A (Not So) Chance Meeting
It was New Year’s Day 2017. I was attending the last day of a convention called “Nerd Year’s Eve” and making one final lap of the vendor hall before calling it a day. My friend, Michael Cross, who is sadly no longer with us, spotted me and called me over.
He was standing behind one of the vendor tables with a man he introduced to me as Christopher R. Mihm. “He makes cheesy movies. You’d like them,” Michael said. And he was right. I bought the whole set, which was eleven films at the time, for $75. Quite a steal, in my opinion. I told Chris it was nice to meet him and that I looked forward to watching his movies. Then I left the convention with my purchase in hand. I honestly thought I’d never see this random filmmaker from Minnesota again.
Boy, was I wrong.
Through the efforts of Michael, Chris started coming down to Dallas every 6-8 weeks. He vended at more conventions as well as screened his films at Alamo Drafthouse. Between the two he had a fairly consistent schedule and I started seeing him around more often. And then I started finding myself behind the table instead of in front of it.
It happened naturally. I’m a helpful sort and Chris often needed another pair of hands when he was down in Dallas, away from home and without his usual helpers. I spent several years going to events as a vendor-adjacent attendee and generally having a great time. This, like so many other things, would fall apart under the onslaught of COVID-19 in 2020. Chris was actually in Dallas setting up for the first day of a convention he regularly attended, when the city put the kibosh on public events. We still refer to it as The Con That Wasn’t.
Then, there came a time in my life where I needed a change. A fresh start. But where to start? I could go anywhere, technically, but I’d never lived more than twenty minutes (save for college, which was a whopping hour and half away) from my family. I wasn’t sure I could just move to a new city not knowing a single soul. Well. In that case what were my options? I had a few. Austin, TX. Portland, OR. Birmingham, AL. Minneapolis, MN.
Ah. Minneapolis. My current employer had buildings there, didn’t they? Hang on… Could I possibly keep my job?
Turned out I could. Decision made. Minnesota, here I come.
Chris was delighted to have a new actress and a new filming location at his disposal. He used my house as a filming location before I even moved in. I was more than happy to become part of the cinematic universe I’d been watching for years now.
My first foray into film acting was a brief cameo in Annihilate All Humans! as a panicked citizen. Since then, we’ve filmed Three Bad Girls Who Find a Gun and Become Vampires, where I feature as one of the main characters (releasing March 5th!). It’s been a lot fun getting to learn a script, act on camera, and record ADR. It’s very different from the improvisational nature of being a haunted house actor or a cosplayer. I’m looking forward to any future projects I get to work on with Saint Euphoria Pictures.
And every time I think of the friend we lost, I’m grateful to him all over again for pulling me over to that table that day. We miss you.
