My Mario Meet and Greet Experience

Meet and greets, It’s something about paying someone for a 2 minute, sometimes less encounter  to take a picture with them that they will never remember. It just doesn’t sit right with my soul.

 Now I’m all about supporting the person but since it’s a one sided relationship, its always been a no for me because the experience is nothing other than a photo opp.

The VIP coordinator gives you a time to check in, you arrive an hour and a half later, sometimes more. You will finally get to meet the star you've been waiting on to make your dreams come true.

Meet and greets feel so rushed and impersonal.  Not to mention some meet and greets are during the show, which would make me miss half of the show. Some are after the show, and by then my hair is sweated out and my feet hurt .

Now if your dream is simply to say a couple words, take a picture and get a hug (depending on the artist ), by all means, but I just don’t think it’s worth it.

A true VIP experience for me, I want to be able to chop it up with my favorite artist, tap into their personal side, see what its like to get ready for the show. If I could trade that in for the picture, and no phone to document the experience, you bet I would. 

Have I been to other meet and greets, yes, did I pay for them, no, don’t ask.

So how did a person like me who despised the thought of paying for a meet and greet  end up doing just that?

Well, I was having a bad week, my favorite artist had a show out of town, the very next week and it was affordable, so I booked the flight, bought the VIP package and purchased the concert ticket the day of. 

Yolo behavior, he is one of my favorite artist, I’ve always wanted to meet him, so I said why not. Having in my head the experiences of others meet and greets, I wanted this one to be different, I didn’t want it to just be a photo opp. I wanted to make an impression, I wanted to see if fans could really make their dreams come true (within reason), for the end goal to be the artist following you on social media and to potentially get to know that person, at least that’s my goal. 

The mission was set, I would try to make an impression so that this artist would remember me.  I reached into my creative bag and made a jersey in dedication to his new single. I personalized a note book, which had his favorite tattoo on the outside and lyrics dedicated to him for a brief introduction of myself, what my intentions were and my social media info on the inside cover. I also purchased what I found is his favorite snack to give to him. Just small tokens of my support of him as a fan.  

So it's time for the meet and greet, at this point, i'm trying to figure out what I’m going to say to my favorite artist. You only get a few seconds of their time so you have to make it count right.

Was I nervous?

Not at all, I don’t get star struck, in my eyes this is just a regular guy. Was I excited, absolutely, when you follow someone’s career for so long how could you not be, plus I have an end goal. I figured out what my opening line was going to be.

 I purposely made myself be the last one to greet him just so I can say, “you saved the best for last huh.” With a laugh as I walked up to him, with no hesitation “Oh absolutely, absolutely” while coming in for a hug. The hug was so genuine, so tight and much longer than I expected it to be, to the point that i though it was over, let go and he was still hugging me “oh okay we are still going, alright.” I said with a laugh. He let go and  as we prepared to take our picture I said” its nice to meet you, here i have something for you” i handed him his gift , he said  “oh for real”, and looked inside. 

With the biggest smile on his face and with much enthusiasm he said, “oooooooohhhh you got me my favorite chips, “ me with my sarcasm turned on “whhhaaat, those are your favorite” “yes!those are going to get eaten right after the show!” took our picture and then he hugged me again to say goodbye. A person from his entourage noticed my jersey as I was hugging him  pointed out it out to him and said “look at her fit”  he checked me out front to back as his people and himself were hyping me up by saying “ okay-okay-okay, I see you,” he got to the back of the jersey and noticed the dedication to his new single, chuckled and said “that’s hot” as i turned back around he put his hand up to receive a high five  said he was performing it tonight and gave me another hug goodbye.

As I was letting go i let him know that i also got him a notebook so he can write some hits into it, he was so excited about the chips he didn’t notice it was in the bag with them. He says oh for sure I will be writing in it no doubt, I closed with alright bet and it was nice to meet you and left with the biggest smile.

So many more things that I wanted to say, I wanted to ask, and annoyed that I couldn’t. I definitely was able to turn the 1 minute I was supposed to have into 6. The overall experience with meeting Mario, one of my favorite artists for the first time was a 9 out of 10, it was the extra 5 minutes that made all the difference for me. Mario seems like a good dude with fire energy and someone you want to get to know.

So one of my goals was to make an impression, I think I definitely did that, did I achieve my end goal, no, but there is hope for me yet. I have been trying to stay on his radar on social media so that the experience can be remembered for the both of us. The bad news is, still no follow, but the good news is, he interacted with me on a post he made, which makes me feel that maybe with a reminder, the next time if I decide to go meet him again, he will remember the main one. The mission is still on.