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Wednesday, 11 February 2004
Dallas, Texas was the site of 2004's HIA convention, and Puppet Mania took the Dallas Convention Center by storm. North Light Books had over 80 signed copies of Puppet Mania to give away but they ran out of John's book half way through the 4 day event. Luckily John brought along a bunch of Banana Buddies to carve and hand out. When word got around that there were Banana Buddies at the North Light booth people from all over the convention came to see and hear the Banana Buddies sing.
Even Carol Duvall, the star of her own hugely popular show on HGTV, wanted to check out the action. She and her crew were there to shoot a special edition of the Carol Duvall Show to be aired the first week of March, and they came over to the North Light booth to see what everyone was talking about. They asked John to demonstrate on camera how he makes a Banana Buddy and got him to do a little performance. The crew got a big kick out of the performance. John even gave the director one of the last two copies of Puppet Mania to take home to his family.
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In looking back at the events that lead up to the taping of the Carol Duvall Show, the first day was kind of a weak start to the conference. The North light booth was nestled back in the corner of the convention center. People didn't start filtering over until late in the morning, and it was a struggle for John to hand out even 10 Puppet Mania books. The afternoon was a little better as John gave out 12, but it was certainly not what you'd call a barn burner.
However, the next day was a different story altogether. From 9am to 5pm the entire hall had come alive with new energy. The word was out, and Puppet Mania was something the crowds at HIA wanted. Everyone who came up to John was very complimentary of his achievement and noted how different and fresh his puppet craft ideas were. By the end of the second day there were only 2 copies of Puppet Mania left out of the original 80...and those were needed for display purposes.
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Here you see John and Sock Puppy taking a break from signing books.
The 3rd day was a little intense because people were now asking John for his book. He didn't want to disappoint so John reverted to his back up plan. He started giving away custom Banana Buddies. By the afternoon John got wind that Carol Duvall, the queen of crafting, was at the convention, had heard about Puppet Mania and specifically wanted to interview the Banana Buddies.
When Sunday came, John was met first thing by the producers of the Carol Duvall Show. They were very nice and were excited about giving John some extra time to build a Banana Buddy on camera. Except for a couple of false starts, the taping went very smooth largely due to the professionalism of the director and his crew. John was so impressed he gave the director one of his last 2 copies of Puppet Mania and a Banana Buddy to take home to his family.
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An unexpected fringe benefit of being at HIA was all of the special friends that John made with the other authors of North Light Books. They are definitely a very talented group, and John was honored to be a part of the team.
Here you see new authors Bev Brazelton and Claudine Hellmuth take a moment to pose with John.
Hands In Art would like to thank Greg Hatfield and Sally Finnegan from North Light Books and the Carol Duvall show for making HIA 2004 a very wonderful and memorable experience. Thank you and see you next year!
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