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"Its a long, long way to Pasadena" John Paul Young
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The
first day of the Con started off badly...er I mean well when Lisa and I managed
to spy an exhausted looking Jane and Caitlin whilst enduring the first
of endless queues for the weekend. It was a long and tortuous wait but
eventually we were let loose on the merchandise tables and were able to find our
seats - a long way back for 'Gold Circle' mind you.
Highlight
of the day (apart from playing with Xena's sword, left) was the taped welcome by
our two fave girls and seeing Xena back in her leathers again...yipee. But was
it just me or were the breast plates bigger than ever? Must be a side effect of
the breast feeding.
Low light was seeing the first episode of Jack of All Trades. I thought it was in a word, weak, and this seemed to be the consensus of those present. It barely raised a laugh - the script was bad and the acting and accents terrible, especially by the leading lady, a Kiwi masquerading as a Brit.
Timothy
'Eli' Omundson I thought tried far too hard and was the least
interesting of the guests imho. However in person at the autograph table he more
than made up for it. He was lovely, had a friendly smile for everyone and those
eyes!!!
Danielle 'Ephiny' McCormack was pretty funny but I think has done one too many cons. She seemed rather fixated on bestiality, mentioning at various times escapades with horses, sheep and dogs. Guess she's been hanging out with Meg's girls lol. In the autograph line we compared notes on the whole being in America experience - its a funny old place.
I didn't attend the evening concert due to exhaustion after being delayed in Baltimore for six hours due to snow.
I have
little interest in the characters Discord and Strife (in fact they
give me the irrits) but their two alter egos Meighan Desmond and
Joel Tobeck,
both Kiwis, were very entertaining. Meighan was just adorable actually.
Australia's
very own 'Palaemon'/'Pompey', Jeremy
Callaghan, a proud new dad, was next on
stage and did a great job. He told us all in some detail how he came to get on
the show which was quite interesting. I told him in the line later that even
though I liked his work on Xena I thought he was best in the Cherry Ripe ads
back home. I was rewarded with a big grin and a handshake, then a brief
discussion about what I was doing so far from home etc.
The highlight of this day was undoubtedly the debut of Cleopatra 2525 and the
entrance of its stars, Gina Torres (the first Cleopatra in
XWP, Nebula in Herc)
who looked quite stunning in black leather trousers, Vicki Pratt (Cyane of
Amazon Bath House fame) and Jennifer Sky (bug eyed Amarice). These girls were
great together, playing off each other, goofing around and showing what a great
working relationship they have developed in their new show.
Big Bad Kev 'Ares' Smith was next on stage and what can I say? He was as lovely as
ever - one of life's nice guys. His rendition of "Melt Into Me" at the
Saturday night concert was pure sexuality.
Another highlight of the day was watching Lyre, Lyre with so many other fans. It was a great episode to air in this environment as the dialogue was a little hard to hear but the music carried it. I loved it from the moment that Xena launched into 'War, what is it good for?' at the start.
The
Saturday concert was a lot of fun. Claire 'Alti' Stansfield languished around
the stage as the MC, Ebonie 'M'Lila' Smith sang a sexy version of Fever with a
verse about Xena and Gab, Jeremy did Elvis, Willa 'Lila' O'Neil rocked with
Sweet Child of Mine, Michael 'Iolaus' Hurst showed what a fantastic all round
entertainer he is
with a couple of stage musical numbers, Gina did a superb "I will
survive" and Kev and her did a duet. I was disappointed that Joe LoDuca
didn't make it but it was a great night anyway.
Two great technical sessions started the day - one by the effects people and another by Robert Fields the editor. These gave us some great behind the scenes looks at the amazing effort that goes into this little ol' show. It included some great home video of Lucy in costume (including 4 arms) and makeup at the end of The Way. She was disciplining the SFX guys kids in full make-up. She is a very funny lady... as if we didn't know already.
The guests were again great today. Ebonie Smith was a revelation - so fun and full of energy and she asked each questioner their name and said hi. It was funny to hear the whole audience go "ah" in recognition when she told us she was Danny Glover's youngest child in the Lethal Weapon series - instant recognition.
Willa O'Neil is a bubbly kiwi girl-next door who delighted the crowd by taking photos of us all to show her friends back home because she said "they'll never believe it!!!"
Alison 'Minya' Wall is a good old fashioned thespian (!) and delighted the crowd with some great anecdotes about the show. She picked up my Aussie accent in the line later and told me that she thought our accent was the hardest to "do". I agreed - just ask Meryl Streep - at which point we both did take-offs of Meryl's appalling "A deengo took moy boybee" from 'Evil Angels'/'A Cry in the Dark'. (For more information on Alison filmography visit this site.)
The costume comp was a hoot. The kids winner was dressed as Xenan, Ephiny's centaur baby (aka "horsey-boy"). He was gorgeous. Unfortunately the most popular adult did not win - a stunning woman dressed as Lucy as the dark angel in the Rolling Stone spread. Somehow I think she may have got a date later ;-)
And you know, even though I am no great Herc fan, Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst were an excellent finale. They were great on stage hamming it up. Michael performed a rather long speech from Hamlet at the crowd's request and they auctioned off some stuff for The Big Fellas charity which was great to see (i.e. CreMation couldn't get their measly hands on any of the money - yay!) A lovely farewell video was also played and moved both actors were visibly moved. Michael later showed what a great sport he is to the fans by signing autographs for a couple of hours.
All in all a great weekend's entertainment. There were only three real downers for me.
1.
CreMation - money hungry liars and perverters of the truth. They
overcharge, mess up the seating arrangements, and do not deliver all the
autographs they promise to the preferred seating folks. They made some real
enemies at this con. Hopefully they will remedy the situation for next year.
2. People ask the most STUPID questions and don't even listen to what other people are asking. I nearly died of embarrassment at some of the questions. Fortunately the actors are very polite...perhaps too much so.
3. The program was so busy that I didn't really get a chance to meet up with as many people as I would have liked. But it was great to see those I did catch up with again like LZ Clotho, Beth and Bitr. And I also got to meet a few new folks, like Paige and Val. Nice folks all.
Check out the official story at the Creation Website.
You can see the end result of all of my autograph hunting on my Autographs page.
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