Freddie Prinze Jr. will be attending his second Star Wars Celebration in Chicago this April and recently recorded a Facebook Live message to discuss the show. The video was featured on the actor’s new page for his Youtube Channel GEGGHEAD (“Good evening and good game.”) To learn what GEGGHEAD is all about click HERE.
“If you’re in Chicago, if you’re going to Star Wars Celebration, and you’ve been trying to get a Kanan signature and you weren’t able to get to Orlando to do it I’ll sign it for you.” said Prinze Jr. “Hopefully that will complete your collection or at least get you a step further down the road.”
Earlier this week Star Wars Autograph News spoke with Topps Star Wars Authentics manager Mark Von Ohlen who gave a great behind-the-scenes look into autograph hall (you can listen to that interview HERE). In this video we hear from the autograph signer’s perspective.
Von Ohlen discussed the perception fans sometimes have of guests not being invited to Celebration. Prinze Jr. elaborates on that theme in his video.
“They invite everyone from pretty much every movie that’s been made.” explained Prinze Jr. “A lot of times people are either working or they don’t want to travel or they simply have something else going on. If this had been over the weekend then I wouldn’t have gone because it would have been my wife’s birthday.”
He went on to explain the business side of things. “So don’t get offended when people you love don’t get invited because they very well may have, they just simply aren’t going to go. It’s business and Topps is in the business of making money and a lot of these people go to other conventions and know the value of the signature and it’s show business at the end of the day.”
An essential component of Star Wars Autograph News is providing information and education to our collecting community. We certainly don’t know everything about the business, or ever claim to, but what we have learned, through experience or the experts we interview, we pass on to others to help make Star Wars autograph collecting as enjoyable as possible. Prinze Jr. warns us about the dark side of fan sites.
“A lot of people have Youtube channels and social media and they talk on Star Wars as if they’re experts and they literally have zero experience, zero real contacts, zero knowledge of the business. A lot of times it’s simply they’re not educated on the business. They want to be. This goes for media people, with credentials. They don know how this stuff works.”
That being said, Prinze Jr. experienced another side of fandom during his first Celebration in Orlando in 2017.
“Celebration is a different experience. You get to do interviews with podcasters, who are not members of the media usually, but simply tremendous fans and have built up communities from their podcasts that when they get the opportunity to speak to somebody their audience is excited about it makes the podcast more special.”
Freddie Prinze Jr. will be attending Star Wars Celebration on Thursday and Friday, April 11th and 12th along with Star Wars Rebels co-stars Taylor Gray and Vanessa Marshal
Can’t attend Celebration and need an autograph? Topps will be providing send-in and pre-order programs for those who can’t be in Chicago for the show. Details will be released soon, but click HERE for me information.
For the latest from Freddie Prinze Jr. follow his GEGGHEAD Youtube Channel and Facebook page, as well as his podcast, “Prinze and the Wolf” on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes. Be sure to follow Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Twitter account HERE.
You can listen to our full interview with Mark on the latest episode of the Star Wars Autograph News podcast. Click HERE to listen and if you could subscribe to the show we’d appreciate the support.
For a list of the other signers already announced for #SWCC, as well as a compilation of all the signers from every previous Celebration and the cost of their autographs, click HERE.
Star Wars Celebration Chicago will take place April 11-15 at McCormick Place. Visit StarWarsCelebration.com for tickets and more info.
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