I'm back from covering "The Office" convention in Scranton, PA. If you want to know how it went, just read my entries here. Plus I'm happy to say that one of my quotes got picked up in a pro-Scranton article.
The people of the city couldn't be more excited to have the convention there; everyone I met seemed eager to talk, were flattered about the show's attention and picked up on the hype with signs ("eat where the Office eats," "Welcome Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch" and at a funeral home, "Funeral for Ed Truck.") You could tell off the bat from everyone screaming in the background behind Al Roker on the Today show on Friday, and the mayor's support and enthusiasm for the convention.
This is partially me giving Scranton its props, but also the setup for one anecdote I have from the weekend. One of the organizers of the convention sat down with me at lunch and told me about a VIP night I hadn't attended (or been invited to), adding how he had kind of admonished, pre-event, convention-goers not to bug the stars and just to "be cool" (I didn't say anything to this but I am pretty sure the celebrities were paid to be at the convention, hence those who especially had bought the most expensive passes had probably paid for the right to bug the actors a little bit.)
Anyway, I felt like teasing this guy a little bit. After he talked about how happy the actors seemed, I present to you a perfect example of how to demonstrate your own subtle sense of humor:
ME: Yeah, the actors do seem happy to be here. If only the city was excited.
HIM: What?
ME: I'm just not getting the impression that anybody in the city is happy about this convention.
HIM: Are you serious?
ME: (getting a little embarrassed) No, actually, I was being sarcastic.
HIM: Oh. Ah. (pause). I love sarcasm!