I recently had the opportunity to chat with veteran fan event coordinators, Paul Barotti and Keith Holley, who run Star Struck Fan Events.  Having attended multiple events developed by Paul and Keith, it is evident that they work diligently to create a well-rounded experience for both the fans and the participating actors.  In addition, each event features a worthy charity in which a portion of the proceeds are donated.

It was a pleasure to learn more about how Paul and Keith developed their well-established event business, geared to providing a special one-of-a-kind experience for all who attend.

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Carolyn Topol Talk:  I understand you have been doing soap opera events for a long time. When did you start Starstruck Fan Events?

Starstruck Fan Events:  It’s been probably about five years now.

CTT:  Have your events been primarily for Days of Our Lives stars and their fans, or did you always incorporate other soaps, as you did with General Hospital a couple of months ago?

SFE:  It’s been primarily Days of Our Lives. It started when we met Eric Martsolf. We’ve been [administering] his fan club for about eight years now. It all started with a cruise we went on with him. We asked him if he wanted a fan club, and it went on from there. Just recently we decided to incorporate General Hospital into our events, and we’d like to add other shows as well to get a bit of a rounder atmosphere for fans who would come to the events. We like to also get people who are not yet watching Days to start watching it, and people who do watch Days to possibly start watching the other shows. There are so few soaps left on the air. We have to all band together to keep them on the air.

CTT:  Absolutely true! So, you’ve been doing fan clubs longer than you have been doing the events?

SFE:  Yes. Back in the day, we went to the General Hospital fan club weekend. We were both fans of the show and hoped to have a really good time. It was great because we got to meet the cast. It was a full day event, including a luncheon. There were approximately 30 cast members there, but you did have to pick and choose who you would go specifically to meet. It was similar to the concept of the Day of Days. We continued to go and became good friends with the fan club president. Eventually we went on the soap opera cruise. Eric wasn’t even supposed to be there. He came as a fill-in. We started talking and I said that I’d always wanted to do a fan club for somebody. We tried to convince Eric, and finally, after I badgered him [laughs] for quite some time, he agreed and decided to try doing the fan club.

We started with this for about two years, and then asked him if he’d actually like to do a fan event. He said he had never really done an event, other than what he did that was mandated by Days. We told him we would take him places. He clarified by asking if that meant he would travel to places and get to meet the fans. We said, “Yes, there’re a lot of people who cannot get to California, who are big fans of yours, and would love to meet you.” He said, “Okay, I can do that. It would be great to see other places and meet people.” That’s where it started and it’s just branched out from there.

We’ve developed relationships, friendships, and trust with people. We enjoyed meeting the people — not just the actors. It’s nice to spend time with the actors, but we’ve also become friends with people who attend the events, and who we keep in touch with outside of the events. We have a lot of recurring guests who are excited, certainly, to see the actors. but they really look forward to developing the friendships they’ve made through the events. The fans start to follow each other online and look forward to seeing each other, as well as the actors, at the events.

CTT:  I couldn’t agree more. For myself, I’ve gained a whole new group of friends and I love that. In terms of feedback, have you gotten a sense that people continue coming to your events, not just because of the actors you get, but because it is Starstruck doing the events?

SFE:  Yes, people seem to be enjoying our type of events. They are different from others, and those who attend know we’re going to provide quality time with the actors. We know the fans are spending their hard-earned money and we want to make it worth their while. We started this as fans, so we understand. We’ve been to many events in the past. We said for a long time we should do something and thought we could probably figure out how to do events. We decided to try it, and figure out exactly what people enjoy, and learn what people don’t enjoy. It all derived from the fact that we are fans too. We started by asking ourselves, “If we were fans at this event, what would we like to see happen?”

One thing we considered very important was to give people quality time with the actors. We chose not to do basic meet-and-greets. We knew we had to offer something special, because there are many others doing events. We tried to offer people unique experiences at each of our events. People are coming to our events specifically because they are Starstruck fan events and have been told they need to come to one of our events because they’re really well-done..

We started our website a couple of years ago and we have a following at StarStruckFanEvents.com. Anyone interested can request to be on a mailing list, and we try to keep people updated with what we’re doing. We also maintain two twitter accounts as well, @soapfanclubprez and @starstruckfans2. This also helps us keep in touch with everyone.

We’ve also become friends with the actors. Our name is derived because we were once starstruck. [Laughs] We now realize that the stars are just like us — they get up in the morning, get dressed, and go to work. They just happen to be on TV.

It’s kind of an all-in-the-family kind of thing. It’s a nice way of getting people together. It’s a great way for developing friendships and bonding with a variety of people.

