Glee Star Chris Colfer Talks “Land Of Stories” at the BEA (VIDEO)

By On 06/06/2012 · 7 Comments · In Glee

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Glee star Chris Colfer is a mufti-hyphenated wonder these days. Not only does he sing and dance as Kurt on Glee, but he’s penned, produced and starred in a movie, Struck By Lightning, due out later this year. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s written a children’s book set to be released on July 17th called The Land Of Stories.

In that capacity, he emceed a breakfast this morning at the Book Expo in New York City. After speaking about his own book, he introduced a panel of esteemed children’s authors that included John Green (The Fault in our Stars), Lois Lowry (The Giver) and illustrator, Kadir Nelson.

In his talk, Chris discussed the genesis of The Land of Stories, that began when his mother read him fairy tales at bedtime. Soon he was imagining all sorts of adventures with his imaginary friends.  The book–which he first began writing at the tender age of 10–centers on twins who fall into a fairy tale world and come face to face with the characters they’ve read about.  Chris  brought along drawings he made as a child of the characters he imagined–which the book’s illustrator managed to recreate.

Chris also reads a list of actual questions reporters have asked him on various red carpets like “Is there singing and dancing in your book?” and “Why didn’t you make an album instead?”

The talk is super geeky…but also really funny. Check it out below. You can watch the entire breakfast at the BEA website. Click on the “Authors Breakfasts and Editors Buzz” tab and then “Children’s Book and…” video. Chris’s part begins at about the 10 minute mark.

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  • Axxxel

    So this is Chris Colfer’s first time to give an introductory speech as an MC ??!!
    There is always a first time with lots of “eh” and a few jokes that bombed…

    But just imagine if it is your first time to be an MC at an event when about 200-300 people are looking at you…people who may be sceptical about you because you are a newbie in their world and just a “guy from Hollywood”…

    Love the way how he poked at himself, especially the red carpet questions and the requests he emailed to his illustrator.
    Hope Chris Colfer will keep on doing this MC-ing… who knows some day in the future, he will MC an award show or have his own talkshow or standup comedy act…  :-)

  • Anonymous

    Chris is brilliant as an emcee. Its so sweet to see him choke when he said his story is all grown up and kids can read it now. I laughed the hardest at the Fifty Shades of Green joke. Its not on this clip though. 

  • Axxxel

    Yeah, I was also wondering what happened when Chris showed his teenage drawings next to the final drawings that is included in his book… All of a sudden his voice changed… at first I thought it was just an act… but then again… I think too that he choked…
    .
    Yeah that fan fiction joke… Well serves hims right…. John Green saying that he read some fanfiction about himself and Chris Colfer…and said that he would feel flattered if Chris did indeed write them.
    Nice way of Chris to “get back at Green” by saying that he wrote some of the fanfiction himself…with the title that you mentioned. 

  • Anonymous

    Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey? I’m only half way through the first book. Its the ‘romance’ story and best selling on iTunes. I will be very shocked if Chris read it. lol! 

  • Axxxel

    Not really… just read about it on wikipedia … *blush*…  Well, if Chris can talk during Glee last season about the song “Toot it and boot it” with a straight “pokerface” and sarcastically call it “Shakespeare”… then I wont be surprised at anything LOL… (see youtube Glee guys on lovesongs, Chris’ segment starts around 1.00 minute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS1OhEQ3vws ). It must be a bit funny (??) though to read your book and imagining Chris reading it as well…

    By the way, hope this following article is true… talking about plans of MAYBE an audioversion of the book, read by Chris Colfer *faint*…http://www.contactmusic.com/celebrity-videos/chris-colfer-signs-copies-the-land-of-stories-new-york-book-expo_11907

  • Anonymous

    The audiobook is up for pre-order on Amazon I think. :)  I’m thinking of getting it :) 

  • Axxxel

    wow… I think you will enjoy it a lot…