For the Fawn of It: A Few Faux Fans

The bad news is that the Oscars are just around the corner, and once again you have failed to be nominated. The good news is that if you are tired of waiting for those 15 minutes of fame, you can simulate the experience with a “fanning.”

For a fee, the women who run L.A.’s Rent-a-Fanclub will swoon. They will scream. They will cry, faint, photograph and paw at you. Unfortunately, they will also leave when it’s over. But, hey, you can’t have everything. Money may get you a lot, but it can’t buy love.

Comedian Hillary Carlip and actor Lissa Negrin founded the business in 1980 when they went to the airport to pick up a friend from New York. Still in costume from a comedy showcase in which they were performing, Carlip thought, “Let’s do something really wacky and be her fan club. We’ll meet her at the gate and cause a scene,” which is precisely what they did.

Their unsuspecting friend Marilyn Wilson was shocked when she came off the plane and was greeted by a pair of screaming fans relentlessly begging for her autograph. But Carlip and Negrin trailed her all the way from the gate to the baggage claim before letting on to the crowd they’d attracted. When some of those who’d witnessed the fanning asked whether the two were in business, they lied, “Yes.”

Fannings begin at $250 and cost extra, depending on how many people are involved and what types of props are used. Their biggest production involved 30 hired fans, a brass band, a limo, a red carpet, a tiara, roses and a cape. The cost? $4,500.

Ninety percent of the time, Rent-a-Fanclub is hired by a third party to perform at birthday, graduation, retirement and anniversary parties. But they are also used by actors.

“We’ve been hired by people who are going to have dinner with their agent after they just did a small part on ‘ER.’ They just want us to be [low key],” said Negrin, who regularly performs in Vegas as a Cher impersonator. “We’ll walk past the table, then come back and say, ‘Weren’t you on “ER” last night? You were so great!’ ”

Carlip and Negrin have even been hired to fan the famous, including Army Archerd, David Niven Jr., Burt Bacharach and Ed McMahon.

“Why are you hiring us? Don’t you have your own fans?” Carlip says she wondered.

Rent-a-Fanclub is an outgrowth of the comedy routine they were doing as Cindy and Mindy--nerds and best friends who dressed badly, wore horn-rimmed glasses and were terminally sick with colds.

“These girls spent their entire lives going through garbage cans in Beverly Hills,” Negrin explained.

Building on this theme, when Carlip and Negrin perform as fans, they bicker about who is the president of so-and-so’s fan club. Then, using personal information they’ve been given by whomever hired them, they detail that person’s hobbies and recount weird anecdotes.

Before starting Rent-a-Fanclub, both Negrin and Carlip had worked part time doing telegrams dressed as French maids.

“We wanted to find something a little less humiliating to do,” Negrin said. “As Cindy and Mindy, we knew no one would ever ask us to take off our clothes.”

On only a few occasions have their antics been unsuccessful. Hired to celebrate the birthday of a hardware store worker, they couldn’t find him. According to Carlip, “If you’re his biggest fan, you’re supposed to know what he looks like.”

For information: (323) 462-2583.