Lemony Snicket in Naperville

[Gigi]

Last night was the Lemony Snicket appearance in Naperville, Illinois. I was there. I also met up with Mary and Setnick. Dragonprincess, were you there?

I'll post my report here later once I look at my photos. (Plus, I'm so tired. It was a long night.) I hope the rest of you can tell us your thoughts too.

[Dante]

You met SetnicK and Mary? Cool. And Handler as well? Christmas comes early. Sounds like you must have had an interesting time. And everyone likes photographs. I eagerly anticipate your reports.

[jemima]

I can't wait to hear about it.

[dragonprincess]

Yep, I was there. My number was 119. I was the girl with the red hair. What did you think of the event? I thought it was nice, but it went a little too long. Did you get called for the triva contest. What did he write in your book?

[Gigi]

Strangely enough, he didn't write "With All Due Respect" in my book. He wrote "if she dares". What do you suppose that means?

Here's my report:

Wow! Where to start?


The first part they could have (SHOULD have) skipped. They had a kids theater troupe perform scenes from the movie. They had a herpetology show with snakes, turtles and an iguana. Also a long trivia thing. Kids came on stage and answered incredibly easy questions. It was kinda cute that they won stuff like a used sock, empty toilet paper roll, can of corn, rubber chicken, etc. Near the end, they also gave away a bunch of the travel alarm clocks.

All this took about an hour and a half, so Handler didn't even make an entrance until 6:00. His show was very much like the others described this week. He had the 3 moral lessons. He described what happened to Mr. Snicket. However, at this show, he said a beetle stung him in the arm pit instead of an alligator. He was very entertaining and fun to watch. He played his accordion and sang "Scream and Run Away".

Then the book signing started. He signed out in the lobby and in the auditorium they showed the movie while you waited. (Now, when I ordered my tickets over the phone, they told me we had 103 & 104. We really had 203 & 204, so we had longer to wait, but we were right near Mary and my friend in line.) We finally got up to Handler around 8:30. He interacted a lot with the kids, played around with them, etc. But he really didn't so much with the adults.

My husband went first with his book, which he was getting for a friend who couldn’t make it, “Jan”. They had put a Post-it on the cover with her name on it. So when he handed it to him, Handler said "You're Jan?" and my husband said "Sure". Handler replied, "And a lovely Jan you are. I love what you've done with your hair, Jan." Then it was my turn. I told him I was a teacher and that my students and I love his books. He said, "That's a sweet thing to say, even if it isn't true." I then asked him what Otto was going to be for Halloween. I don't know if he was just making this up or not, but he said Otto is going to be a head on a platter. Then I thanked him and it was over.

Now, we waited like an hour and a half to get to number 200. I imagine that people who had numbers over 800 were probably there until midnight. We had some quick supper at 9:00 and got home by 11:00. It was a long day, but well worth it and it's something I'll always remember. A once in a lifetime experience.

I'll get my pictures up tomorrow or so.

[Antenora]

That sounds like such fun. I would have liked to see the children performing ASoUE movie scenes, myself, and the herpetology show.

[Gigi]

The thing with the movie scenes, is that their director introduced it as "scenes from the book" but when they started, it was apparent that it was the movie. They did when the children arrive at Olaf's house, and the children's first meal with Aunt Josephine. Not very long or entertaining either.

The acting and the reptiles just seemed like filler. Everyone really came to see Lemony Snicket, not this other stuff.

[Mary]

My report: (Pictures to come later after I figure out where to edit and host them)
The preview show was SO long. It really was. It wasn't just anticipation waiting for DH. It was tedious. I also thought it was bizarre that they acted out scenes from the MOVIE. This was hosted by a bookstore and was about the books. I would think it would be insulting to DH that they were doing scenes from the movie. I hope he didn't see that part.

As GiGi said, Handler's part was excellent! He did an awesome job and had so much energy. And to sign 1,000 books afterwards, he must have been totally exhausted. His show was sooo funny, even if I felt like I knew what was coming next from reading similar accounts on here.

I went with my husband and my 2 sons (who love LS but are not as obsessed as I am) and my friend and her 2 kids (who like LS, but are not at all obsessed.) I felt bad for GiGi that her tickets were 100 later than they told her. But she was closer to me in line so I got to visit with her a bit which was really cool. When it was our turn to get our books signed, I went first. I had brought him a small artificial pumkin I had carved in the middle of the previous night with a picture of Count Olaf on it. Last year I had mailed him a pumpkin with the Baudelaires asoue.proboards11.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=art&thread=1100745239&page=1 . So I told him that I mailed him a pumpkin and an absinthe spoon and showed him the new pumpkin and said I made a scary one this year. I think I threw him off because he looked a little confused, so maybe he did not know that I was the same person sending the spoon and the pumpkin or maybe he didn't remember the spoon. He said "Thank you for ....sending me things." Then he started to sign my book and said that last year's pumpkin is displayed in a prominent place in his home. (I wish I would have said "I know. I installed a hidden camera in it, to be funny, but I was a little nervous talking to my favorite person that I don't know, and couldn't think clearly.) I felt like I really had to hurry and say whatever I was going to say and didn't want to take up much time, so I just said, "If you don't want to or can't take it with you, you can donate it to the bookstore or something." He said something like "Well, that's what they say, you can't take it with you." So then I pointed out the rest of my party that was waiting.

