All of these people I met at a convention setting or otherwise while they were "on the clock," so all of these interactions can be taken with a grain of salt, but after you meet a lot of celebrities at conventions, there are some which definitely seem more genuinely pleasant.
- Jonah Ray: Seemed really nice and appreciative to have fans come up and talk. I paid a couple of bucks for a selfie, and he took several with my wife and I and even offered to do a video with us if we wanted, despite that being more expensive. I got the sense that he he felt weird charging people to take selfies with him and wanted to give their money's worth.
- Bill Corbett: Probably one of the most personable people I've met at a convention. He talks to you like an old friend, asks questions, and seems genuinely excited to get to meet people.
- Nick Frost: I literally bumped into him as he was leaving the exhibit hall to head towards a panel. I was cosplaying that year in a MST3K jumpsuit, and he recognized it and said, "Hey, Mystery Science Theater! Nice!" I said something about Hot Fuzz being one of my favorite movies, and we shook hands before he said he had to get to a convention room and went on his way. It was basically as organic of an experience you can have with a celebrity guest at a convention.
- Jon Heder: Not really someone I set out to meet, but that guy was incredibly stoked to be at a convention. You can call it showmanship or whatever, but he was calling out cosplays and asking people for selfies from behind the table.
- Sturgill Simpson: Met him after an Atlanta show which was an unmitigated disaster. Sturgill claimed that his voice was shot and that he wouldn't be able to sing, but was going to get everybody return tickets and just play an instrumental jam session with his band and invite people up from the crowd to sing karaoke style. I saw in a later interview that he claimed to have been back on the hard stuff during that tour, so who knows. Regardless, after a huge walkout, I stayed around and decided to hang out by the tour bus area with a few other people. Sturgill eventually showed up and apologized to everybody, saying he wished he could have put on a better show, but stayed to take some selfies and talk. He seemed pretty chill, which kind of runs against some of the more antagonistic ways he presents himself.
