Fan Meeting!

Well, we did it. Judy bought the tickets, got us a hotel room, we individually booked our airline seats, and we flew to Los Angeles for a fan meeting with Jung Hae-in. And that was the good part!

Along with 500 or so Kdrama fans, we arrived at the Saban Theatre about 7:00 pm. The show started about 8:00 and lasted two hours. I have such mixed feelings about it that I don't know where to start. I think Judy said it best when she leaned over and whispered that we probably weren't fan meeting material. For me, that's an understatement.

The audience was mostly female, some of them almost rabid in their zeal to connect with this young 35 year old man. He was sweet and kind of awkward, speaking the majority of the time in Korean with the master of ceremonies acting as his interpreter. He sang several songs, did two costume changes, played some silly games, hugged some fans, and that was about it. Did I get to know him or his thoughts about his career? Not really. I almost felt like a voyeur, snooping into his life in an artificial and contrived way. Some of the moments on stage were cringeworthy, and I felt sorry that this type of event is how many Kdrama stars are asked to interact with their fans.

To sum it up, "Inside The Actor's Studio"* it wasn't. Maybe Judy will have a somewhat more positive take on our evening. It was fun getting to do this with her. We actually wrote the previous blog post together, and that was more rewarding than meeting the man of everyone's dreams but mine.

Judy: Well, my overall reaction is I don't need to do another Fan Meeting. Let me describe the two 'meetings' we've had with Kdrama Stars to help explain my reaction.

Meeting 1 last April at Stanford Univ with the fabulous Lee Byung-hun (my all-time favorite.) This was an opportunity to hear him talk about how he got into acting, his early struggles, and some Q&A with the audience. Photos were strongly discouraged and the audience was very respectful. (At no point did anyone scream 'take off your shirt!') His answers were thoughtful & intelligent as were the questions. Lee Byung-hun is pretty great in English so the translator wasn't as critical. I found this event terrific.

Meeting 2 in Los Angeles with the excellent Jung Hae-in. BIG difference. Probably half the audience was screaming for him to strip off his clothes or were blowing kisses at him. He did discuss a bit about what shows were his favorites; he generally preferred the roles that were difficult for him to portray. The audience couldn't have cared less; all they wanted was him to smile, pose, & look great. The Emcee/translator was awful. As Pat said, he dressed like a schlub* off the street, forgot what was being said, and apparently hadn't bothered to even watch any of the shows Jung Hae-in acted in! This nitwit emcee definitely impacted my reaction to the entire show. Like Pat I think Jung Hae-in himself was friendly, seeemed approachable, and kind of endearing with the fans. But the whole event focused on cutesy stuff instead of his talent and abilities as an actor.

So, apparently Pat and I are more high-brow than I thought. We want serious opportunities to learn something; not frivolous events where there is nothing of substance being presented. To be fair the two events were not presented in the same light; one was definitely an Academic Conference and the other was a Fan Meeting. Like Pat the best part of the weekend was spending time with each other.

By the way, I knew we weren't Fan Meeting material when - early in the show - I looked over at Pat. She thought the sound was too loud so she had stuffed white kleenex into both her ears. The resemblance to Yoda of Star War Fame was remarkable.

*Schlub

Yiddish word that means a talentless, unattractive or boorish person

*"Inside The Actors Studio" is an American talk show that is presented as a seminar to students at Pace University. It's a slow paced interview that is televised for one to two hours.