A National Treasure and a Yapper
This moment was never supposed to happen.
I take a step forward, I’m behind the curtain now, I can finally see HIM. The day before he had been decked out in an all black suit. But not today, no, today he’s wearing a crisp white tee, a green bomber jacket, and black pants. He looks casual and he’s smiling, oh he is so happy.
The universe has shifted. Planets have aligned. Something has altered the timeline in which I lived.
He’s so tall and I suddenly feel like I’m the size of a marble.
Trust me, I had a million thoughts running through my head but the only one I could really focus on was “how did I get here, to this moment.”
And then I started thinking about what could’ve possibly set this in motion. I needed a scientific explanation for what happened.
Was it last summer when I shared my wedding story? Or at my wedding? Was it when I decided to give up thought leadership and start posting about Cameron Poe on LinkedIn? Was it in 1997 when Con Air made it’s debut?
I start running every possible scenario through my head as if trying to calculate the reasoning for this happening.
Up until the week before, I had truly thought this moment would never happen.
Not because of doubt, but because Cage is a man of mystery. He enjoys his privacy, he doesn’t come down to the fan level. You never see him at comic cons unless it’s a panel, he doesn’t do autograph or photo-op sessions and he doesn’t do social media.
His belief is that all of the greatest actors before him kept their lives completely personal to preserve the mystique.
A sensible position.
The world has become addicted to access. Everyone is available. Everyone is broadcasting. Every breakfast, every opinion, every fleeting thought is launched into orbit before it has the chance to die a natural death.
But Cage remained elusive. He is a rogue signal, a transmission from another era.
No social media. No daily updates. Just the work. The films. The mythology. The legend.
Which is precisely why standing five feet away from him felt less like attending a convention and more like stumbling upon a cryptid.
The line lurched forward.
My pulse immediately filed for bankruptcy. Thankfully I had truly prepped for this moment as if I was being cast in National Treasure 3.
I’m now next. My heart feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest but I am calm.
He turns toward me wearing a smile so genuine it immediately dismantles every rehearsed thought I had brought with me.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey,” I manage.
I step beside him.
He’s impossibly tall up close, but that’s not what catches me off guard. It’s the presence. The gravitational pull of a man who has spent four decades becoming larger than life. The moment you enter his orbit, you understand why people have spent generations watching him on screens.
His aura is felt around the room. His team is wearing matching smiles and their kindness was so refreshing. It’s as if they truly know they work for a national treasure. (sorry not sorry)
The production guy to the left asks me if I want the tote bag that says “You’re my national treasure” in the photo. I say yes.
Nic turns to me with a smile so genuine it immediately puts me at ease. I ask if I can give him a gift and without hesitation he replies, “Yes you can.”
The photo happens in an instant. One flash and decades of Nicolas Cage movies suddenly become a photograph on a convention floor in Indianapolis.
Almost immediately afterward, an angel on his team appears beside us and I hand over the tote bag. Inside was a collection of gifts that can only be described as the result of giving two fans far too much creative freedom: loose cannon swag, original Nicolas Cage artwork from Noah, a coaster featuring John Travolta’s face labeled “Nicolas Cage”, and a bag of Rotten Candy.
As she takes the bag, I briefly wonder how often Nicolas Cage receives gifts from complete strangers that contain equal parts art, comedy, and mild psychological concern. And if you’re wondering about the candy, in that moment I was a parent sending another parent home with something for their kiddo. If you’re a parent you know the thing they look most forward to when you return, are the treats you have for them.
Judging by his genuine excitement, I don’t think it’s very often but this was also his first time doing a fan experience.
So how exactly did I get here? We never answered that earlier.
There’s no exact moment but instead a thousand small moments.
I’d like to think it really started last year when I started yapping on LinkedIn about our lord and savior, Saint Nicolas. It was all of you who took my favorite story and embraced it and loved it as much as I did. Which led to word getting out that it was ok to talk about Nic Cage on LinkedIn.
And so many of you came in and shared your own stories or moments with me.
Noah Charnow enters the chat.
Last Summer we crossed paths and became mutuals on LinkedIn. Then a DM ignited a friendship that ultimately led to this moment. Noah sends a dm that says “I love your admiration for Nicolas Cage and I too share that admiration. ” He shares a link which opens to a hand drawn portrait of Cameron Poe. If you know you know. I immediately send pictures of all of the Nic Cage memorabilia stuff I have been gifted throughout my life and then it was pretty much like this after.
