Before I start my thoughts about my encounter with John Alramura meant to me, I want to send my condolences to John Alramura’s family and friends for their loss as last night news broke that he passed away.
It’s been less than 24 hour before I went to bed last night when I came across a friend’s post on Facebook informing me that John Alramura passed away. I had to do a little research on it for confirmation purposes but found that to be sadly true. There’s also a news story on Bloody Disgusting that came out this afternoon to confirm this.
I felt compelled to write about this in an article form because it was something that I wanted to write about as I couldn’t do it in a simple Facebook or Twitter post on my personal pages. This was one of my favorite convention moments as he was the first celebrity that I had my picture taken with.
John Alramura was no Bruce Campbell, was no Robert Englund, was no Jeffery Combs and was even no Dick Miller. He was known to cult film fans as Toxie from Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hetz’s “The Toxic Avenger Part 2” and “The Toxic Avenger Part 3: The Last Temptation of Toxie”. But to me, he was the first celebrity that I’ve taken a photo with at a convention. The convention was Terror Con in June 2014 in Providence,RI.
A little background to why this encounter with Alramura is special to me. This was the third pop culture convention that I’ve even been to and first horror convention. Was very excited to meet him, as I’m a big fan of “The Toxic Avenger” series. At the time, I was very camera shy, I would get nervous meeting celebs and have a social disorder that makes it difficult for me to interact with people that I don’t know at times which I still have today.
To my memory, I think he was the first or second celeb that I saw at Terror Con that year. He was a nice guy. Met him for a couple of minutes. I was getting my autograph and I was talking about the two Toxic Avengers films that he was in. After getting my autograph, he asked me if I wanted to take a picture with him for no extra charge. At the time, I never knew that some horror celebs wouldn’t charge for table photos if you purchased an autograph. So I agreed to it. That experience changed the way that I approached meeting celebrities at conventions because that was one of those special moments that I’ve had at any convention as the picture at the top was my first picture of me with any convention guest. He made me feel comfortable with the process. It also sparked something in me to have a fun time at that convention.
This encounter would also change my thoughts on taking pictures with celebrities at conventions as I felt comfortable doing it and it added to that special feel of meeting a convention guest. This encounter would also give me the willingness to pay the extra $20 to take a picture with Dee Snider on that day after being convinced by Snider’s handle which is another moment that I cherish but would've never given in and spend that extra $20 if I didn't meet John that day. Because of that encounter, I now budget table photos and autographs into my convention budget when planning my budget for conventions because feel more comfortable in doing them at cons now than I did before
Even though, I only saw John Alramura was a couple of minutes, he truly holds a special place in my heart and fandom as if it wasn’t for that encounter, I probably wouldn’t be taking pictures with celebs and wrestlers at conventions at the rate I do today.
R.I.P: John Alramura
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