April 27, 2015
I went to the Chiller Theatre Convention this past weekend and as always, a good time was had by all. There were plenty of celebrities. I got my picture taken with Gilbert Gottfried, and he autographed a Dracula Gottfried picture for me.
You may remember Dracula Gottfried from this blog post.
The interesting thing was, for a guy known so much for his voice, I don’t think I heard him speak to anyone.
I also had my picture taken with Gavin “Captain Stubing from the Love Boat” MacLeod, and yes, he was wearing his captain’s hat. That man knows which side his bread is buttered on.
Along with movie and TV stars, and also a few people you aren’t quite sure how to categorize (AKA The Guy Who Played Chaka The Ape Boy On Land Of The Lost), there were a lot of wrestlers. This is normal for Chiller, and leads me into my biannual Greg “The Hammer” Valentine update. I’ve been doing this since 2012, when he looked like this:
It became a legend that his leathery, almost baseball glove-like face never, ever changed. In fact, he almost never seemed to move. Here he is last year:
And here he is all the shows in between:
So what did he look like this year?
I don’t know. He wasn’t there. This was quite a big blow to me, not because I actually wanted to see him, but because I wanted to see how many years I could keep this joke running. 2012 – 2015. Not bad.
But softening the blow was the fact that Jake “The Snake” Roberts was here this year, and trust me, he didn’t move much either. However, I hope he shows up next year, and you’ll see why in a second. He’s going to replace Greg Valentine as the new running Chiller joke, and it is all because of his mustache.
Here’s how he was advertised on the Chiller site:
And here’s how he looked in person.
That mustache has been dyed to within an inch of its life. In fact, the only thing there to rival Jake’s mustache was Anson William’s hair. Yes, Potsie from Happy Days. His head looked like he had just dunked it in a vat of ink. Sorry there’s no picture, I couldn’t stop staring and lost my senses.
Also there were The Dudley Boys, Bubba Ray and Devon. Immediately after I shot this picture, Bubba Ray shot me a glare that would have scared Andre the Giant. I think he was upset that I took his picture without buying anything. Sorry Bubba.
I bought a cool Chiller T-shirt and some old paperbacks, and generally had a great time. There was a guy walking around in the creepiest scarecrow costume I’ve seen, and I have no idea if he paid to get in or just walked in like he belonged there. I wouldn’t ask him for a ticket if I was at the desk.
I’m already looking forward to October.
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
It seems odd there are so many people who don’t fall into a horror niche (Wrestlers, Captain Stubing, Etc.) for a Chiller Convention, but still looks like fun.
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What’s even weirder is that the official name is the Chiller Theatre Toy, Model, and film Expo. There are zero models on display, and unless you count the toys on sale, no toys either.
Non-horror guests included Ann Margret, Mike Nesmith of The Monkees, and Geri Reischl, the fake Jan from the Brady Bunch Variety Hour. But it is really a ton of fun and I go twice a year, every year.
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