Meeting Tucker Max at an “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” Movie Screening

Surprisingly enough, I didn’t even have a chance to finish (I did start) the best selling book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell before seeing the blockbuster movie at a pre-screening in Gainsville Florida- on the eve of my 21^st birthday no less.

The end result?

Had a great time, the movie kicked ass, got a bunch of free stuff, and I got to meet and personally invite Tucker Max to T21C 2010.

Experience

It was a short 2 hour drive (maybe less) to Gainsville from Orlando. I rode with my room mate and his friend Jeff. We got there a full 2 hours ahead of time.

When we arrived, we were one of the few people there. Perhaps we overestimated Gainsville?

Nope. Not 45 minutes later, there are hundreds of people in line for this thing. And surprisingly enough, there were plenty of attractive women there. In fact, there may have been more girls than guys- it was close at the very least.

Why is this surprising?

Well, for those that aren’t familiar with Tucker Max, Tim Ferriss (as a compliment, and who also had a small cameo in the movie) recently called Tucker the most offensive human being on the planet- and after seeing him interact for a few hours with a massive fan turn out, it’s hard to argue other wise.

Yeah, he’s an asshole- but in a good way. Tucker is comfortable in his own skin- which includes being an asshole. In fact, I’d probably add to Tim’s comment and say that Tucker is the most “congruent” asshole on the planet- because he knows and accepts the fact that he is an asshole.

Truly amazing to see this play out with the people he’s attracted into his life at this event.

It was also cool to see some of the on screen actors at the event. None of the major ones were there, but the director was there (who had a short scene), Tucker Max was there, and a bartender early in the movie was present as the host you see on the above video.

The Movie

I’m not going to write out some official looking sectioned off review, but I will say it totally kicked ass. At the moment it sort of sits in the shadow of “The Hangover”, but I feel once it releases it will surpass it.

For the record, it is a full feature movie releasing world wide September 25^th. It centers around one of the more cinematic stories from Tucker Max, and has a few additional scenes laced throughout from the book.

Including- and I quote from Tucker at the event- “the most epic shit scene in movie history”.

Indeed, it has the most epic shit scene in movie history.

The movie isn’t particularly long, but it is well done- especially considering the ~$7 million dollar budget.

The casting IMO was especially spot on- including the actor who played Tucker (he did not play himself, although he did have a short scene at the end), the character who played Slingblade, and the various actresses throughout the movie.

Hell, even the kid in the movie did a great job (the stripper’s kid, you’ll understand better once you see it).

Overall, can’t recommend it enough. I’ll be seeing it again myself when it releases this September in a better theater since the one in Gainsville hardly did the movie justice.

Kudos to Tucker for seeing this thing through too. I can only fathom the amount of hard work that went into producing a movie like this- not to mention the years prior working on/with the best selling book.

Free Stuff and Marketing Thoughts

One thing I have yet to mention is that, IMO, Tucker could not be promoting this movie any better (or wiser) than he already is- in the same budget range.

It’s outside the scope of this post, but I believe a lot of conventional wisdom surrounding “marketing” is either utter horse shit, or is fast becoming that.

E-mail collection is one of those things (not entirely, it’s still useful, but not by default). But to an even greater degree I think mass advertising is a waste of time, effort, and cash.

“Product” will always be king, but right behind that is word of mouth. And right behind that (which compliments real life word of mouth heavily) is social media and other online outlets.

In short, Tucker is doing things right blogging heavily, and using YouTube to the max- alongside a sick ~2 month non stop movie premiere tour around the country to major college towns.

And to go even further, you get tons of free shit for going (many people even got a free beer pong kit)- all marked with I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.

Can you think of a better way to build visibility with your target market? Simply not possible.

Expect IHTSBIH to blow up late September- big time

Meeting Tucker Max and T21C 2010

Not long ago some former convention attendees on the forum suggested I get Tucker Max to speak next summer. I definitely knew of him, and figured he would be a great fit for the convention.

I sent him an e-mail not long after that- didn’t get back to me but supposedly saw it and briefly read over it as I later found out.

When my room mate invited me to go see Tucker’s movie premier in Gainsville I knew it would be a good opportunity to meet Tucker and mention T21C.

So, I did just that- but I did it in the best way I knew how.

I waited for a good time to speak with Tucker- meaning a point in time when he wasn’t bombarded with people looking for an autograph, and down the road would vaguely remember meeting me.

When I saw that opportunity coming, I took it.

I introduced myself, stated I wasn’t looking for an autograph, and asked if he remembered reading the e-mail I recently sent.

I have no idea if he actually read the e-mail or not- he claimed to- but then again I don’t think Tucker would take the time to BS about something like that.

I got the response I expected- it’s too far ahead for him to plan, and he has a $25,000 speaking fee- which he said would likely increase once the movie hit theaters.

Totally cool with me, good to know, and that was the end of it.

Now, what about Tucker speaking next summer?

Well, I have no where near $25,000 dollars to shell out for him to speak. Even if everything went perfect next year, we could not afford that type of speaking fee.

If you guys really do want Tucker to come, I will do what I can. This includes making sure Tucker actually understands what the event is about, the roots, how the footage goes out free to the world every year, and just contacting him at the right times throughout the year.

However, it is unlikely he would attend even if all of that went perfect. As I’ve said in the past, it’s up to you guys to make things like this happen- not just me.

If Tucker is to speak next summer at T21C 2010, a lot of previous convention attendees will have to bug him- relentlessly (meaning, many times over).

E-mail him, tell him about your past experience, how cool it would be to meet him and hear what he has to say…etc. And not just e-mail, but anywhere and everywhere. Talk about it on his forum, his YouTube account, his blog, and so on.

I think you get the idea.

If that happens, I will do what I can on my end to make it happen. This same concept applies to any big name speaker. Let me know, and I’ll do the behind the scenes work. In the mean time, drive them nuts with requests to speak at the convention.

Cheers

-Dream