1 2 3 Go! My Experiences with Dan Shea at Chicon 2010
Chicago Creation Convention 2010- Dan Shea
One of the highlights of the convention, for me, was getting to meet and be around stunt coordinator Dan Shea aka Sgt. Siler. Friday, he interjected himself into Steve Bacic’s panel, which was nothing but hilarious, on both of their parts. But Dan Shea proved to be even more hilarious throughout the rest of the con with nearly everything that he did. My personal experience started when Dan leapt over a row of chairs to harass Tara and Pip who were sitting just a few seats down from me. He came about oh, six inches or so from hitting me. He fist bumped me as he extricated himself from the row. He was awesome during the Cabaret show and despite my best efforts he did not dance nor sing during karaoke. He did, however, tell me that I did a great job singing as I walked out to the bar. Have I mentioned that I like beer? But never mind. This is all about the amazing Dan Shea.
The next day, Dan was walking out from his panel to go somewhere when he saw my Canucks jersey. We got to talking about the Canucks and he asked, “How did someone from Louisiana become a Canucks fan?” It’s after this, I henceforth became “Louisiana” at least to him. We had a good five minute conversation about our favorite hockey team and how we both miss Mattias Ohlund playing for the Canucks. It was a great experience to be able to have a conversation with him. That night at the desert party, Dan Shea was walking around to the different tables. He got to our table and instantly recognized Pip, Tara, Meghan, and myself. Again we talked hockey and he quizzed me on Canucks statistics. I missed one but I redeemed myself fairly quickly. A lull came and I jokingly asked if he would arm wrestle me. He agreed and moved over to sit by him. I technically won the first match but we all know that he let me. When we were getting situated, locking arms and what not, he accused me of trying to cheat.
“See, see! We haven’t even started and you’re already cheating!”
“Of course I’m cheating! You’ve got a foot and at least sixty pounds on me!”
MORTAL COMBAT!!
Trying to distract me with his "pipes"!
After my initial win, he challenged me to a rematch. During the second bout, Dan took the opportunity to show off his MASSIVE biceps! It ended with us agreeing to call it a draw and someone mentioning that I was a black belt. Immediately he asked me in what and I told him, “Well the style is Keichu Ryu from Karl Marx out in California but it’s a shotokan derivative.”
“Me too! I’m in shotokan. Yeah!”
He then proceeded to rattle off a list of karate terms in Japanese to see if I knew any of them. I knew all of them. He smiled, called me Louisiana and left our table.
Hugging it out! Courtesy of Anne Campbell
The next morning while we were waiting in line for the SGU breakfast, Dan made his way over to our table, smiling, “Hey! Louisiana! Fournie!” We smiled back and I asked about the McGill shirt he was wearing. Apparently his daughter goes there. We said good-bye and he went in search of a cup of coffee. We met again as he made his way to our table, forcing us to rotate chairs so that everything could be like the night before. There was a bit of chit chat and I asked him how I could go about getting into stunt work. Being a stuntwoman has always been my back-up plan if this whole law school/ academia thing doesn’t work out. He gave me some great tips and ideas. I plan to use at least some of them eventually. Especially if I don’t get into law school. The real fun came later that afternoon. I’d been up for 30 hours straight at that point. I decided that I had to have a photo-op with Dan and bought one. I went down for the picture and was one of just a few people in line. We posed in crane stances together, both us making weird faces at the camera. It was great! His last panel was just as manic and crazy as the first. It is nothing but fun with that man. The time came for autographs and I brought up my picture. He made the signature out “Yo! Louisiana!” And then wrote shotokan karate over our legs! As he was walking out of the convention for good, he motioned for me to stand up, threw a side kick “at” my head, fist bumped me, and gave me a quick hug. In the autograph line, I told him that he made the weekend for me and between he and Bob Picardo, they really did. Between the two of them, I had way more personal interaction that I ever thought I would. I have nothing but love and affection for both of them. Good…great…no, AMAZING times!
Something that really made me smile happened not long after my photo op. I was talking on the phone in the lobby and Dan saw me. I smiled at him and he walked over to me.
“So when do you go back, Louisiana?”
“I fly out tomorrow morning.”
“Oh cool. So I’ll see you later then!” I nodded and smiled. He fist bumped me and walked outside for something.
The fact that he was so personal and willing to walk up to me when I was just standing in the lobby was amazing. Because of all the awesome that man irradiated this weekend, Meghan (@swimchicsq) and I have started the Wrenches. We are the Dan Shea fan girls, because he is too awesome not to have fan girls. And we’d all love to see his big wrench. Or even be his wench!
Here’s my awesome photo op:
A pic of the awesome that is sitting on my desk now!
