Ricky, my coworker and I ran into Cary Elwes and Tony who was on tour with him. They were in the orchestra hallway checking out the donor plaques. We were on our way to a coffee break, since we had extra time while we were waiting for a copy of The Princess Bride to download. Cary was at the theater to do a Q&A after a showing of the movie. He’s promoting his book (Co-Written with Joe Layden) As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride.
It’s about his experience of acting in the movie The Princess Bride. We had met earlier in the morning in the green room as he was prepping books with some of the other CCPA crew members. I had asked him about his publishing experience, as I’m in the process of publishing my own book. He and Tony were super friendly.
So in the hallway, I asked if they would like to see the autographed tiles upstairs on the third floor. I also told them about our ping pong ball collection. That’s the technical crew’s private autograph collection from performers we like. I told Cary that we would love to get him to sign one later. They were interested in seeing the autographed tiles, so Ricky and I took them upstairs and we all had a fun time looking around at the many many tiles we’ve collected at the Cerritos Center for over 30 years. Ricky being kind of new hadn’t taken the time to look at them either.
As we browsed the autographs Cary and I traded stories about some of the performers who we both had interesting experiences with. His stories were great, and he asked me if some of the stories I had told him were in my book. A few were.
Afterward Ricky and I went back to work on solving technical problems with the projection system, while Cary went to sign books for hundreds of his fans. He’s an incredibly nice guy.
When it was time for me to project the movie I was more nervous then I have ever been at work, due to the projection software crashing multiple times during the day. I was relieved when the movie played on both computers in perfect synchronization, and enjoyed watching the movie once again.
After my job was finished at the projection station I went to watch as the moderator Kirsten Vangsness interviewed Cary on stage. He also answered questions from the audience.
After the show was done Cary took photos with the city manager and one of the council members, then with the theater’s technical crew. I also got a photo of him and I together before showing Cary and Tony our ping pong ball collection, placing his ball amongst the other famous performers our tech crew have enjoyed spending our time with. Cary showed an interest in reading my book when I published it, so Tony and I exchanged contacts in order for me to send a book later when it’s published. I will also be purchasing a copy of Cary’s book as I am sure it is packed with entertaining stories.
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