Back in early August, FanGathering‘s very own Artemis Fowl Forum global moderator and Artemis Fowl FanFiction administrator BlackOpal was lucky enough to go on an awesome trip to Europe. Part of the itinerary was to see Eoin Colfer live on his Faires, Fiends, and Flatulence show. Lucky girl! 😛 Here’s her account of this amazing experience.
The Poster at the Train
station.
When my family arrived in Epsom to see Eoin Colfer, we were absolutely delighted to be greeted by a Fairies, Fiends and Flatulence poster at the train station. While walking to the playhouse, we saw many more. The workers in the local book shops were all wearing t-shirts. The town seemed very excited for their special guest.
We arrived at the playhouse early, and I tried to bury my fears. I had a gut feeling that, at sixteen years of age, I would be the oldest “child” there. That delusion was smashed as soon as I entered the theatre. I wasn’t the oldest! I was at most the median.
There were many children. And there were many teenagers of sixteen, seventeen, even twenty years of age. Eoin Colfer drew quite a crowd. The variety in the theatre was amazing. People of all ages wearing clothes of all styles walked in carrying piles of books under their arms to be signed by the author.
Eoin Colfer entered with a dramatic shroud of dry ice, and he instantly claimed that he was not responsible for that little bit of flatulence.
The line to get the books signed.
He was hilarious. If he hadn’t been an author, he could have made it as a stand up comic. I laughed until my sides split. He recounted his childhood, and explained where his inspiration for the Artemis Fowl characters came from.
My parents, who expected to be bored out of their minds, laughed as much, and maybe more, than any of us children. They understood the trials of parenthood too well.
I never expected to have my parents quote Eoin Colfer to me for days after the show. My Dad even said that it was “funnier than Spamalot”, which was a musical by Monty Python that we saw earlier in the week.
Colfer eventually came to the Q&A portion, which was very interesting. We found out that Holly was based off of his wife (he said that he wasn’t very good at writing female characters, and he followed his wife around trying to get her to do something girly, and you know Holly). The highlight of that portion was when a girl my age asked, “Are Artemis and Holly going to… uhm… well… you know…?”
After that we proceeded outside into the main building to get books signed. Eoin Colfer was very cordial, and he signed our books, quite impressed that we made it all the way there from Canada.
He signed books for my sister, my brother my cousin and I. And, of course, he signed a paper for Fangathering.
The signature. It says, “To all the fans at Fangathering.com Keep on gathering! EC.
Click for a larger version.
It was a great experience. My sister just started reading the books, because she wanted to meet the author, but didn’t want to do so without reading Artemis Fowl. She was not disappointed. In fact, I’m afraid that she is now obsessed. I’d recommend the show to adults and children, even if they haven’t read a single book.
OMG! Lucky! I live in Thailand and went to see his tour in NYC whilst I was there.Of course, I agree with you it was completely awesome. And yes, he DID talk about the whole ‘Holly based on his wife and four kids he used to teach, bundled up to make one character’ and such!I hope you had fun. I definitely did!Awww, you got a clover too! He always signs those, they’re so cute XDIf you wanna read MY version (not as good as BlackOpal’s account, I’m sure), go to my website: http://porpierita.deviantart.com/ 😉
Cool.Awesome-ness.
I want to get a signature, too!
It must have been awesome!
MAN! when will eoin come to America!? im so jealous! oh well. im glad u guys had a good time. maybe i can go to the next one
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!Your so lucky!I wish I could meet Eoin Colfer!
You are so lucky! I wish he would come to America. Although we did get the Time Paradox first…. 😉
Wait…he DID go to the states…he toured for like a week there!
I absolutely agree BlackOpal. Eoin Colfer is absolutely hilarious! I went to see him in Nottingham, and got my Time Paradox signed! My message reads “Proud to be Irish!” because I am 2/3 Irish by ancestry 😀 I am so happy *sob sob* XD I’ve been quoting him for ages…”DRUNK STRANGER!!!” “Awww, he set the dog on fire. Isn’t that cute?” Hahaha! Well done on getting that signature for FanGathering. I can now say I’ve technically got two signatures to my name 😉
Haha, I remember that. Who are you? I don’t know you! You’re drunk! You’re a drunk stranger!I laugh every time I see Golem now. 😀
OMG…I have to agree.That Golem story was hilarious!And the ‘you’re drunk!’ thing…dammit…I wanna see his show again. 🙁
That’s brilliant Opal! The show sounds really cool, and the note is awesome. 😀
OPAL! LUCK LUCKY FELLAH!
*sobs*
i wanan meet the Almight Eoin Colfer too!
:(((
OMG! Those of you who’ve seen it are SO lucky!I wish I could go see the show.. 🙁 But I live in Denmark, so it’s kind of far away..I WANT EION COLFER TO SIGN A BOOK! :'( Arrrrrgh!
what’s the paw looking thing in the corner?
It’s a clover XD
That’s awesome!
xP
Too bad I’ll probably never meet him or any other celebrity.
Wow!!!! So awesome!!! I wish I could meet him….wait a second.*makes a few phone calls, pulls a hew strings…..*Okay. 8)
Completely unrelated: For some reason i always saw Artemis and Holly together. It wouldn’t work cause she’s a fairy, but I always saw it that way. Especially in the graphic novel.
OMG I was looking at Artemis Fowl stuff online and I saw that very message Eoin Colfer wrote and that’s how I found out about Fangathering! OMG that is hilarious