Dynamite fans pack Shyrock for Napoleon

Matthew McConkey
Daily Egyptian

Thousands of screaming fans poured into Shyrock auditorium Thursday night in hopes of catching a glimpse, and with a bit of luck, an autograph and picture of Jon Heder, better known as the popular "Napoleon Dynamite." For some, the pop culture icon thrilled, but others felt the performance lacked any depth whatsoever. "I thought it was about him not just a bunch of people asking him for his autograph," said Caryn Paolini, a freshman from Chicago studying psychology. Other fans, like Angie Fisher, said even though Heder is a celebrity, he seemed down to earth.

"He seems so real and so modest," said the 14-year old from Herrin. "I like seeing actors like that." Heder, who was paid $16,000 by Student Programming Council, was more than 30 minutes late for the performance due to flight delays and seemed stunned by the audience of more than 1,200 people as he walked on stage. The 27-year-old Heder spoke about his life growing up in Salem, Ore., with his twin brother, two other brothers and one sister. Heder and his identical brother began drawing pictures when they were young and eventually filmed home movies together. "We loved to draw sweet pictures," Heder said. After high school, Heder went to Brigham Young University to study film with his twin brother. There, he met classmate Jared Hess, who co-authored for the movie, "Napoleon Dynamite."

Heder said his Mormon religion is one of the first factors when choosing scripts, as well as making other decisions in life. After 15 minutes of introducing his life to the crowd, Heder took questions from the energetic audience. University and high school-age students lined the isles in hopes of asking Heder questions about his life and the movie. One student asked if he was still friends with the pet llama from the movie. "The llama, yeah we're tight," Heder said. Other questions ranged from children asking him for his autograph to wanting pictures taken with the pop icon. One child asked if Heder could sign his finger cast. Heder reluctantly signed it and tossed is back to him from the stage. Another asked if Heder would sign her mother's shoe. Sam Jamerson, a freshman from Deerfield studying architecture, said although the performance was disappointing, he thought Heder was crowd-friendly. "He was really loving and working the crowd," Jamerson said. Alexis Allen, executive director of Student Programming Council, said she was amazed with the turnout for the performance. Organizers said they had to turn away 800 Dynamite fans.

Allen said outside the meet and greet following the performance, people were trying to purchase tickets for the invitation-only party. Allen said she did hear some attendants complaining about the performances structure and lack of in-depth questions. Paolini said that the performance, along with the question and answer section, was ill-supervised. "The question and answer was out of control," Paolini said. But Allen said part of the problem might have been that Heder hadn't done many events like this yet. "As time goes on, he will learn what he is supposed to do," Allen said. "He was just trying to be nice." Heder said he does not expect a sequel to the "Dynamite" movie, but will be in the upcoming movie, "Benchwarmers," with David Spade and Rob Schneider.