Mad Monster Party Video Coverage Episode 2: Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell: Owning the Room 101 (Video Below)

Owning the room—the ability to charm a large audience with ease, the ability to hold peoples’ attention and converse as naturally with 500+ people as you would one-on-one with an old friend. It’s a talent not many people possess and a hard skill for even professional speakers/actors to attain but the few that do are a sight to behold.

I’ve seen Robert Downey Jr. dance through scores of people at the San Diego Comic Con to Luther Vandross and Jerry Seinfeld relate to a bunch of hicks while performing on stage at the Capital Music Hall in Wheeling, West Virginia but I have to say I was surprised by how personable Bruce Campbell was on stage at the Mad Monster Party Q&A in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always considered him a great actor and charismatic sort with much of his personality coming through in his books If Chins Could Kill and Make Love! *The Bruce Campbell Way (If for some reason you haven’t, I recommend If Chins Could Kill as an essential read for any aspiring indie actors/filmmakers.)

However, for years I had pictured a man who was embittered by his plight as a B-movie cult icon. And who knows? Maybe I’m right and he’s just learned to hide his bitterness extremely well, but there’s no question that Bruce Campbell owned the room at the Mad Monster Party horror convention where he fielded random questions from the audience after screening an extended red band trailer of the Evil Dead remake and then signed over 400 autographs at which point I half expected him to pull out a chainsaw and lop off his clawed nub of a hand (zing).

In short, it was bizarre and inspiring to see the affect Bruce has on horror fans. It was like watching a humble monarch relate to his loyal subjects, and in the horror/sci-fi convention world Bruce Campbell is no doubt King. He’s lived every film/horror nerd’s life-long dream. Bruce Campbell got to play the part of the badass action hero, and if that wasn’t enough, he got to play that part in a series of movies directed by one of his best friends. It might not have been a blockbuster hit right out of the gate, but the fact that it resonates with so many people even if it is just a cult of super nerds who can’t get enough of the gore and the sweet one-liners, you have to admit, whether you’re a fan of the Evil Dead series or not, it’s incredible that it still has a solid following—a following that is growing as we speak with the Evil Dead remake owning the box office this past weekend by raking $26 million in ticket sales nation wide.

Enjoy our video coverage and Hail to the king baby….