On April 9, fans from all across Texas met up at Asia Times Square in Grand Prairie to celebrate First’s 26th birthday with him on his First in the USA Fanmeet 2024. First, whose full name is Chalongrat Novsamrong, is a Thai BL actor best known for his roles in Be Mine Superstar and Don’t Say No. This year, he decided to visit Dallas for the second of two fanmeets in the US. The New York show centered around fans’ “first date” with him, while the Dallas show had fans throwing a birthday party for him, which was called Happy First’s Day.

Fans didn’t really know what to expect coming into the show. While BL actors hold elaborate fanmeets all the time in Thailand, they are fairly rare in the United States. Even the show’s MC proudly stated that it was the first BL actor fanmeet in Texas. This left audience members wondering what they were about to witness. Was he going to sing? Act? Play games? Answer fan questions? The answer was all of the above.

First captured fans’ hearts from the minute he stepped out into the crowd, singing a song directly to fans. It was the first of three songs he would sing that night, and it led into a Q&A session where fans who submitted questions prior to the show would be picked out from the crowd to ask him whatever their hearts desired. Notable questions included someone asking what type of role he would like to do in the future, to which he responded by acting out being turned into a zombie. Another fan asked him where he would want to visit in the future, unrelated to his work, to which he responded that being anywhere he doesn’t have to work is already ideal. He also asked the audience questions of his own like whether they would let him bite them if he were a zombie and where they would want to go on a date in Dallas.

Before a brief intermission to change into his next stage outfit, First taught fans the dance to one of his songs from his former boyband, Cute Chef. He then made fans promise to remember the dance for later before exiting the stage, jokingly saying “see you tomorrow,” as he waved to fans.

The intermission lasted fifteen minutes and included a mini game where fans were asked questions about First. Through the quiz, fans learned that First gets the hiccups when he’s sleepy, wears mismatched socks, sneezes when it’s too sunny, and punches in his sleep. However, the most entertaining moment of the intermission came when fans were asked First’s favorite color. While surrounded by orange balloons and decorations, the lucky fan chosen to answer the question confidently yelled, “Green.” It was later revealed that he once said his favorite color was green in the behind the scenes clip of one of his shows.

First comes back from intermission the same way he came into the event, by singing a song to his fans. However, instead of leading to a Q&A session, this serenade led to two interactive games. Two fans were hand picked by First from the audience to join him in a game of charades. The first round included him miming the premise of one of his dramas, which the audience guessed almost immediately, while players kept yelling out wrong answers until one of them finally figured it out. The second round ended quickly with one player answering correctly on her first try. It was the final round that proved to be the hardest. Fans quickly figured out that First was doing the dance he taught them earlier, but none of them knew what the song was called. In the end, it was an audience member who got the right answer.

The second game was much simpler. Three fans were brought on stage to pick up balloons with a spatula and put as many as they could into a basket within fifteen seconds. One fan was able to get five balloons while the others tied with four balloons each. First, however, only had two balloons in his basket. When asked how many balloons he got, he jokingly said ten, but when the MC asked the audience if they saw ten balloons in his basket, they all said, “Yes.”

Once the games were over, the MC, translator, and First teamed up to put on an improv show for the fans. The improv show was called “Cooking with First,” where First had to act out a scene where he made his favorite food, pizza. The translator would read the prompt to First who acted out each line while the MC read it in English for the audience. The segment was full of strange and amusing moments like First having to fight the pizza dough or him having to dance in order for the magic sauce to sparkle. As soon as the “pizza” was put into the “oven,” the MC announced that the pizza had suddenly disappeared. Instead of a pizza, staff brought out a birthday cake for First.

As the show was coming to a close, First thanked fans for choosing to spend his birthday with him and promised they would see each other again. He reminded them that he was doing an event the next day at Kung Fu Tea where he would be a barista for three hours where fans could visit him. He ended the show by singing a final song for his fans, leaving the same way he came in.

Did you attend any of First’s US fanmeets? Let us know by commenting below or by reaching out to us on Instagram and X (Twitter).

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Edited by Martina Yee

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