The Fan Fun With Damian Lewis Holiday Gift Giving Guide

Holiday greetings to you all!  So glad to be back behind the keyboard with my Fan Fun Sisterhood.  I wanted to take a moment from my busiest season to create something special for our blog.

One of my taglines, as a burlesque performer, is that I am “The Queen of Christmas.” I’m launching into my busiest performing season, as well as the season of my birth, so what better article for me to write than a shopping guide for the Damian Lewis fans in your life?  I know any of us “diehards” here at the blog would LOVE the things listed here. (I’m also certain many of us own several of these things, so check the comments for some special Fan Fun product reviews from my sisters!)

Television and Films available on DVD:

The first stop on our list has to be the several wonderful choices in DVD releases that you could choose.

You can find both older and newer releases at most major online retailers like Amazon.com. They have everything from the big screen down to the small!  You could go for this beautiful Band of Brothers DVD Collection, or a recent small release film like The Silent Storm.  With DVDs, you can span almost the entire spectrum of his career, watching Damian grow from a talented young man playing the heroic Dick Winters, all the way to a mature, seasoned and experienced actor portraying the overbearing and abusive Balor McNeil.  It’s the best kind of “time travel”, in my opinion!

All sorts of excellent collections of TV seasons are also available, such as seasons 1-4 of the show that got this whole blog rolling, Homeland, to our most recent obsession, the recently released Billions!  You can even relive our lively summer with Charlie Crews if you’d pick up Seasons 1 and 2 of Life on DVD!

It’s hard to choose from so many great DVDs, but my personal favorite would probably be Wolf Hall, released by PBS, which includes some bonus features like interviews with cast and crew, features about the design and production work, and behind the scenes footage.  I re-watch Wolf Hall a LOT, and I know it’s only a matter of time before Amazon Prime could take it away.  I’d better make sure to let Santa know to add this one to my list! 🙂

Books:

If you loved Band of Brothers and Wolf Hall, maybe you’d love to take a deeper dive into the books that inspired these great shows? A quick stroll through your local bookseller, or a bigger chain like Barnes and Noble, and you can find the novels of both stories!  Both “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the bodies.”  If you are anything like me, you’ve probably been excited to consume all I could find out about the history of Henry, Thomas, Anne and the time they ruled during.  I love the way that fandom can light a fire within, and suddenly you are on this quest to educate yourself and gain new knowledge.  I have Damian to thank for my new found appreciation of some pretty iconic parts of English history!

Speaking of our Damian fandom, we cannot have a section on books without including “Meeting Damian Lewis”, a fun little bit of life-meets-fan-fiction that we featured previously on the blog.  Thank you, Christine Wilson!  I think of you as an honorary member of the sisterhood 🙂

And speaking of Damian Lewis more as the man, and less as the characters he embodies, you wouldn’t want to pass over picking up “The Love Book“, then jumping over to your mobile app store and picking up the matching app, and reading along as Damian, as well as wife Helen and several other familiar British voices read lovely poetry to you.  There is a poem for every feeling on the spectrum, from the grief of loss to the elation of new-found love, to the hilarity and comfort found only in the beautiful middle ground of stable, well-settled love.  I will admit to playing some of these in my car as I commute home after a long day!

Officially Licensed Show Merchandise:

This is the part where I, as an artist, have to pull out my soapbox.  Please, please, please, as we partake in our fandom and enjoy our shows, do what you can to support official, licensed show merchandise.  These shows are created by hard working actors, writers, directors and crew, so respect their intellectual property.  In supporting the “real deal”, you in turn support them.  There, now we can get on to the goodies!! 😀

Showtime, of course, has a great supply of both Billions and Homeland merchandise.  Everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs to board games can be found!  A few of my personal favorites would be the “Eff You” coffee mug, the perfect gift for that potty-mouth in your life!  Also gotta have the “Axe Capitol Vest”, modeled, on the show, by the one and only “Dollar Bill” during our most favorite of favorite scenes!

When digging through the Homeland merchandise, you have to do a bit of a deep dive to find our beloved ginger, but he is still there!  I have always adored the design of this promotional poster, with Carrie’s post it notes actually creating Brody’s face on her wall.  Below, you can see our founding blogger sporting the design, proudly, on a t-shirt!

I also really love this magnet set, featuring Carrie, Brody and Saul.  If you added this magnet to that set, you could play out one of the most intense and memorable scenes between Saul and Carrie!

Theatre/Events:

Of course, the ultimate Fan Fun experience would be to the “the tall one” live in person!

I know many in the sisterhood have already had the pleasure of doing so, and I think will again, when Damian heads back to the stage in London, this spring, in Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?  You can read all about it in this wonderful write up from the blog, and head over to the theater’s website to grab your tickets!  I’m stuck stateside, so I expect all of you going to report back to me with reviews and selfies, okay? (But no selfies during the show, naturally!!!)

Those lucky enough to be in New York, or with easy access to the city, could treat themselves or the fan in their life to an early holiday gift and attend the Billions Season 2 Sneak Peek and Discussion, on December 5th at The Paley Center For Media.  The midwest, and my performance schedule, will be keeping me firmly here in Minneapolis until the new year(it’s the Holliedazzle season, after all!) so, you know what I am expecting, right?  Help me live vicariously through you!! 🙂

I think we’ve got some good suggestions here, folks!  Go forth and make merry-shop ’til you drop, and remember to spread LOVE and JOY this holiday season.  We all need a little extra revelry and merriment this year, in particular.  Go see live shows, watch sappy Hallmark channel movies, eat good food, spend time with the people you love and stay warm and safe!

Happy Hollie-days!!

Love, Holliedazzle and the whole Fan Fun with Damian Lewis Crew