| Name: | Megan | |
| Age: | 14 | |
| Club: | Crazy for Gabriel Byrne | |
| From: | Texas | |
| Met him: | October 6, 2000 at the taping of 'Madigan Men' in Astoria, New York | |
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Description:
Wow! NYC is full of Gabe references!!! On
the plane ride I read a USA Today and saw that there were 2 Gabe movies
on TV ("Hanna K." and "Smilla's Sense of Snow").
And when we arrived at my grandparents' house they had the TV Guide
issue out on the table with Gabe in it. But today...well...you
see, we left Connecticut at about 2pm and arrived in Astoria (part of
Queens) at about 4pm. We spent about 20 minutes parking (my dad
was afraid he would be towed) and then ate at a Cuban place (not a good
place for a vegetarian-I had a salad-everything else had meat-there was
even ox tail!! ewwwwwww!!!).
Then we went back to the
Kaufman Astoria Studios and found out where to wait and then at around 5
the pages arrived and checked us off the list and at about 6 or so we
were let in. Now there were about 200 audience members and the
seating was very long and spread out in front of the various sets.
We were in front of the Office set and had a good view of the pub.
At about 7 we saw the pilot episode (which aired in TV later on that
night) and it was FUNNY!!! There was an "Annie Get Your
Gun" reference (which I'm going to see in December) and a
"Lion King" reference (which I saw). I laughed a lot!!
The show was WAY better than I had anticipated. (Let's just say
that from the reviews and summaries, I had very low expectations but
hoped for the best.)
Then they began to tape
the show. In between scenes this guy named Eddie, who is a
comedian, would tell jokes and talk with audience members, but he was
extremely dorky and not funny! (Part of his material was that 'W'
is in fact two Vs and should be called Double V instead of Double U.
Like no one else has noticed this startling news!!) They filmed a
bunch of scenes in the apartment and another guy's apartment so we had
to watch the monitor since we couldn't really see those places from
where we were sitting. They would do each scene 2 or 3 times in
order to get different film angles. If a line wasn't funny they
would rewrite it until it was. For instance, Gabe says a line
about how "all men's magazines talk about is how to get washboard
abs" which was changed to "all men's magazines talk about is
golf" which was changed to "all the magazines men read can't
be left in the laundry room." The last was, of course,
funniest. (In the scene Seamus had found a Cosmo in the laundry room.)
Then they did an office scene right in front of us and then more scenes
we couldn't see from our seats. However, in between I noticed Gabe
was smiling and laughing usually, although he seemed tired.
Then Eddie started
talking to a girl in the audience (I couldn't see her) who said her name
was Romy!! I told my dad, "That's Gabe's daughter!!!"
and she kept talking and talking and telling jokes (Two cannibals were
eating a clown and one said to the other, "Does this taste funny to
you?") and was stealing the show from Eddie and was exactly as she
had seemed on the Galway radio program (for those of you who heard that)
and was just like I had imagined her to be. Later on I heard Jack
and he was very quiet but he started to tell a joke but Eddie wouldn't
let him finish it because it was inappropriate. (It started off,
"There was an Israeli and a Palestinian..." but since they are
fighting now Eddie never let him finish.) Romy had mentioned that
one of the girls she was with was her half-sister, so probably Ellen
Barkin's new husband (Mr. Lipstick) had children. Eddie then later
mentioned that "those were Gabriel Byrne's children and
step-children." Ummmm.....no!!! They are NOT Gabe's
step-children!!
But anyways, at about
10pm or so a lot of people left, including Jack and Romy, so my dad and
I grabbed some seats by the apartment set. Then we watched a
pre-recorded scene that took place outside and then they filmed a scene
in the bar...right next to the office. If we hadn't moved we would
have had a good view of it, but we thought, "Oh well, they'll be
back filming in the apartment later on." They did, but it
wasn't a scene with Gabe. And when this apartment scene was over,
a girl screamed out that Gabe had just walked over to her. THIS
GIRL HAD BEEN SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO US AT OUR PREVIOUS SEAT!!! So by
then I was mad!!
