Jackie Chan came to Hawaii in person to do a charity screening of Around the World in 80 Days and to officially open his restaurant. Here's what happened on the first day--The screening.

Having a friend working on the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation board, I offered my help when it was heard that Jackie was definitely coming to Hawaii. GS gladly accepted the offer. Eventually I would end up helping the Security team, Jackie’s dressing room preparation, and was asked to make 4 directional signs as props for the decoration committee for a VIP backstage party.

Janel from Jackie’s International Fan Club and her daughters Joni and Steph from here in Hawaii came for the events, and Janel and Joni also helped us out as part of the Security team.

Tuesday June 8th was the day of the charity screening for Around the World in 80 Days. The movie would start at 8pm, but the doors would open at 6. Jackie was to be on stage from 7 to 8. There was a VIP backstage party where people could mingle with other $200 donors, see the Flair bar in action, sample pupus (hors d'oeuvres), catch a glimpse of a celebrity or two, and have a chance to be part of a group photo with Jackie.

The signs became an ordeal which took much longer to make than I’d anticipated. Working on them for well over a week, I was still up late the night before the show working on the signs. Part of the problem was the sheer number of names I was working with. I had decided on using 11 different locations with only 6 signs per post, mixing up which post got what locations. That would call for 24 signs, with two sides per sign. That meant printing names of locations 48 times. But it was pointed out that having all 11 locations on each post would make the signs even more fun to look at. I reluctantly agreed, and took on the task of then making 44 signs and printing 88 names. It seemed to take forever. But I was pleased with the result.

I met Janel and Joni in person on Monday afternoon. We had dinner at Jackie’s Kitchen that evening and Janel gave the restaurant fresh coffee from her coffee farm for Wednesday’s event. We took pictures of a large banner wishing Jackie a happy birthday from all of his employees.

On Tuesday I packed the barely finished signs into the car and arrived at the Neal Blaisdell Center concert hall at 10 am. I set up the signs and GS and I worked on Jackie’s dressing room, making it look very very nice. GS does a great job making things look polished and dressed. She put up the 80 Days poster in the room, made an arrangement of beautiful flowers and greenery, and stocked his room with towels, soap, cough drops and honey. Myaing, a member of the charity board brought many puakenikeni, a fragile flower which lent an exotic fragrance to the room.  Janel donated coffee for the dressing area. I brought fresh lilikoi (passion fruit) juice and my Jackie Chan coffee mug for Jackie to use if he wanted to.

Janel and Joni helped with decorations then we began preparing our Security area. We were in charge of stowing everyone’s cameras and phones which were not allowed into the screening. Little did we know that 99% of the people didn’t want to put them into their cars, but would rather have us store them. Though we kept announcing that there would be a long line after the show, people chose to face that rather than walking back to their cars and risking theft. Of course, many people had multiple items as well. Hundreds of cell phones and cameras ended up in the back storage room. Joni did a tremendous job keeping the mass of electronic gadgets in some sort of order.

In front of the concert hall, there was a silent auction set up. Jackie had brought several things to auction. Many things like CDs and books didn’t seem to have anything to do with Jackie. One could only guess that perhaps these were things donated to Jackie by fans, and Jackie, not having nearly the time to look at ALL of them then did the next best thing, and let them raise money for charity. Other things at the auction were newly signed items such as pictures, a personalized chef's outfit, or even the surfboard from his dressing room. And of course there were things like a JC Jeans jacket, a mandarin suit, and a pair of worn shoes.

GS suddenly came out and said she’d take over the security while Janel Joni and I went to take a picture with Jackie. Quickly we rushed to the picture taking room where to our great relief they let us into the last group to take a picture with Jackie. It was over very quickly as usual. I thought Jackie’s hair looked fabulous.

Making our way slowly back to the Security desk, the three of us mingled a little at the VIP party. I spotted Curtis Wong and nabbed him for a picture. We saw Robin Shou, of Red Trousers and Mortal Kombat, and got our pictures taken with him. I had seen him earlier and had told him I really enjoyed Red Trousers. He was very amiable and accommodating. The flair bar was going strong, right there on the back stage. I had changed one of the locations on a sign to read, “Bar, 5 feet”. I snapped a picture of one of my signs as proof of their being at the party.

We got to the security desk to find things were going full swing. Quickly we joined GS and began collecting cameras and phones from sad, surprised, mad, and disappointed people who wouldn’t be able to take pictures of Jackie Chan in person. I felt sad too. We had great seats right in the middle of the third row. We had a great spot for taking pictures of Jackie right there in front of us but no cameras to do it with.

At 7 we were allowed to take our seats for the show while GS worked the security desk.

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