The Official Nicholas Cage Fan Club

This beautifully crafted and slightly misspelled name refers to the tightly-knit group of best friends: Shawn, Zach, Isaac, PJ, and David. I say slightly misspelled because technically their name is "The Offical Nicholas Cage Fan Club." Shawn had randomly set this has their group chat name several years ago, but no one noticed the misspelling until last year! To save time they often shorten the name to "The Fan Club" in conversation but the full name is held as a badge of honor. These five have been best friends since they were kids! They grew up to possess the same sense of humor and a love for bad movies. This post is an ode to their friendship...

First some introductions! Four out of the five members of the fan club are related. Shawn and PJ are brothers, Zach and Isaac are also brothers, and the two pairs are cousins. The remaining member is David who has been friends with all of them for longer than the fan club has been official! Three out of five members are married. Isaac is married to Rosie (their son is Grayson who will make an appearance later), David is married to Alondra, and Zach is married to me!

The group doesn't get together often on account of living in different states. The occasion for this get together was for a script reading!

The Script Reading

As a Christmas gift for his friends Shawn wrote a movie length script about the five of them going on a cross country adventure. Their mission? Deliver a bottle of maple syrup to Nicholas Cage himself. Each member, their wives, child, and cats are characters in the story. Each of us wives only had a few lines in the beginning and middle of the script so I was free to also document the experience!

The reading lasted a few hours from both the length of the script and the amount of laughter at all the inside jokes! We started out relatively calm and gradually grew more animated as we got used

to the story's flow.

A happy addition the the reading was Mr. Grayson! He didn't have a large roll in the story mostly because he's only only a year and a half. But that didn't stop him from involving himself as much as he could! He loved showing off his ears and helping turn the pages. He also loved joining in the laughter even if he was a little confused what we were laughing about!

The longer we all read the script the more we got into the story and the more laughs we had! Everyone became more animated and used their hands as much as their voices to convey emotion. At one point the delivery from PJ was so iconic that everyone at the table couldn't stop laughing for at least five minutes!

The end of the story was extremely heartfelt which only strengthened the bond these guys have between them. Tears may have been shed and hugs were definitely shared. To tie it off, the last line of the script was a joke which sent everyone laughing again! We all agreed that the ending could not have been more perfect.

The whole day was such a fun experience! I loved being part of it both as a family member and as a photographer. There is so much brotherly affection between these guys. I absolutely loved getting to preserve that for them!

After we finished the script I took the guys outside for some fun group shots. We messed around with a bunch of different poses and expressions. A few of my personal favorites are the awkward prom photo (below) and the Abbey road impersonation at the top of this post.

All in all I'd say that The Fan Club has many more years of inside jokes and escapades ahead of them. I can't wait to watch it happen!