On Friday, August 25, 2006—the opening day of How to Eat Fried Worms—Ryan Malgarini (“Benjy”) and Adam Hicks (“Joe Guire”) traveled to Detroit, Michigan to appear at the Kensington Book Fair to promote the movie, and also do a variety of interviews. Here are some of their recollections of the trip:
Adam: I was worried I wouldn’t wake up since the pick-up time was 4:30 AM, so I told my Mom I was staying up all night. I found myself drifting off at 1:00 AM, the driver arrived at 4:00 AM, and thank goodness we were ready.
Ryan: Our pick-up time was 5:00 AM. We boarded the plane about an hour and half after that, and flew first class to Detroit.
Adam: Ryan and I were cracking up for the entire 4 hour flight. I am sure our parents were worn out, but Ryan and I laugh a lot together, over nothing really.
Ryan: This really nice woman named Linde was hosting us for the weekend and met us at the airport. From there, we got into a black Escalade van and immediately went to our first interview. It was for a radio station, WJR-AM, which broadcasts from the lobby of the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. The guy who interviewed us, Mitch Albom, was very funny and kept making us laugh. We stayed at a four-star hotel called the Townsend Hotel. It was very classy and had the most comfortable beds in the world. The room service was really good, and we ordered lots of chicken fingers.
Adam: When we were later looking at our photos, my mother remarked that the hotel reminded her of England. It was decorated with real roses and lovely teapots and china cups.
Ryan: That night I went to the best Italian restaurant, Buca Di Beppo, with Adam, his mother, my Grandpa, my Uncle Joe, and a friend of ours from China, Wei, who’s now living in Detroit. We had these huge “family style” portions of pasta, pizza, and chicken, and also had a lot of fun. When we left the restaurant, we turned the corner and noticed the big marquee of the local movie theater. It was showing How to Eat Fried Worms!
Adam: We begged to go and see it, but we had to get up early for more interviews, so we needed our sleep. There was a large crowd outside of the theater, and I am sure they were all lining up to see Fried Worms.
Ryan: We went to 6 interviews in 2 days (2 radio, 2 TV, 1 newspaper, and one online).
Adam: One of the interviews was a morning television show where we were going to cook “worm recipes." My Mom was worried in case they used real worms. Luckily, they had forgotten the ingredients and instead we were able to just talk about the movie.
Ryan: Later that day was my favorite part of the trip, when we appeared at the Kensington Book Fair. It was held outdoors in a big park. We went onstage and a woman who had giant butterfly wings attached to her back interviewed us. Then we had a question and answer session with a lot of local school kids and an autograph signing afterwards.
Adam: The location was beautiful and there was quite a crowd. We were well received and Ryan and I acted out a scene from the movie. I think we convinced a lot of kids to go and see the movie and also how much fun it is to be an actor.
Ryan: All of the kids were really cool and asked some very smart questions. Many asked questions that made them seem a lot older than they actually were! One little kid came up to me at the signing and said, “This book is so good! I can’t wait to read it!...when I learn how to read!”
Adam: After a long, but enjoyable day, we headed back to Las Vegas, sweating it out in the desert and regular life.
Friends, fans, and fellow worm-eaters (not that we encourage that sort of thing!):
