Since some beanies enjoy Seo In Guk’s dramas, I wanted to share my thoughts after attending his fan meeting/concert.

This In Guk fan meeting/concert was truly awesome. It’s so different from other fan meetings I’ve been to or watched. It’s just HIM. No emcee, no guests, no celebrity videos, no childish games, none of those filler shenanigans I’m used to seeing. Only him sharing over 3 hours of his thoughts and music to 1000-ish fans, for 2 nights.

In the first 80+ minutes of monologue, he dressed casually and comfortably sat on a couch at center stage and just talked to us. He started with a long self-conducted commentary of “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes”. We watched clips from the drama together and he shared some behind the scene stories. Then in a segment highlighting fan love, he read a few lengthy fan letters out loud and thanked the fan directly when the camera finds her. There was a fan cafe event beforehand to collect our letters to him. He also randomly read post-it messages that fans wrote in the lobby before the show started. Part 2 of the fan meeting was a full blown concert. He did a quick change into a stylish blazer/suit. Then for 100+ minutes he sang songs that fans picked for him, many not his own. The got so many requests that he had to do a series of medleys. Most songs were the same for both nights but some weren’t repeated, sung on the night the requesters attended. I’m not going into details about the concert or fan segments here but would like to talk about his surprisingly long drama talk.

When he showed us clips of “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes”, you can really tell how much he enjoyed filming that drama and playing that character. His eyes sparkled just staring at the screen — the satisfaction that he feels is overwhelming. There must be so much that he wants to share about playing MooYoung but it’s a pity that reporters never care about an actor’s work. Even if he tells them details, it doesn’t get published or aired because it’s not buzz worthy. This was such a great idea, that he found a way to share it with a large audience who are truly enthusiastic about his work and usually have no access to this information. I’m sure he was happy to get feedback instantly, unlike a recorded interview.

Considerately, the scenes he picked for both nights were different so fans who attended both were not bored by repeated content. He only mentioned the fun and embarrassing stuff, stories that made him giggle or cringe just thinking about it. I wish I understood everything he was laughing about. He mentioned how scenes were originally written and how he suggested changes to the director. Like when JinKang was laying on the wood bed on the rooftop, he was supposed to approach her standing. He suggested he lay down and cuddle up next to her and also tweaked the dialogue. I believe originally he should have asked “You’re here?” and they switched it. I could be wrong. Also I think he came up with the “Then teach me” line but I have no idea what he said 😅. When he showed the bed scene, he covered his eyes🤣. Where MooYoung was watching stars and cried, he mentioned the stars were just CGI and there was nothing to see, then asked us “I can act really well right?”. We know he’s humble but he’s such a kid at heart, always seeking fans’ compliments and when we do, he just giggles. The only scene that was shown both nights was MooYoung writing his will. Everyone cracked up because his Hangul was written incorrectly 😂. He said he had a hard time writing the letter that finally he had to cover up some parts to finish filming 😂. The second night he was reminded of the wrong character again and he was telling us not to laugh, that it’s a really sad scene. Obviously no help cuz the laughter only got louder. He banged on the couch and laid down kicking the air, saying now this is all you guys will remember about this scene. 🤣🤣🤣 After all the laughs, he collected himself and got into character. In MooYoung’s voice, he read the entire letter uncut to the audience. I saw some fans wept.

The agenda of the fan meeting was so simple. What made it feel great was the lack of commercial tone that was present when he was with Jellyfish. You can tell he came up with the content and even if any was scripted it was 100% his thoughts that he wanted to share. He didn’t come across as trying to promote his drama, which is too late because it already ended. Rather it felt like he genuinely loved it and like a good book, a great movie, or a favorite painting, he wanted to just hangout with his buddies (a large group of buddies) and discuss it to lengths. It’s not easy to keep an audience interactively engaged for 80 minutes just sitting on the couch, but he did, and without a second of awkward silence. He mentioned at one point he’s Seo emcee, Seo actor, Seo singer, and our close friend and it really did feel that way. He played all those roles in that 3 hours, and did very well.

In a separate segment, he read a fan post-it that mentioned how fans are really worried about the Director’s cut project falling out because the minimum demand is too high for the timeframe given to preorder. If the project is aborted, all of his precious behind the scene footages will never be seen (his presence in tvN bts clips were kept low for known reasons). He immediately asked his agency to purchase 100 copies (although he doesn’t realize we are still a little short😓).

When we left the venue, every ticket holder was given a hardcover photobook of MooYoung as a souvenir. Yes, one of those merchandise that only hit dramas release and sell in bookstores, we got it free. I really doubt he or his agency made any money from this fan meeting because the tickets are super cheap to begin with. And if that venue operate like they do in US, overrunning his show by an hour means he definitely went over budget. He’s not cut to do business😅, so thank goodness he’s super talented.

Btw, ChoRong and SangWoo was in the audience for the second night — the bromance is strong 😂.

Photo credit: t_holic, hopeis_k_cccc, hjiyeon_c

I guess he couldn’t bring a live cat 😂