I’ll update this in a bit with actual information and tidbits from the evening, but for now…

OH HAI MARK!

Update:

The evening began with a half hour documentary based around his book, which was cool and had a lot of on-set making-of footage, and the entire commercial Tommy made to get his SAG card (it’s pretty awesome). He even got the guy who played Peter’s replacement (Steve aka silk shirt guy aka “I feel like I’m sitting on an atomic bomb!” aka WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU) to talk about his role, which was pretty funny.

After that, Greg told some anecdotes about how he ended up on The Room and read a bit from the book (the post-Mr. Ripley car ride) and, as always, Greg’s Tommy voice is great. He had copies of the original–not the final, filmed version, but Tommy’s straight-off-the-computer–script for sale and he and various audience members read some scenes from it. The original script, in some Wiseauian magic, both explained things better and made even less sense. I highly recommend finding a copy (though I didn’t buy one).

Other tidbits I learned:

• Greg hasn’t seen much of The Neighbors, but isn’t high on it, which seems to be what the rest of the packed house thought of it, too. I don’t feel bad about skipping it at this point.
• His publisher cut out a section of the book about the music in the film. Originally Tommy wanted Bon Jovi to record the love songs, but that was not to be. Instead, they pulled some kids off the street who then recorded the awesome soundtrack you know and love today.
• He and Tommy are still friends, though as Greg said, they’ve never had a “traditional” friendship. Tommy allowed Greg to interview him for the book, which is where the sections on  Tommy’s history comes from. He said that the parts of the book Tommy doesn’t like are the making of sections, since to Tommy The Room is still the most perfect and incredible film ever, so anything said against it is heresy.
• Also, Tommy calls Greg’s book “The Red Bible”.
• When Greg talks about Tommy hanging upside down in their apartment in the book, this is what he means:

Greg was super nice and gracious, but definitely had an air about him that felt like he’d been through this so many times and was a little tired. Or maybe he was just tired. He was cool to fans and took time to talk to everyone and graciously signed anything and took every picture requested. I asked him about Dude Bro Party Massacre III and he seemed excited that I asked and said he had a lot of fun making that movie. If you haven’t seen the trailer for that, you really should.

That’s about it. I didn’t stay for much of The Room since I’d seen it so much and it was getting late and I needed to get up early to go biking today. If Greg comes to your town, you really should go. He’s super cool. Even without a full, amazing, sexy, unresistable beard.