other at his table. I had to apologize to Nick for being so sweaty, because my temperature literally went up in his presence. But I didn't have to worry, he was sweltering as well. "I'm sorry I am, I ran down from my room," he chuckled.

We talked a bit about X-Fest and he said, "Everyone was so nice to me." I replied, "That's because you were so nice to everyone!" I asked whether he kept any memorabilia from his time on the show, and he said he had everything, from his prosthetic arm to the crew gifts they received at the end of each season.

Nick was hoping he would get called to be a part of Season 11 -- as was I -- but he never did hear from Chris Carter and company. He knew the internet had been resplendent with rumors about Krycek being alien, I always thought it would have worked better if he was a super soldier that Skinner couldn't have killed with a mere bullet.

This was my fourth time getting to meet him, because I have to count the original X-Files Expo way back in 1998. And the previous couple of times, I asked for a picture of him with "Jesus hair" from the Season 6 episode "S.R. 819." Of course, I wouldn't have asked more than once had he not said he had one when I saw him at Dragon Con. But then, lo and behold, I looked through my own binder of X-Files memorabilia and found one that I brought to have signed on this occasion. 

I retold him my story again of "S.R. 819" being the only original series run episode I clearly remember seeing live, because my friend and I were calling each other during the commercial breaks, yelling "It's Krycek! It's Krycek!" in the episode that found Skinner literally on the ropes. Nick called it the one in which he gets to torture Mitch.

I made sure to tell him that I make a point to see him in anything he's in that I can get a hold of. And I do mean anything. The Impossible Elephant, Vertical Limit, The Raffle, The Philadelphia Experiment, Category 7: The End of the World and Men in Trees. He couldn't believe Sestra and I had seen the latter, since it was never officially released. We didn't want to say I got a copy of the show on iOffer.

We talked for a bit about how cool it was for him to be Eliot Ness on Supernatural and he mentioned he had recently done a couple episodes of The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, a particularly intriguing prospect for me since I'm a fan of the original BBC Bletchley Circle series. He got to work with girlfriend Suleka Mathew, who also played his girlfriend in Men in Trees.

I didn't quite to spend as much quality time with Dreyfuss as I did at Spooky Empire, but what I got was choice (pronounced old-school cherce). It was about an hour wait before I got up to him, and he was signing an extreeeeme closeup from Jaws for the person in front of me. I said something about him covering up his face with the autograph. He chuckled, then said, "I have more than enough face."

Even though I was wearing my Amity Island hockey jersey, he seemed much more impressed by the vintage Jaws necklace I was wearing. (The rest of Chiller was much more interested in the jersey, I had many people ask me where I got it -- GeekyJerseys.com, people!) Then I added, "But this is my favorite movie of all time," when I gave him my Close Encounters Special Edition lobby card to sign. 

When I sat down for my picture, he took my hand. It was literally very cool. It actually surprised me, because he had met and greeted so many people. I wondered aloud whether he had adopted a hands-off policy, but he quickly quipped, "I'm touching everyone I can."

One of the people both Sestras were excited to meet was Karen Allen. We really didn't expect her to be so sweet and lovely as Claire in Scrooged. I think I was expecting a little Marion spice from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sestra perfectly thanked her for entertaining us for so many years. I mentioned the glittering array of male co-stars she's had -- Bill Murray and Harrison Ford ... she quickly added Jeff Bridges ... and Sestra added Peter Riegert, who just happened to be sitting at an adjacent table.

We had to agree with that supposition as we'd both met Riegert and he was so self-effacing and charming. "Peter, they think you're nicer than Harrison," Allen yelled over to him before turning her attention back to us. "It's a nice career," she said. 

We also were happy to meet Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters. I wanted to convey that we also love Ghostbusters II, but I think I gave him the impression that we like that even more than the original. Certainly not the case, but we can spew some lines from that one with ease too. Well, usually we do anyway, because both of us came up with almost nothing on the spot except Murray's Statue of Liberty spiel -- "How many of you out there are a national monument? Raise your hand, please. Oh hello, miss." Hudson did deem the sequel more family-friendly.

I think we fared a little better with my premise that Winston Zeddemore always seemed to be offering up the audience's point of view, questioning things the way we would want to. "He's the everyman," he agreed. "That's how I always saw it and that's how I played it." 

