Stephen King and David Cronenberg

On Thursday night, I took my younger son to the beautiful Canon Theatre to see a rare public appearance by the prolific Stephen King. (Check out the brief clip someone has loaded up to YouTube.) He was interviewed on stage by David Cronenberg, acclaimed Canadian film director who brought King’s The Dead Zone to the big screen back in 1983. The place was just packed. Ben and I trekked to our seats in the very back row of the uppermost balcony. We were so far away from the stage that I worried about not having our passports with us. More 2,200 King fans filled the theatre, and they were not disappointed.

I’ve only read one of Kings’s fictional works, The Stand. I liked it when I chewed through it in 1979 but I’m not really set up for horror and apocalypse. But I recently read his wonderful memoir called On Writing. I learned of the book from hearing many other writers sing its praises on various author podcasts. I loved it, and found it inspiring.

After George Stroumboulopoulos introduced him, King seemed startled by the enormous crowd. The first words out of his mouth as he stood at centre stage and gaped at the audience, were “Holy Shit!” He claimed it was the largest audience he’d ever addressed at a book event. King started by reading from his new novel, Under the Dome. Then David Cronenberg joined him in easy chairs for an on stage discussion of King’s work and their experiences together. I enjoyed the event and tweeted a few times about it.