Encounter: Fandomfest, July 29-30, 2016
Celebrity: Joey Fatone
Known for: *NSYNC, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, On The Line
The Encounter:
Some of you who have read my encounter with Chris Kirkpatrick (which can be found here) know the back story to this meeting. For those of you who have not read it, let me put it in a neat little nutshell for you.
The word fan does not even begin to describe how much I adored NSYNC. When I was younger, my room was floor to ceiling in NSYNC memorabilia. I had lunchboxes, puppets, pens and folders for school… I even had one of those light up jackets they used to sell at Spencers. Popstar Magazine even featured me in their fan faves section for my obsession.
Ever since day one, I have always adored Joey. I always called Lance my favorite back in the day, but Joey Fatone was by far my favorite. I love how over the past 16 years he has done nothing but grow his career and been under our noses. Even if you don’t know his musical work, he’s been in movies, hosts game shows… He even has been the MC for the Kentucky Derby for the past 14 years.
Needless to say when I had the opportunity to buy a VIP pass to Kentucky Fandom Fest where him, Chris Kirkpatrick (NSYNC), AJ McLean (Backstreet Boys), and Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) were going to be, I totally jumped on it and was on a mission to fulfill my teenage dream of meeting him.
When I first walked up to Joey’s booth and started observing him with other fans, I literally got butterflies. I could not believe one of the guys I have admired and adored for more than 15 years was sitting at a table, mere steps from me. I felt like I was in a dream state, and Kentucky FanFest was the setting of this dream. An out of body experience, if you will.
So, I took a deep breath, cleared my head, and started to approach him. Before I got to the table, I noticed that I was shaking. He smiled and looked up at me, and I smiled back and held my hand out to shake his hand. Before I could even get two words out of my mouth, he was already starting a conversation with me. “Hi, how are you doing?”
I let go of his hand, smiled and responded back. ‘Hi, I’m super nervous, how are you?’ I think my voice cracked more than once when responding.
He responded back with “Great…. Not nervous at all!”
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And then I began to feel comfortable with him. I could have stood there and talked to Joey about all his different roles for days…. We talked about Inkubus with Robert Englund, which was one of the items I got signed, and he told me that he was intimidated because it was his first horror role and they stuck him opposite Robert Englund…. And I was like yeah you surprised me in the first few minutes (anyone who has seen this movie knows what I’m referring to) and he just raised his eyebrows, smiled and said “You’ve actually watched this?” (Of course I did, silly Joey. I have seen and listened to everything you have been in.)
Then, we started talking about the small part he had on the hit prank TV show Impractical Jokers. What I asked him about Jokers could have been answered in two words or less, but he talked to us for like two minutes about it.
After I got done talking to him and getting my autographs, it happened. He got up out of his chair, he walked around the table, and gave me a huge hug…
He didn’t have to do that. 90% of the people I meet at conventions, you’re lucky to get eye contact with. So the fact that he actually got up out of his chair and gave me a hug means more to me than anything I can ever convey on paper (or my blog, in this case). It was the smallest little gesture to him, but to me, it meant everything. It meant that he cared. It meant that he actually enjoyed meeting me and was not there just for the money. Many hugs were to come over the course of these two days, but that one is one I will forever cherish, the one that meant the most to me.
I had an appointment to get my Dead 7 Tattoo, so I went over to the booth after that, quite flustered, got my tattoo, and came back and shows Joey my tattoo. And we started talking about tattoos, and Joey showed me all the different tattoos on his right leg… And how each tattoo was something he had done… The Whiskey Joe flask with the same tick marks I got (but flesh colored) and “whiskey” had a backwards k in it for Inkubus…. Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors, Stars for Dancing With the Stars, and a few others I could not make out. (Honestly, I’m lucky to be able to make out that much of it – it seems like such a blur to me at this point.) It was another one of those he didn’t have to do that moments, but he did.
After I got my tattoo and our paths crossed, it felt like every time they did, he was telling someone else about my tattoo… “Hey, Chris, did you see her tattoo??”, “Hey, did you see this?” By the end of the convention, I’m sure by no fault of his, I was being recognized and actually had a few fans approaching me in the Dead 7 Panel.
So much more that I could sit here and tell you about at the VIP party where he, Chris and AJ hung out with us for 3 hours, but that’s another blog. While I can now tick Joey off my bucket list of people to meet, I hope that our paths cross again. Hopefully, it won’t take me 14 years this time.