Of course, the minute we left him behind, the quotes started to drop from our lips: "You're scaring the straights. ... I have all-new cheap moves. ... Everything you are doing is bad. ... There's always room for Jell-O. ... It's always the quiet ones. ... Carpathian kitten loss." We should have gone back to him with our list.

But Sestra and Hudson had a spirited discussion about Leviathan, and how his character made it to the surface at the end, only to die with a rescue chopper mere feet away from him. "Peter Weller wanted to be the sole survivor," Ernie bemoaned.

Going to and fro all the different rooms, we were able to do some celebrity spotting in the hallways. On Day 1, I saw Eddie Deezen at the elevator and Corbin Bernsen in the hallway. On Day 2, I saw Riegert by the elevator, even patted him on the back. When did I get so ballsy? Later I saw Edd Byrnes in the narrow corridor that led to the Grease reunion.

In meeting Ed Begley Jr., we were able to talk about a recent loss that hit us all hard, that of Harry Anderson. I had seen the silly but fun Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs not long after his passing. Begley told us the original name was Just UN Me. Gak. He recalled having a great time filming the TV movie and that they stayed friends for a long time, but lamented the fact they didn't spend any time together the past couple of years.

I lightened the conversation a little by mentioning that I kept expecting his eyebrow to fall off, a reference to his recurring Arrested Development character, who suffered from Alopecia.

Those in line for Tim Matheson seemed to be most interested in the Animal House reunion -- and one guy ahead of us with a cart full of memorabilia for him to sign kinda teed off everyone in line -- but I wanted to talk with him more about his experience on Night Gallery. He acted in a typically bizarre episode called "Logoda's Heads." But what he remembered most about that was getting to meet the unparalleled Rod Serling through episode co-star Patrick Macnee.

Sestra got into a great conversation with him about how much fun it was to play a movie villain by talking with him about Drop Dead Fred. I believe he called his character "a dick" ... twice. I really remember Tim best from a host of television movies from the '80s and early '90s, I particularly loved when he got to turn on his good-guy persona and be the baddie.

Deezen was also part of a reunion group at the event, the gang who got back together from Grease. As usual, all the Sestras wanted to talk with him about was Midnight Madness. That wasn't a rarity from attendees. Luckily, he likes it a lot more than he likes Grease 2. "It's so funny. It's a B-movie, but it's a great B-movie," he said.

It was great to meet him again. There are actors who "get it" when it comes to cons, and then there's Eddie, who has a hug and a kiss for everyone who is a Facebook friend of his. He reached clear across his table of photos to give me mine. 

Another of the celebs who I got to meet for the second time was Brian Thompson. He seemed pretty chilled out, possibly pharmaceutically chilled out, but it enabled him to be really affable with those on his line. He sort of drew people from the line into his other conversations and was particularly patient with one fan who wanted to detail all the attributes of his brand-new phone for an actor often charged with playing the heavy in his film and television work. Thompson also realllly wanted to show Sestra his tan.

I said something about how he didn't have to prepare much dialogue on The X-Files, but he reminded me of episodes like "End Game," in which he told Mulder that his sister was still alive. Maybe it just seemed like he didn't have much to say, mostly I just recall him menacing everyone in sight.

Sestra had some great stuff to share with him about how Luke, one of his two characters on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, sounded on the Spanish channel. That plays pretty well with someone who seemed a little baked.

We were planning to meet Steven Weber on the second day, but not quite as soon as we wound up doing it. With the early-bird access, we could do some shopping before the event officially started for the day and the celebrities showed up. So we're looking through some stacks of photos and ... there's Steven asking a price on a magazine at the same time. We shopped with Steven Weber.

Now I had run into Weber once before, in front of where I work at the Chelsea Market in New York City. And I got a bigger eye roll than ever was seen on Wings -- where eye rolls were at a premium -- when I mentioned wanting Cursed (later renamed The Weber Show) to come out on DVD. Let's just say I've since come across it the same way we saw Men in Trees and leave it at that.

But he was very engaging when we got on his line a little later. I didn't detect the least bit of an eye roll. I wasn't ... cursed this go-around. Maybe the second time really is the charm.