It seems a lovely woman named Anne Murphy (who's husband makes balloon animals, Gaimen hastens to add - and for good reason. Making balloon animals is damn hard!) has been Mr.Gaiman's 'minder' over the last year, and 'has magicked up cuff-links an hour before the Hugo Awards and reminded me to eat when I forgot and so on.'The clever and no doubt patient and resourceful woman has come up with a Guide to Neil Handling for conventions.
Pens and other Supplies:
After an autographing session, Neil should wipe down his hands with alcohol wipes. If he doesn't have these with him, you can get them at any pharmacy. This keeps him from getting sick from shaking everyone's hand. It is helpful to put some of these in your pocket, which he also usually does, so they are convenient.
Breath mints are another good thing to have on hand. That's not to suggest Neil needs these, but he does use them habitually. Finally, one will note that he often finds himself without a razor when on the road. I wouldn't go so far as to get one for him in advance but I would be prepared to help him acquire one if need be.
Food
It is good to feed your Neil regularly. Note that if he has breakfast around 10 he won't really be hungry for lunch until 2 or so. Snacks are good. Good snacks include cheese, fruit, rice cakes and tuna salad, and cheese. Yes, I know I listed cheese twice. Small lumps of protein are good (to quote Neil).
A prime thing to know is that Neil likes sushi. He really, really likes sushi, and will happily eat it every day. Do some research into the best sushi options in the area and put their phone numbers in your cell phone for ease of making reservations and ordering take-out.
Small food note: Neil can generally eat shrimp but it does make his throat close up some so don't feed it to him before he has a speaking engagement.
Drink
Neil is British. He likes tea. He likes tea made by pouring boiling hot water over the tea. Most American tea services just use heated water, not boiling. Encourage your green room to provide an electric pot or kettle that will boil water for tea for him. He likes a breakfast tea in the morning, with something in it (milk, preferably) to make it white. With sushi he likes green tea, and I have seen him drink various herbal teas in the afternoon and evening, generally with honey. He also drinks hot chocolate.
As I started out by saying, Neil is a pleasure to assist. He is very sweet and his fans are also very nice, so you should not have a hard time at all. In fact, I expect you will have a lot of fun. Other people will be quite jealous. To quote a comment from my Livejournal post-Mythcon:
I was assisting Neil Gaiman.
I have about 7 friends that would kill you where you stand in order to have that opportunity. I'm not sure one of them ISN'T my husband.
So enjoy yourself! (And try not to get killed.)
2 comments:
So if I understand correctly, if you want to shut Neil up feed him shrimp and he subconsiously doesn't like to shave. Does he eat the rice cakes and cheese together? if so I'm sure he does need lots of breath mints, yuk-o-puy
And why would one want to shut Neil up, oh verbose one?
I would expect the masses want him to go on and on like a megalomaniac on speed. Which he doesn't appear to do.
Feed him shrimp indeed!
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