First off, the appearance was criminally under attended with only about 75 or so people in attendance in a hall that could probably hold 500. While it made the autograph line at the end of the night shorter, I feel bad for any fans in the region who might have wanted to go but just didn’t know about it. (My guess is that they didn’t advertise very well.)

After a quick introduction, Brian took to the stage to introduce a screening of CLERKS (on VHS video projection, ugh!). After the movie he came back and fielded questions for close to two hours.

Normally, I don’t ever equate an actor’s personality with any type of role that they’ve performed. But since CLERKS is really the only extended exposure that I’ve seen of Brian’s acting (his other VA roles are too quick and I haven’t seen VULGAR yet) I’ve unfairly just associated Dante’s demeanor with the face of Brian O’Halloran. I say unfairly because throughout the Q & A he was incredibly outgoing and cracking jokes that left the audience in stitches. It’s a shame that he won’t be getting his “An Evening With…” DVD anytime soon.

He first talked about the service he got at the local TGI Fridays he ran to for dinner while we were watching the movie. It seems that some of the bar and wait staff recognized him, but wouldn’t approach him to find out if he really was the guy from CLERKS. Instead, they would huddle in a corner and say things like “I’m not even supposed to be here today,” really loud.

Brian talked a lot about the filming of CLERKS, and while most fans have probably heard lots of stories about the late nights in the Quick Stop, it was refreshing to hear them from a different person.

He also talked about how excited he was when THE ANIMATED SERIES was announced as he always wanted to see a cartoon version of himself. He danced around the stage talking about how cool it was going to be getting all that big SIMPSONS type money as the show was sure to run and run for years. He did mention that he was glad that they didn’t have a certain clause in their contracts that was in the SIMPSONS stars contracts – it seems that for the first seven years of the SIMPSONS, the actors couldn’t perform their characters voices in public. “I was using my own voice,” said Brian. “What was going to do?” He then launched into a series of comic accents that he would have had to use to get through the day. (He also mentioned that originally they had wanted Alan Rickman for Leonardo Leonardo, but it wasn’t working out so they got Alec Baldwin at the last minute. This was new info to me but it might have been mentioned somewhere and I’ve just forgotten it.)

And if you’ve never seen Brian speak before, you must go just for his Jason Mewes impression. It’s not Rich Little-perfect, but it was funny. He gave us his impression of how Mewes would have been if he had been asked to speak at the all-girls Cedar Crest College- “Ladies. How ya doin’? You know I got a hotel room? I’m talking to ALL the ladies in here! Just bring me a pack of smokes.”

Brian did get a little more serious when he talked about his stage work (”My bank account loves film work, but the actor in me loves live theatre.”) and how he prepares for a role.

He also talked up DROP DEAD ROSES and made it sound so intriguing that I bought my ticket Monday for the screening in NYC this Friday. (See ya there!)

That’s about it. Folks, if you were nearby and gave the show a pass, you made a big mistake. As a speaker O’Halloran was engaging and fun. Definitely see him if he’s speaking near you.