John Cameron Mitchell: December 15, 2001

The day I met John Cameron Mitchell was seriously one of the greatest. After I met him, I walked from Greenwich Village down to Canal, back up through SoHo, caught the subway to see Rocky Horror for the first time (with Kevin Cahoon as understudy, woohoo!), Cabaret for the 13th time (with Raul Esparza as the Emcee), and stopped by Rockefeller for the tree. Seriously, it was just too awesome. I mean, I met Hedwig him/herself, saw a former Hedwig play Frank n Furter, and saw a former Riff Raff play the freakin Emcee. You’re nice Raul, but I miss MATT!!!! 10th time’s a charm. Anyway, the highlight of the day was John though, by far.

I found out through the Hedwig message board/site that John was going to be doing a DVD signing on December 15. Rock, I figure. Take off from work and head up to meet yet another favorite celebrity, how cool will that be. And Hedwig of all people!! That would be my hotties #1, 2, and 4 all in less than a year. I had just been hit with the Hedwig anvil in August, and meeting John would make up for not seeing the show, like meeting/seeing Alan Cumming made up for missing his Cabaret. Yet I miss Matt McGrath in Hedwig, but see him consistently in Cabaret. I just can’t do anything right! I was going by myself and was only a little nervous about the whole subway thing, as I only knew how to get through midtown on the 1/9. Or now is it 1/2/3…I don’t know, whatever. Anything for John. And since finals would have just finished, it could totally be a day for *me*. Actually, it turned out to be my last weekend off before working 7 days straight of long holiday season retail. Plus, I was even more excited since there was a last minute change-- Stephen Trask was supposed to be there too! Aw hell yeah!

I successfully navigated my way downtown after having woken up an hour later than I wanted to, but hey…how early did I really have to be, ya know? Can I just say, I have so got to live down there some time in my life. Sweet merciful crap, it’s just wonderful. I finally found 6th ave and then walked over to TLA on 8th st, just to make sure I knew where it was. Went in just to scout it out, and found a man taping all these signs leading the way to the table where John and Stephen would be at. Then I found out that you didn’t have to buy a DVD, you could have anything signed. Screw!!!! I had just expected that I had to buy a second one (hey, I couldn’t resist the day it came out). Pissed at myself for not bringing my Advocate from this summer, I dug in my Cabaret notebook and found the theatre promo card that I had gotten the first time I saw the movie. That means so much to me anyway, and it was in good shape. I figured I’d just get that signed. Autographs don’t really mean anything to me anyway. Pictures are what’s key in my opinion. And dammit, I should’ve taken *all* the free magazines from the TLA. We have a couple in Philly, I just never get down there.

I walked around aimlessly, wandering into the cool stores. Went to Barnes and Noble and found the Hotel LaChapelle book where Alan Cumming has 4 gorgeous full picture pages. I’d seen them before, just not in person, and after all these years...Ah, what a marvelous book. But I reaaaally had to go to the bathroom, and this was just after a flat Mt Dew on the train. So I ran into a McDonalds and determined that I would not drink for the rest of the day. I ate fries, my only food of the day. Basically, I did not drink until the intermission of Cabaret…and that’s after 9 pm. After all of my running around, I did that on 10 hrs of no drink and a medium order of fries. Yay me.

So I went back to the TLA around 1:30, and the line had already started. Woo, that was a long line already! I hopped in it, and one of the workers remembered me and assured me pictures would be just fine. I didn’t talk to anyone in line, I was feeling all funky. Although, I swear that the girl behind me was on Fametracker, but I was just kinda shy that day and didn’t want her to think that I was eavesdropping. The dude came and made an announcement-- Stephen would not be showing up. Awwww. Well, as long as John’s there, I’m fine! It was all about John for me that day. The main Hedwig webmaster Hot Wanda also mingled through the line, recruiting people for the Hedwig fan club. Yes, of course I did! Funny, it’s a week of webmasters for me, as the girl who runs the main Jimmy Fallon website came into my store yesterday night. Well, according to her info, I knew she lived right by me, it was just funny. I probably scared her b/c I recognized her. Well, she *did* have a Jimmy shirt on. Anyway! Finally, the line started moving. Hedwig was playing on a loop, but there was practically no sound. Then they finally started playing random songs from the CD, yay! That calmed me down. I was all nervous about the pic thing-- I was hoping he wouldn’t be pissy, and I didn’t know if I’d have to snag someone to take it. Then I breathed a sigh of relief when the dude who was alone in front of me pulled out his camera. I’d just follow his lead.

Finally I was close enough to see John’s head! Aw, what a hottie!! A cute hottie. He really looks like how he does on the cover of HX. His smile just seriously overwhelms me. And what a lovely color blue he was wearing, yeehaw. I saw that the lady sitting next to him would get up with your camera, you’d sit next to him, he’d put his arm around you, and *snap*! Very sweet. I was a bundle of nerves while the guy in front of me was having his turn. I mean, you have to actually walk over to John and they expect you to know what to say. Eek, I’m awkward enough as it is. I wish I could remember what part of the movie it was at, hmm...I know it was after Wig in a Box. But he gave me a big smile as I walked over, which completely put me at ease and allowed me to smile back. I am just going to transcribe the conversation, and it’s amazing I have 99% of it verbatim-- that doesn’t happen too often with celeb encounters for me.

J- Hello, how are you?
C- Good, how are you.
J- Good (takes my cards to sign)
C- I just wanted to tell you that this show means more to me than you could ever know.
J- (looks up as he slowly signs, and does that grateful surprised cute tone he did on Rosie in Sept.) Thank you! (Pauses, gets quiet as he slowly signs and reaches for my coupon too, lol). It means a lot to me too.
C- That's obvious!
(he was so quiet that this is what I caught) J- Yeah...but I want to move on, work on something new now.
C- Oh but you have to! I mean, you've been doing this for *so* long.
J- (smiles)
(sit next to him, kind of fumbly. He starts to put his arm around me. I notice that my tank top decided to have my boobs overflow quite noticeably. As his head dipped down, this is what I get from him)
J- Nice necklace! (but done in a very cute way that I can’t describe. I *was* wearing the yin yang after all, i suppose he just had his attention drawn to the 2 origin of love like halves. i guess gay men have their attention drawn to boobs too? oy, i'm a hag, i should know this...)
C- Thanks! (big smile as I leave. And I smiled with teeth for the picture, something I haven't done since the 2nd alan cumming pic debacle in april...although it turned out fine. i just look like an amazon. )

Oh he was just so incredibly sweet and lovely. It was like he was hearing what I told him for the first time, even though I know that is so not the case. That is the mark of a true professional, as he still made me feel special anyway. Still, I don’t think they get tired of hearing compliments. It is his baby after all. I do agree with him though, he needs to move on. No one can ever replace him as Hedwig in my heart though, not even Matt. I had my arm around John Cameron Mitchell, wooooo! I know this doesn’t mean much to those Hed heads who are rooted in the culture, but to a newbie it’s damn exciting. I only wish my eyes were opened to this magic sooner.