V A N T A S T I C - The Van Hansis Fanlisting

Special:
My Encounter with Van

EXCLUSIVE - DO NOT REPRODUCE ANY PART OF THIS REPORT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!

I was finally able to meet Van on Friday, November 16, 2007, outside New World Stages. That is the theater where Die Mommie Die! is playing now. This was attempt #3 (I had tried but failed dismally to meet him twice before) and it led to success, which I am very happy about.

Okay so that Friday I had plans to hang out with two of my best friends for the day, but I decided I was going to swing by the theater later that night to see if I could spot Van again, because I hadn't yet and I really wanted to meet him. My friends know of my utter devotion to the guy and they cheered me on about it. While we were eating at "Alice's Tea Cup" (a really nice restaurant that has 4 locations in the city), the topic of Van came up and it was determined that we were ALL Luke fans (even though the two of them don't watch the show) which made me giggle like crazy.

Anyway we hung out until about 8 PM. They both were tired (from shopping) and wanted to go home. I still had an hour and a half until the play ended, so I had no idea what I was going to do. I walked them to the subway station, then walked to Times Square by myself (I was at 34th Street). I decided to go into the Virgin megastore to just look around, so I did and found out select CDs were going for $10 so I started browsing. I had two picked out but then decided to check out the other levels, and low and behold...there was a Marvel display on one of them. I couldn't resist. I decided to ditch my whole idea of getting myself anything at all and planned on getting something for Van instead. I went with a red Spiderman t-shirt.

Once I purchased the t-shirt, I then headed a couple of blocks up to where the theater was. It was a little past 9 PM so I still had some waiting to do, but I didn't really mind (aside from the cold). I knew the theater had a bathroom so I went in and asked where the bathroom was, and they said downstairs, but when I got there the sweet guy who worked there so I couldn't go in without a ticket, so I was like aww...then he suggested the Starbucks around the corner for the bathroom, so that's where I went. Not before ordering a tall peppermint mocha first though! I had just wanted to freshen up a bit in the first place.

After Starbucks, I walked back and sat down somewhere. I wrote him a little note during that time and slipped it into the bag with the t-shirt. At 9:30 PM, I got up and waited outside (instead of inside, where it was warm, I know...). People who saw Altar Boyz left first, then the Die Mommie Die people came out. I spotted the actor Alan Cumming leaving with somebody, which I thought was pretty neat. Then I finally saw someone from DMD inside: Kristine Nielson. A little after that, I saw Van chatting with Chris Hoch and opening the doors to leave, and that's when I went up to them.

Conversation went something like this:
Me: "Van, Van..."
*he looks up and sees me*
Van: *smiling* "Hi!"
*waits for me to say more*
Me: "I got you something."
Van: *lights up and gasps* "You did?"
Me: "It's a t-shirt..."
*he takes the bag then takes the shirt out, not before the little note falls out and almost blows away in the wind, but he runs around trying to catch it and does!*
Van: "Whoa..." (while getting the paper to not fly away)
Me: "It's Spiderman..."
Van: *freaks out and takes a good look at the shirt* "Oh my god, this is awesome!"
Me: "I hope it fits..."
Van: "It's perfect, thank you!"
*I smile*
Van: "What's your name?"
Me: "Shirphie."
Van: "What is it?"
Me: "Shirphie...I saw the show a few weeks ago, and you two were both great in it."
*both of them thank me*
Me: *focusing on Van* "Could I get a picture...?"
*Van agrees and I hand my camera to Chris to take*
Chris: "Okay this is used for general picture taking..." (talking about my camera setting on the screen)
Me: "Mmhmm!"
*Chris takes the picture and hands the camera back to me*
Me: "Chris, could I also get one with you?"
*Chris is fine with that and I hand my camera to Van, then he takes our picture*
Me: "Thank you! I'm sorry but could you guys also sign my playbill?"
Chris: "Sure!"
*I take out my silver sharpie, and Van signs then Chris does*
Van: "Did you see the show then come back?"
Me: "Yeah...I met the guy who gave you the comic book, actually."
*Chris starts playfully teasing Van about him and comic books*
Me: "He was sorry that he missed you."
Van: "Aww."
Me: "He was from D.C."
Van: "Ohh, cool."
(^^^above dialogue all while signing)
Van: "Are you a fan of the soap?"
Me: *bursts out this next phrase* "YES, I AM!"
*a beat*
Van: *holding up the bag* "Thank you so much for this."
Me: "You're welcome."
Van: "It was nice meeting you!"
Me: "Yeah, bye!"
*while walking away, I heard this*
Van: "We should go inside and wait for Bob."

And that was my experience! I feel very fortunate to have met Van; he is such a warm and charismatic person. I love him as an actor and I adore him even more as a human being. He's great!

© Shirphie, written for Vantastic - Please do not redistribute without permission