Guest Blog: Chelsea Handler at BookPeople

Apr 23, 2010 by Nabila    2 Comments    Posted under: Austin-tatious Events, Boob Tube, Bookworm Reviews

I had actually never heard of BookPeople on Sixth and Lamar, until I heard about a Perez Hilton book signing a couple years ago. Turns out, this particular book store is well known for having book signings by a lot of notable authors. I was very excited when I heard Chelsea Handler, the host of the late night program “Chelsea Lately” on the E! network, would be signing copies of her new book, “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang,” at BookPeople!

Attending the signing last Friday was an all day event. The website stated that you would need to get a wristband in order to meet Chelsea and have your book signed, but in order to get a wristband, you also had to have bought the book from BookPeople, with receipt as proof of purchase. With the knowledge that they would be handing wristbands out at 9 a.m. that day, my friend and I agreed to meet at least 15 minutes early to ensure that we did receive a wristband in case of a large turnout. By the time we both arrived, there was already a line outside of the store, since the store did not open until 9 a.m. There had to be more than 50 people in front of us, waiting for the doors to open so we could show receipts, or in me and my friend’s case, buy the book to receive a wristband. At 9:01 a.m., the doors opened. The line moved rather quickly. Since neither of us had previously purchased the book, we walked in, picked up our books and then went to purchase them and get our wristbands. If you had a pink wristband, you would be called first to get in line to meet Chelsea. Orange was next. And because we were there early enough, we got orange wristbands, which me and my friend were absolutely thrilled about. I’m not quite sure how many colors were there, but I recall seeing people with yellow, purple, green, even some blue.

When we entered the store around 3:45 p.m., we made our way to the second floor. At first, there was a good handful of people, but as the time got closer and closer to 4 p.m., it was a mad house. People with different colored wristbands were standing all over the place clutching their Chelsea Handler books with excitement written all over their faces. We are all just waiting for them to begin calling our wristband colors.

At a little past 4 p.m., they called for the pink wristband holders. Then after a little while, orange was called. We filed in a line in front of stairs that would take us to the third level of the store, where Chelsea would be signing her books. While we were wating in line, there were women dressed in black with packets of sticky notes. They came to each of us, asked our name, wrote it down and then opened our books to the very first page and stuck the sticky note with our names on it. We were instructed to keep the books open for when they were to be signed by Chelsea. As we climbed the stairs, we were brought to a room with glass windows where she was sitting at a desk already signing books. Jo Koy, a frequent member of her round table on her show, was there as well. He would also be opening her sold-out show at Bass Concert Hall later that night. He walked by us to go to the second level of the store, and we noticed he was taller than we had imagined.

As we got closer and closer to the table, we both got a little disappointed when we saw a warning in blue tape on the floor stating “NO PICTURES.” She had a bodyguard who was standing by her table as she signed the books to ensure picture taking did not happen. He was big and bald, and a little scary looking, but he was friendly. Firm, but friendly. A woman in front of me was holding her phone, and he came to tell her that she needed to take her cell phone out of visible view. Luckily we managed a few shots.

Finally we reached the table. It was a very quick experience, but it was worth the wait. She signed our books and made small talk. She had a big smile on her face and said “Hi, how are you?” She was very friendly, and she looked exactly like she did on tv but only prettier! I have to admit; I was a little in awe when I came face to face with her. I had not expected her to be so nice.

After we got our books signed, we went down the stairs past the long line of anxious, excited fans. The amount of people seemed to have grown since we had been upstairs. It was nice to see that she had such a huge following. Especially after getting the chance to meet her and seeing that she was really friendly, it was easy to see why so many people came out.

Another funny lady will be signing books at BookPeople next week – comedienne Sarah Silverman will be signing copies of her memoir “The Bedwetter” on Wednesday, April 28, at 7 p.m. Find out more about how to get a wristband here.

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