"And you believed me?"

So much for getting back to this blog in a timely manner this week.  Last weekend was the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois.  This is more than just a vacation for me, being the Kryptonian fetishist that I am.  It's more like an annual pilgrimage for me and a few thousand other people.

Aside from meeting celebrities from film, TV, comics, and other creative venues, it's a chance to rub elbows with like-minded pop culture fans.  And many of us have become close friends. 

It seemed that my weekend mantra became, "I used to come here to relax!"  On Thursday night, I lent my backstage assistance to The Metro Players, our performance group.  Since 2008, a group of us have been putting on various skits to launch the Celebration and we're kind of a tradition now.  This year, writer/director John Gleckler put on the Captain Marvel uniform opposite Michelle Lyzenga (Lois Lane), Steven Kirk (Perry White), Dough Hubler (Black Adam), and Josh Boultinghouse (Superman).

Then it was off to the bowling alley to welcome our Super Friends to Metropolis.

On Friday, I was asked to moderate a Q&A session with actors John Rockwell and Gerard Christopher.  Rockwell portrayed Superboy (the teenage version of Superman) in a 1961 unsold pilot produced by the production team that did the George Reeves series.  Christopher was the second actor to portray the Boy of Steel in the second through fourth seasons of Superboy (later, The Adventures of Superboy), replacing John Haymes Newton.  Starting with season three, Christopher began writing and producing the program.  Later, he would audition for the role of Clark Kent in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman but would lose the role to Dean Cain when the producers learned Christopher had already played the famous dual role.

The audience had some great questions and I managed to sneak in a couple that the actors hadn't received before.  If I interview you and you tell me, "That's a good question," that's as good as a paycheck for me.  The interview can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dm2Z2RZ7k4

Friday night, I unveiled my Uncle Marvel uniform to my friends.  For the uninitiated, Uncle Marvel was a member of the original Marvel Family from the Golden Age of Comics.  The group consisted of Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel, Jr.  Dudley was a lovable con man who claimed he couldn't access the powers of SHAZAM because of his "Shazambago," but the kids allowed him to hang around because they liked him.  Well, the costume (that I unveiled here last week) was quite well received, especially by artist Trevor Erick Hawkins (www.popimages4u.com) who had been relentlessly lobbying, shall we say, for me to construct the uniform.

One of the comic book guests, George Perez (who has drawn probably 99.9% of both the DC and Marvel Universe characters) leaped out from behind his table, leaving a line of well-wishers to take my picture.  I asked him, "You take my picture?  Shouldn't that be the other way around?"

Saturday, as part of the annual Auction, a group of us re-enacted segments from the classic episode of I Love Lucy called "Lucy Meets Superman."  In this, Ricky tries to get "Superman" to attend Little Ricky's birthday party, but fails.  To make up for it, Lucy puts on a mock Superman disguise, complete with plaid boxers and a football helmet.  The presentation was a combination of showing the original on video and interspersing it with a group of us performing it live.  It was spearheaded by Keith Howard, who portrayed George Reeves/Superman with able support from Tiffany Kresse (Lucy Ricardo), Steven Kirk (Ricky Ricardo), Ashley Bayles (Ethel Mertz), and even me as Fred.

Then the next day, it was back to Uncle Marvel again for the Costume Contest before changing into Perry White for the Closing Skit with Josh Boultinghouse as The Official Superman of Metropolis and Michelle Lyzenga at Lois Lane.  With that, the 34th Annual Superman Celebration came to a close.

While down there, I wrote not only my own presentation for the costume contest, but entries for a couple other people as well as the Closing Skit, which I also directed. 

And if I mentioned all the most excellent Super Friends of Metropolis, this blog would take a month to type up.  Let's just say I'm glad you CAN choose your family after all.


So what does this have to do with our usual theme of creativity?  Years ago, I was just another tourist.  But as I got to know who was who in Metropolis, I just started talking to them and we all became friends.  In time, I let them know that I was a writer and actor and interviewer.  This year, I left Metropolis exhausted, but you can see how many stories came back with me.

Outlets for your creativity are wherever you can find them.  And "networking" is nothing more than talking to strangers, turning them into friends, telling them what you can do to make their lives easier/profitable/more fun, and waiting for the door to open.

So how have you networked your way into creative gigs?  I love your comments so leave me a lot of them.