CTT:  You started doing your first fan club with Eric Martsolf about eight years ago and now have several actors who you run fan clubs for, how did that evolve?

SFE:  It was mostly by reaching out to people. It was a lot of hard work on our part, for example going out on Twitter and getting people to follow us so we could share ideas with them. Many of the people we spoke to have never had a fan club before, or if they did have one, it had fallen by the wayside. After contacting the actors they generally came back to us either to start a fan club or to do an event with us. The fan clubs take time as the actors send Christmas cards and birthday cards, and when they have a chance, newsletters about what they’re doing.

CTT:  One of the components of each of your events has been to try to make a significant donation to a different charity each time. How do you select those charities?

SFE:  We usually ask the actors which charities they prefer. For instance, the event we are doing in New Orleans, due to what Kassie [DePaiva] has just been through, I took it upon myself to select the charity Stand Up to Cancer. We’ve received overwhelming support. In general, selecting the charity really depends on people’s preferences. Bryan [Dattilo] is very supportive of autism-related charities and most of the actors are pretty open to suggestions.

When we did our event in Atlanta, we gave donations to the Pulse nightclub victims because that was something that we strongly believed in. When we were in Nashville, we did an AIDS Walk. That went to the Nashville AIDS organization.

Several years ago we did an event with actors from The Bold and Beautiful. There were at least eight actors. We held a great bowling event. Rather then accept any money, the actors wanted their money to go to to the individual charities of their choice.

We try to donate as much as we can. It all comes down to the support and the overhead costs. We try to be able to make donations at each of our events, but it’s not always possible. We’ve even lost money from some events but it’s not about that. We may have sold tickets but we didn’t make enough to pay for everything that we arranged. We are not going to cancel an event because of that. We know guests make time and have arranged flights. We don’t want to disrupt somebody’s life. If we have enough time to say we need to reschedule, we will.

Many more people are arranging fan events now. Some go into it thinking it’s easy, but it’s not — it’s a lot of work. It takes a lot of time and creativity. We like to go and visit new places and bring people new places.

CTT:  You don’t run Starstruck Fan Events as your careers, do you? This is something you are doing because you’re passionate about the shows, and enjoy supporting the shows and the actors.

SFE:  Yes, Keith and I both work. We do the events and the fan clubs in our spare time. [Laughs] Many people contact us, requesting we do events in a variety of different locations. We would love to do that, but we have to make sure we have the backing and the support to go to those places. We depend significantly on word-of-mouth to make it all happen.

When we did our first event I became very emotional. I didn’t think it was possible but we got so much support and it was so positive. When an actor tells you what you’re doing is top-notch, for example, Drake Hogestyn, it means a lot. We recently did an event in Boston with Lauren Koslow. She expressed that she couldn’t believe what a lovely time she was having at the event. We know the actors are taking time away from their families. We try to make the event something that’s worth it for them as well as the fans.

We’ve had crazy things happened behind-the-scenes, but the actors and fans have had no idea. It’s our job to take care of it. What’s important is to make the experience for both the actors and fans a memorable one. People should not come to an event and deal with problems or negative drama.

CTT:  Can you share with us one event that stands out in your memory?

SFE:  St. Louis. It would be hard to top that one. We took Drake and Christopher [Sean] and Eric to the top of the Gateway Arch. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all. We really try to create experiences where those attending won’t only remember the fan event, but will remember the trip to that particular city. For example, we took Lauren, Vincent [Irizarry], Bryan, and Judi [Evans] to Salem [Massachusetts] and stood on the steps of the Salem Inn.

We like to give the people coming to our events new experiences. One of our supporters told us she could cross a another location off of her bucket list when she signed up to participate in a recent event.

CTT:  What would your dream fan event be — one you haven’t done yet?

SFE:  We are really looking forward to the Grand Canyon event. We’re just waiting for Drake to be well enough to do it. We would really love to have a fan club luncheon, or dinner, during the Day of Days event — not competing with Day of Days, but in addition to it!

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Thank you to Paul Barotti and Keith Holley for sharing their time and for remaining dedicated to developing fan events for fans of all soap operas to enjoy.

Please visit their website, https://www.starstruckfanevents.com, to learn more about their upcoming events, including “New Orleans” in early May and “Indianapolis” in June.  Both events sound exciting, and offer the opportunity to meet wonderful actors!

In addition, don’t miss out on two incredible experiences available for reservations now… “Colorado Springs”-September 8-10, 2017 AND cruise with “Star Struck at Sea”-December 7-11, 2017!  These events offer special opportunities and incredible vacation experiences while socializing with fabulous actors. Information about all the events can be found at Star Struck Fan Events website.

(Photo Credits: Paul Barotti, Keith Holley, Jamie Prevatt)