Larry Miller – Not so fast! 11/18/11

This is one of those names my wife will say, Who? But when then you tell her what he’s been in, she gets excited. Larry Miller is someone she really likes. He plays all those likeable or scene stealing characters in a lot of memorable movies.

Larry Miller was in town for a one man show not that far from the house and I heard he signs after the show.  Just knowing that he’s plans on signing after the show really lowers the stress level.  You can concentrate on the important things like what to get signed or what to say.  Granted I don’t spend hours thinking about that but it’s nice to be prepared.

A few of us showed up for the Friday night show. We entered the lobby of the theater and chatted among ourselves. As the show let out, lots of people were hanging out in the lobby. While discouraging to know the lines for an autograph will be long, it’s good to see as we now know we are in the right place.

So we are still chatting among ourselves and the crowd just doesn’t look like a Larry Miller crowd. So we wait and chat. Then someone comes out and the lobby crowd follows him. No, that wasn’t Larry. Hmm, odd. So we ask and usher and find out the theater has more than one performance hall. Larry Miller is in the other hall and that hasn’t let out yet. At least they share the same lobby so we weren’t going to miss him.

Then Larry’s show lets out.  People are milling around and we feel good. After 30 minutes most of the people are gone and no Larry Miller. One of our group members asks an usher and was told Larry would NOT be signing tonight. Bummer.

We still hung around another 20 minutes or so, just hoping.  It’s just the four of us.

Well, I call it a night and say my goodbyes. Even as I’m walking out the door, I take a final peak to see if Larry has walked into the lobby. Nope. As I’m walking down the sidewalk to my car, I turned around every 10 seconds hoping to see one of my compatriots shouting for me to come back.  Nope. After I get in my car, I drive past the front of the building and scanned the lobby. I noticed my friends have moved and seem to be huddled around someone. Shreeek went the brakes and I quickly park the car.

I’m inside and see Larry Miller holding court. He is posing for photos and signing stuff. He talked about the films from the photos he signed and answered several questions.  My photo was from the one man show and he paused. He asked if I took that tonight and I said I found the photo on Google.

One of my fellow hounds took a photo of us. While we were waiting I mentioned how much I liked 10 Things I Hate About You.  He said the movie was fun and I agreed and I also mentioned my wife and I really enjoyed the TV series. That seemed to make him smile wistfully.  He said even with two short seasons he felt that his TV daughters were like his real daughters.  That was a cast that bonded very quickly.

As we finished, we all said out thank you’s and our good byes. It looked like he wasn’t ready for us to go.  It was very personal and intimate.  Maybe we should have asked him to go to Denny’s.

AH