Season 2, Episode 7 (1/25/07)

Hello everyone!

During last night's volunteer shift, I was able to see the last half of "Fay Grim" (the Parker Posey film from Episode 5 that I dozed in and out of). It was a more enjoyable movie when I was fully alert. And the ending made much more sense once I saw how they got there. I'll increase the rating from 2 1/2 stars to 3 stars (out of five).

This morning, I got up for an early screening of "Eagle vs. Shark," a New Zealand film about a quirky man and a quirky woman who fall in and out and back in love again. It seemed like there were a couple of Napoleon Dynamites on the screen in the way that they were acting (but that's not quite true, because I can't stand Napoleon Dynamite, but I liked these characters). There were many funny scenes in this flick. 3 1/2 stars.

Before the movie, I went to grab a hot chocolate and Bobby Cannavale (from "Will & Grace," etc.) got in line behind me. I wasn't exactly sure that it was him, but then he gave his name as Bobby when he ordered his coffee. After the movie, I hit the gym again, but my buddy Sam wasn't there today.

After the gym, I met up with my friends and co-workers, Jeromy and Vicki, to prowl Main Street for free stuff. Our first stop was at the Paul Mitchell Salon where they were giving free haircuts. Vicki and I both partook in that, while Jeromy (who works in film production) used his video camera to film us. He explained to the salon workers that we were filming "The Plush Life of a Sundance Volunteer," so they gave me a bunch of Paul Mitchell products as well.

After the salon experience, we decided that the most effective way to get some swag would be to pretend that one of us was a celebrity. We thought that perhaps some of the vendors would give us more things than they give the general public if there was a celebrity involved. We really didn't get anything special throughout the afternoon, but we did have some adventures.

We tried to come up with some backstory about who this celebrity was. I was playing the part of the celebrity with my long black coat and sunglasses (that I never took off). Jeromy decided that I should have a four-part name and we ended up with John Henry Smith-Bourbon (I'm not sure where that came from). We thought John Henry might be part of the show "7th Heaven" - a show that many people may have heard of, but not many may have watched. (We never had to use that part of the ruse.) Jeromy would be following as the camera crew and Vicki was my handler (holding my bags, talking to store personnel, etc.)

When we would go into a store, Vicki or Jeromy would explain that they were following "John Henry" around for the day and ask for permission to film in their store. People were very friendly to "John Henry" but he didn't get any special treatment or free things. Volkswagen has a tent on the street where they give out a variety of Volkswagen branded products (mints, pens, etc.) When "John Henry" went in there with the camera crew, there was a photographer there who wanted to take my picture. I posed with Vicki and then the photographer asked my name, so I told her - "John Henry Smith-Bourbon (like the drink)." It would be hilarious if I make the papers tomorrow.

We went into one lounge and Vicki asked if we could be admitted in. They took one look at "John Henry" and the camera crew and they said "you guys are all set. Come on in." So we did and got some free samples of some mango anti-oxidant drinks, but there wasn't much else going on. We got to another lounge and we were told we could "go right upstairs," so we did and we ended up in a media lounge where they do interviews with celebrities. "John Henry" was introduced to some interviewer named Tony who was very interested to talk to me about the film that I have at Sundance. I'm not sure where he got that idea, but we told him that we had a lunch date, so I didn't have time to sit down for an interview. Tony really wanted an interview with "John Henry" and practically begged for us to come back after lunch. I don't think I could have kept a straight face through an entire fake interview, so we decided just to get out of there. Everytime we left a store, we were cracking up about how people responded to "John Henry." We were even allowed into a private lounge that Vicki and Jeromy had been trying to get into all week. With "John Henry" with them, we got right in. Basically if you walk around with an entourage and an air of celebrity, people will pay attention. Nobody was willing to challenge my "celebrity" for fear of looking like an idiot for not knowing why "John Henry" was famous. We had so much fun with this crazy social experiment.

Once we got tired of being famous, we went to check out the Music Cafe and listened to the song stylings of the 60s singer, Donovan ("Mello Yello," "Season of the Witch," etc.) Then it was time to get back to the real world of being a Sundance volunteer. We had two very full films in our theater tonight - "Interview" (again) and "Black Snake Moan" (the new Samuel L. Jackson/Christina Ricci movie). Both were completely sold out and we turned hundreds of people away from each screening. There were a lot of unhappy people, but there was literally not an empty seat in the house. Them's the breaks.

Until the next episode...

Your Sundance correspondent,

John Henry :)