Nathan Fillion #DCC 2014

Nathan Fillion has been on my want list for years. I enjoyed his work in Two Guys, a Girl, and a pizza shop. The wife, Kae, enjoyed him in some soap she watched in high school or college.  Firefly and Castle are just the sprinkles on top.

Nathan doesn’t do a lot of shows and even though he does attend SDCC most years.  I haven’t tracked him down for an autograph, although I have bumped into him twice. Once literally.

The first time I saw him at SDCC was close to 11PM or maybe later at the convention center. I was leaving from a showing of Stargate or Eureka and he was walking in to attend the Dr Horrible’s Sing along Blog showing. I politely nodded and said hello. He smile and continued on is way.

The second time, I was walking through a crowded hall that was bumper to bumper with people. A side door opened and security started parting the crowd. Their assignment was to get Nathan across the hall into another room that had just opened their door. As with crowds, you get separated. He was no longer really getting escorted through the hall. I was bumped by someone and that knocked me into someone else.  I hit that someone else harder than the ‘normal’ incidental contact so I turned to apologize.  It was Nathan. I mumbled a ‘sorry’ before I saw him and then added a ‘sorry Mr. Fillion’.  He had also turned and just nodded back an acknowledgement.

Last year, Nathan was scheduled for the Dallas ComicCon but cancelled at the last minute. It was disappointing as the wife also wanted to see him.  It’s always nice when she is interested in one of the graphs I’m getting.

Nathan arrived this year on a Saturday. We didn’t get to the convention early enough to get his signature that day.  But we did attend his panel and had a great time. He was entertaining. He seemed to know he has a cult following and is appreciative of that. He also mentioned he was shy and there are boundaries.

Since we didn’t get the very last signature needed for the Firefly collection (on separate photos, not a poster or group photo) we were back on Sunday.

We were successful on Sunday.  The first thing he did was look me in the eye (then a quick glance to the wife) and stuck his hand out. He told me was Nathan and I shook my hand as I introduced myself. He repeated my name and asked if I wanted the photo made out to me.  I mentioned I had literally bumped into his a couple of times at San Diego.  He smiled and just said, it does get crowded there.

Then he did the same with my wife. I stepped away to make room for Kae. (Yes, I believe she swooned a little.)  She seemed to be lagging behind me.  Then she rushed up to me and told me that Nathan shared a secret with her. The smile on the wife’s face was priceless. And no, you don’t get to know the secret.  It wouldn’t be much of a secret now would it?

We also attended the Firefly panel. That was also very entertaining. There is a lot of chemistry in the group and it just oozes into the audience.  It really was a good thing we didn’t get the signature on Saturday as we would have missed that panel.

AH