But then we got some free
sodas (and of course my dad spilled his!) and they gave out 10 free hats
(only to the people who had talked with Eddie, so I didn't get one, but
if anyone else is going to a taping, TALK TO EDDIE!!!!! The hat
was a black baseball cap and said "Madigan Men" on the front
and had a clover on the back-cute.) Then, finally, they filmed an
apartment scene so I saw some more of my Gabe! I noticed he was
always laughing and people around him were laughing and he is a funny,
nice guy (like we didn't already know that?), like I mentioned before,
but I also noticed he was very tired and would close his eyes and rub
them and massage his temples every now and then. I wanted to just
run up to him and say something like, "Hey baby, it's ok!!!!!!
I love you!!!" and hug him. (LOL)
I got Roy Dotrice's
autograph between scenes, though, when he walked over to our audience
section. He asked me my name and I said Megan and he said, "a
Welsh name" and signed my paper. He is British and very nice
and has lovely handwriting!!
After the whole taping
they introduced us to the cast and Gabe said it was the last night for
the director to film this show and brought a cake out and invited the
whole audience and cast and crew down for cake and he also thanked
everyone for staying so late. He looked so nice-black suit, light blue
shirt (again!!!), but no Nikes!! LOL.
By this time I had not
gone to the restroom for about 6 hours and they had given us drinks and
I was squirming around and REALLY had to go!! (I'm sure you wanted
to know this!) But I went down to the stage and Gabe had VANISHED
along with Roy (but I already had his autograph, so who cares? LOL).
I met John C. Hensley-the boy who looks like Prince-and he was REALLY
nice!! I got a pic with him, too. He didn't even mess up his
lines on the show, except maybe once. (With Gabe it was funny
because several times he says "quesadillas" in the episode and
he would pronounce the Ls on accident and say "ques-a-DILL-as"
and with his accent it was very funny. Another time he was saying
his lines and walks over to the couch and was like, "Jesus Christ,
what's the line?" and said it in character just like it was part of
the script and it was hilarious.) Yes, but John Hensley was
INCREDIBLY nice and not fruity or Prince-like and was awesome!!
After the show I also met
Grant Shaud and got a pic and his autograph and got a pic of the pub and
the grocery store. This episode is the 6th and should air November
3rd. You might hear me laughing!!
So anyways, I was
searching for Gabe on the set and he was GONE!! John
(Hensley-we're on a first-name basis now, LOL) said he was probably with
the cake but he WASN'T! So I was very, very upset and
disappointed, as I'm sure you can imagine, but I was also about to burst
since I had to go to the bathroom and in order to do that we had to walk
around outside to the lobby of the studio and outside of the lobby, lo
and behold, it was...HIM!!!
Not a lot of people were
around him and I got his autograph (it's exactly like on the 8x10 photo)
and asked him to put my name, which he did, and his pen poked through
the paper a bit, but oh well. He took 3 pics with me (I'm not sure
how well these came out-it was about midnight outside and my dad is
awful at taking pictures, so don't expect his head to be in it!) and
for the pics he PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME and I did NOT want to leave!!
Oh my gosh!!! SO HOT!! But he seemed tired and distracted and I
felt so sorry for him to not be all cheery like the Lucky Charms guy he
should be and I wanted to just hug him, but I restrained myself.
So when I was finally
dragged away, I dashed to the bathroom, and when I came back, he was
gone!! I think he wanted to go straight to bed. It was 11:45
by this time and he seemed so very tired. (Whatever happened to
Roy??)
And on the drive home
there was a commercial for a store advertising new releases and named a
bunch of film titles and "Excalibur" was one of them and
I'm just thinking..."What?? That came out in the 80s...but it
has GABRIEL BYRNE!" And I just kept thinking about all the
stuff I should have done: brought my Stigmata DVD for him to sign,
brought a magazine to sign, given him a letter with my club site address
so I know he gets it, given him a gift, etc. (Those will have to
wait for next time...there will be a next time...trust me...I'll find a
way!! Until I marry him....LOL)
So...my opinions about
Prince have changed, and the dog on the show ROCKS!! and Roy was
hilarious and Gabe was OH-SO-HOT!!! The show exceeded my
expectations...and did I mention...I met HIM??!!
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