I met Jim Dale last night!!!

Okay... for you non-Harry Potter lovers out there, I'll tell you who Jim Dale is. Jim Dale is the gentleman who performs the US version of all 6 (so far) Audio Books. He won a Grammy for HP4 and was nominated for HP5. He's a multiple winner of the Audie Awards and Queen Elizabeth II has honored him with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). He's even a Guinness Book of World Records Holder for "Most Character Voices in an Audio Book" for HP5!

I absolutely love, Love, LOVE the audio books! Getting the Audio CD for Book 6 was of the MOST importance on release night.

Anyway... our original plan for the night was to take the kids to downtown Crystal Lake for Thursday's Classic Car Night. It was going to be cooler than the ordinary car night since this time it was Corvette night and the famous Budweiser Clydesdale horses were going to make an appearance and march through downtown. I brought my camera to work with me because I didn't want to stop back at home.

I was tied up all morning at work so I didn’t even get a chance to do my daily morning routine of checking CNN, MacNN, TCF, MuggleNet & The Leaky Cauldron. (The previous day I read about Jim's reading in L.A.) It wasn’t until around noon that I was back at my desk and had the time to check my regular sites.

Then I saw it...
Random House has sent us the rest of Jim Dale's booktour schedule:
Thursday, June 28, 7:00 PM
The Levy Center
300 Dodge Avenue
Evanston, IL
Arranged through The Book Stall at Chestnut Court
847-446-8880

Sure it said June but I figured that was a mistake and that it really meant July. I called both the book store and the Levy Center to confirm and find out about parking. I immediately calculated train schedules to see if it was a viable option (it was not) and told my boss I was leaving an hour early.

There was no time to run home to get my video camera & tripod so at 4:00pm I picked up the kids at my parents house. I borrowed my dad's digital camera so I would be able to take a few 30 second video clips. (Better than nothing because my DSLR doesn't do video) and headed to Evanston (about 20 miles away) stopping to get gas along the way.

We arrived at The Levy Senior Center at 5:20pm. The doors opened at 6pm. When we arrived it didn’t surprise me that there was already a line. Only about 8 people, but a line none-the-less. It didn’t take very long before that line of 10+ turned into 50+

While we were waiting we watched the book store employees setting up a table with items for sale. Included on the table were HP 1-6 on Cassette & CD. Books 1-5 in Paperback and book 6 in Hardcover. Also included were a few of Jim's non Harry Potter audio books.

Once the doors opened a couple of minutes after six, we headed in. The room was a gym complete with basketball hoops and a stage.

We passed the time by talking HP with people sitting around us. After about a half hour I headed to the sales table. My problem was that I had nothing for Jim to sign. Had I known about this earlier I could have planned better. I own 4, 5 & 6 on CD but years ago I got 1, 2 & 3 from the library so I figured that I'd buy HP1 so I'd have something for him to sign. As I expected from the beginning, they were charging FULL retail for everything. So HP1 cost me just over $53 with tax. I could have purchased it for $33 at Amazon.com. I'm not complaining though, the Jim Dale reading was free, if they did charge, I would have paid the entrance fee, so the way I see it, it's a wash anyway. I grabbed my purchase and headed back to my seat.

At 7pm a Lady from the Senior Center introduced the lady from the Book Stall at Chestnut Court (who arranged this whole thing) and then she in turn introduced Jim Dale.

He appeared on stage and after a few microphone issues, he began telling us of the process in which an Audio Book is created. After that he began his reading. Instead of reading from a set book, he picked a collection of scenes that he enjoyed from all of the books. Between scenes he told us some stories about how he came up with some of the voices he created. Somewhere along the line his reading glasses broke and after a few funny moments (trying on some woman's) he put on a spare.


Click images for larger version

Video Clips... 30 seconds per clip is all the camera would do (sorry)

Bubotuber Puss - 5.6MB, 320x240, MPEG-4
Divination - 5.7MB, 320x240, MPEG-4
Howler #1 - 5.7MB, 320x240, MPEG-4
Howler #2 - 5.8MB, 320x240, MPEG-4
HP5 Dobby - 5.7MB, 320x240, MPEG-4

Contest time. He called 12 kids up on stage that aspired to be narrators. He broke the kids up into 3's and had the four groups read one of these parts...

* Part of the Sorting Hat song from HP1
* Ron’s Howler from HP2
* Aunt Marge talking about leaving Harry in a orphanage if he were dropped on her door step from HP3
* Professor Sprout talking about Bubotuber puss from HP4

The audience decided by applause which of the 4 moved on to the final round. Once there were 4 winners, they all competed for the grand prize by reading part of the Sorting Hat song from HP1. The girl who won that received all 6 audio books. The remaining 3 received the HP6 audio book.

About an hour and a half after he first was welcomed on stage he departed and people started to line up for the book signing.

We were about 10 people back from the front of the line. It went quickly. I had hoped that I’d be able to take a picture of my kids with Jim but the areas on both sides of the desk he was seated at were roped off. Some people leaned over the desk to get a pic with him but there was no way my kids were tall enough to even bother trying that. I also noticed two things. 1. I did not see anyone shake his hand. 2. No one really said anything to him but 'hello' and 'thank you' That wasn't gonna happen when it was my turn.

Nicholas was first. He shyly gave him the CD Sleeve and he signed it. Next up was Alyssa, she handed him her CD Sleeve and he signed it. Alyssa thanked him. It was my turn...

“Hello Sir”, he said

“Hello... It’s a real pleasure to meet you... " I replied.

"Thank you"

"...You are the one who got me into Harry Potter!"

“Really?”, he asked.

“Yes, listening to book one in the car. I got hooked and went on from there.” I responded.

"Excellent! It's nice to meet you sir." he replied.


I shook his hand and said “Thank you”, I snapped one last picture and we were on our way home. I would have loved to chat with him some more but there were over a hundred people waiting in line behind me.

Alyssa & Nicholas were excited that they got the autograph of someone famous and they couldn't wait to tell their mom. We hopped in the car and about 41 miles later we were home.

I must say that this VERY last minute addition to my week was a nice surprise. A few weeks earlier when HP6 was released and I closed my self off from the world to read along with Jim Dale on my iPod, I never would have guessed that by months end, I'd get the opportunity to meet him. I absolutely can't wait for book 7!

I must also thank The Leaky Cauldron because if they didn't post the schedule, we never would have had that amazing evening!