My son showed him his shirt which said "I am not a ballplaying cowboy superhero soldier pirate." And DH said "I saw it already, from the stage", which I'm sure he didn't but made my son feel good. The he asked, "If you're not a ballplaying cowboy superhero soldier pirate, what are you? And my son said, "just a smart kid I guess" (He is 9 by the way) DH said, "And modest too."

Then in my older sons book he wrote "To a future orphan". My husband wanted his signed to "to an unfortunate who should know better". He was wearing a shirt saying I am not a cakesniffer. DH said "so you'll put any old cake in your mouth" and wrote "to an alleged unfortunate..." saying to him "I don't know you."

Then my firiend and her kids went. Her daughter had her book signed to her class. DH said "So you're Mrs. ______'s class? What kind of a class is that? A middle upper class, I'm guessing." (Naperville is a nice town and we don't actually live there.) Then he signed her son's book and the saw that my friend was carrying a David Sedaris book and grabbed it from her and held it up to her son and said "This is what you should be reading, cheerful literature. Then he held up Book 12 and said, "miserable" and kept switching back and forth holding the books in front of his face "cheerful, misearble, cheerful, miserable". Then he was ready to sign the next people's books and my friend kept talking and talking about our shirts and how she isn't as big of a fan as I am but they do like his books even though right after they started reading the first book they had a house fire in the middle of the night and then her kids were scared about losing their parents in a fire. I just think it must be so hard to meet so many people that every second you can shave off each signing probably helps. Plus I guess I was jealous that she was talking to him more and is not even as big of a fan.

Then we got little gift bags and also some people won prizes based on their ticket #s. I got a Count Olaf standee and a shirt. GiGi had made Snicket Files for the four kids with me which was so thoughtful and had cool things to do in the car. Thanks GiGi! I'll add anymore thoughts later and add pictures.

[dragonprincess]

Were your kids kind of scared to go up there and met him? My boyfriend bought his little niece with us(who is 5). Snicket stopped and starded at her for a good 5 seconds, and that was it with her. She did not want any part of him. So my boyfriend had to go and get the book signed for her. when I was in line, i was right next to this guy who was trying to control the line. He started telling me and 5 other people that we should get up there ask only one question then walk away so we can keep the line moving. He didn't even work at Anderson's. He was differnly more interactive with the kids. I am not sure if he knew what to say to the older teens. I went up and went Hi! he said hi back and then he started huming while he signed the book, I asked him if i can ask a question about that book, since there was NO Q&A? He said "you already are, but maybe I can ask him two". I asked him whatever even happen the the "wartfaced man". He said he skipped the country, because he didn't pay his taxes. When my boyfriend went up with his niece's book, he asked the same thing. Are you Morgan? He said no, Morgan was his niece and she was in the bathroom. Then he said Morgan must be working for Count Olaf and we should all avoid her. The woman in front of me had a cute baby with her. When she went up Handler took one look at the baby and said. "that isn't mine". Then after the signing he said good luck with the baby, I hope it grows up. I went to other book signing...

Meg Cabot
Chris Paolini(Eragon)
Eoin Colfer(Artemis Fowl)
Funke(Theif Lord,Inkheart)
JK Rowling(this was downtown Chicago)

and I have never seen the line move so slow. There was a good 15 min peroid where they didn't call names. I was fun though, I am glad i bought my camera.

[Dante]

Sounds like great fun, aside from the tedious beginning. I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures.

[Gigi]

Finally got my pictures uploaded.

dgrune.tripod.com/Handler/

That's me in the red shirt. I met Mary there. Her shirt says "I am not a stalker. (But I may be who you think I am.)"

[Mary]

You have much better pictures than I do of him on stage. Mine are blurry or dark. I'll try to get mine posted tomorrow.

[Dante]

Cool photos. Also, cool shirts. Thanks for showing them to us.

[Gigi]

mary said:

You have much better pictures than I do of him on stage. Mine are blurry or dark. I'll try to get mine posted tomorrow.

That was the only good one. All the rest are blurry. Too bad yours didn't turn out. You were a lot closer to the stage than we were.

We haven't heard from Setnick. How was your experience?

[Mary]

I called Anderson's and asked how late he signed books, and they said 1:30 a.m. Isn't that amazing?!? He is a good man.

GiGi, He also wrote "if she dares" in my friend's book.

Here are my pictures of the signing.
tinyurl.com/bgwy5