Then January arrived.
What started as two internet friends bonded by creativity, marketing, and an objectively reasonable appreciation for Nicolas Cage somehow evolved into a business. We launched Loose Cannon Co., a feral digital agency built on equal parts skill, instinct, and the kind of confidence usually reserved for people who have absolutely no business being confident.
We joked in the beginning – “What if we get Nic Cage on social media” not knowing at that moment how much of a reality that could become.
Fast forward some more (just remember to be kind and rewind) the week before everything went down.
It’s Saturday afternoon and I get a dm from Colby Potts, MAT. Colby if you’re reading this I am indebted to you forever because you could’ve kept scrolling. You didn’t have to share that with me at all and I truly appreciate your Paul Revere work. May the odds always be in your favor, may your pillow always be cold and may you always find front row parking.
Nicolas Cage was doing his first ever fan experience. And it was happening in Indianapolis in one week. So Loose Cannon collectively made the decision to pull out all the stops and get there. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. What if he did it once and hated it and never did it again. The time was now.
I was refreshing the site like a swiftie trying to battle ticketmaster for eras tour tickets. Saturday was sold out, crap! Sunday morning it is. Tickets secured.
Next was getting some Cookies Worth Sharon rush ordered because if I was going to meet Nicolas Cage, I wanted my friends there with me in some way, especially the ones who understood what the moment meant. I don’t think Bill ever could’ve imagined that dming me over Hamburger Helper would’ve led to me taking his moms cookies with me to go meet a national treasure.
And if you’re reading this going who the hell are these people? Join us on LinkedIn some time. It’s a real hoot.
Then I got to packing. We hit the road and headed for Indiana.
I got to stop at some really cool places along the way but this Uranus Fudge Factory was by far the best.
We decided to stay at the Crowne Plaza because it was connected to the convention center and we wouldn’t have to move our car or figure out transportation. Construction there is insane and really sucks right now. It took us over half and hour to find the entrance for the hotel.
We booked the train car experience and stayed in the Greta Garbo room. It felt like a sign from the universe. Cage is a huge fan of the black and white film era, I got chills entering the room.
Have you ever seen Frozen? Do you know that scene in the beginning when Anna breaks into “It’s Coronation” day? Yeah that one, that’s how I felt waking up on June 7th, 2026.
We’ve entered registration at the convention center. My wristband is on. The mission is active.
The air is thick with excitement and pure nerd energy. Cosplayers from every imaginable fandom are roaming the halls. Stormtroopers are walking past Deadpool. Spider-Men are taking selfies with Jedi. It feels less like a convention center and more like someone accidentally merged every fandom in existence into a single timeline.
And everywhere I look, there are Nicolas Cage shirts.
The doors open. My feet are moving but it feels like the universe has stopped. I am making my way to celebrity row. But of course Nic’s area can’t be found. He’s like the declaration of independence.
I pass by Kellan Lutz who you might know as Emmett Cullen. I stopped for 4.5 seconds to snap a photo, not for me, ok maybe for me too, but mainly for my Twilight-loving friend.
I had to get instructions from security on where to even go as I was staring down Ric Nature Boy Flair. I had to focus. I was here for a reason. I’ll catch Ric next time.
I find my place. I put on some chapstick and chug a Free Bird and count down the minutes. It’s time.
When it was over I was Gone in 60 Seconds because I had one more thing to do. But right after walking away from him I re-enter the curtain area and see everyone waiting to meet him and give them the biggest ‘woooo’ I could wooo. And the crowd returned the energy. I look over my shoulder to see Cage smirking and I leave with that engrained in my brain.
A good buddy of mine got one of the Nic Cage autographed prints but he wasn’t able to make it. I was going to pick it up for him, but the pressure of picking which one was too intense so I called him instead. I went down the row. Cameron Poe, Ben Reilly, Memphis Reigns, Johnny Blaze, H.I. McDunnough, Charlie & Donald Kaufman, and even that time he was almost Superman. Every iconic moment laid out in front of me. I dial Dan and get his pick. Of course in true fashion, he goes with the GOAT. Cameron ‘most iconic hair in the game’ Poe.
Just like Cookies Worth Sharon, these moments were worth sharing with everyone around me. And yet there’s still more details for an insane counter that also took place, but that’s a story for another day.
That my friends is the summer I met Nicolas fucking Cage.
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