Oh, wow. This was one of the most amazing events I've been to in a long time.
Met Kate (Fragglemuppet) and her mom at Brother Bruno's, and we all shared an order of zeppoles, and at the event itself I saw BobThePizzaBoy, heralde, MelissaY1 and StreetScenes, and I finally met Steve at last. Guys, it was amazing to finally meet some of you in person.
It was a real thrill to meet Jane Hunt - I spoke to her a little bit as she was being escorted into the theater, and then after we had found our seats, I chatted with her and some friends for several minutes. She's a really nice woman, very witty. And it turns out that I indirectly know one of the Hunts' friends, a woman named Geni Sackson; she teaches in one of the schools that I cover for the paper.
The panel itself was - wow. Everyone got a nice round of applause as they came out on stage ("They love you, Frank."), and they were in a good comedic mood that night. It's like Davis said, no doom-and-gloom remarks about the economy that night.
I got a kick out of Bob's remarks on dealing with Ralph Nader. "The consumer advocate is a person in your neighborhood..."
Oscar was such a lecher! I mean, the way he kept looking at Sonia: "So why'd ya marry Luis?"
I nearly died laughing over Telly freaking out over being trapped in a plastic bag, and going on about how he and Marty had a Jekyll and Hyde relationship, and lamenting that Zoe was so small. "Now she's too young!"
I loved all that they had to say about Richard, how he was generous, and kind, and just this side of insane - and the audience cheered when Michael called Richard "a son of New Jersey." Loved the clips; I hadn't seen Forgetful Jones' turn in "Oklahoma" in years. And it was really touching when Michael announced that the panelists had all waived their speakers' fees, and donated a portion of it to Sesame Workshop "in the name of their colleague and friend, Richard Hunt."
Got on line to have my copy of "Street Gang" signed. We'd have stuck around for a bit afterwards, but the WPU staff were shooing everyone out of the auditorium so they could start cleaning up.
Again - wow.