Ok, picture it. 3 people, two are female (Buffy/Angel obsessive females who've never been to a con before) and one male (non Buffy/Angel obsessed). Think 12 and 13 year old teeny boppers being driven by thier dad to an Nsync concert. Ok, do you have that image in your head? Can you hear the squealings and the "OMG's"? Can you hear the "shut up's" of the male driver? Good, cause that's a pretty accurate image of how it played out.
Anywho, we reached the hotel (2 Harmon Plaza) on Saturday around 11:30. Got our hands stamped, did the whole check list thing, made our way into the convention hall, found our seat (row B).
12:30 they showed a few music videos (the Spike pop up one and a few others).
12:40 we had a trivia competition which was soo much fun. 3 fans would be picked, the audience would ask them questions about the show, if they answered 5 in a row correctly, they'd each win a 100 dollar gift certificate for any merchandise that was being sold in the next room (most were Buffy/Angel stuff). If they got stumped, then the person who asked the question would be able to choose 3 gifts from a selected table filled with merchandise. I stumped them twice hence I was happy.
At 1:10 we saw Movie Previews. The making of the vampire/werewolf movie with Hugh Jackman, a Harry Potter teaser, a preview of "Troy" with Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt, some wierd looking movie with Angelina Jolie, Jude Law and Gwenyth Paltrow and few other movies.
During the later part of the movie reviews, we (my friend and I) decided to hit the bar and guess who we would find in said bar? Yep, Nick was just chilling with a cig and some alchoholic beverages chatting it up with a few fans... us included after a while. He's a funny fella.
At 2:oo Iyari Limon hit the stage for 45 minutes for the Q&A. She's rather short which I hadn't expected. Questions were asked, she answered, I listened and now can't quite remember most of what was said. Someone asked "Spike or Angel?". Iyari said Spike to the cheering of many and the rolling of the eye by me. Another questioned voiced was "Who was responsible for the end of Buffy... the network or the Writers/producers?". Iyari answered Sarah Michelle Gellar and stated that if Sarah hadn't decided to not continue the show would have had a 8th season. Um, besides the other potential slaying actresses, she hung out with James on set the most. For all those not in the know, she's hispanic. During the autograph signing someone asked her if she found it difficult to audition for parts seeing as how she is hispanic but doesn't quite look it. Does she get that "You're not latina enough" or "You're not white enough" crap they throw at most mixed actors/actresses. Interestingly enough, she gets it. She talked about it more in detail, but don't want to bore ya with it all. And can I just say that Iyari is so very down to earth and kewl. She was amazingly receptive and open to all the fans. Even hung out in the bar with us until 2 in the morn. She was chatting up a storm with Robin though. She hung with the fans all though out the dinner party as well which was started at 8:30 and ended at 11pm. I'll chat about that in my next recap.
At 3:25, audience members were selected to recreate a popular Buffy scene. (Angel/Buffy in Surprise at the very end where they consummate their love and Oz/Willow in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" where a spell induced Willow comes on to Xander).
At 4:20 Robin Atkin Downes aka Machida from "Reptile Boy" came on stage. Get this, he does voice over for X-box etc games. A lot of them. He's also done voice overs for many commercials. And something I didn't know but he was in shows like Babylon Five, Charmed, Nash Bridges and a few others that I can't remember.
At 5pm, Nick hit the stage. He looks slimmer in person than on TV or he could have been Kellie as he was telling some people, though I doubt it. Anywhos, so he gets on stage to a packed room (seems some who bought their tickets to the Saturday event only showed up for Nick, since earlier in the day when Iyari spoke it wasn't as crowded). Questions were asked and again, I totally forgot most of what was said, but I do recall the sweet and oh so romantic and "awwweee" producing little story of how he proposed to his wife. Some and myself including have no idea who Brad Praisly (not sure about the last name) is, but that was cleared up by Nick. Praisly is a country singer who sings a certain song in which the video to that certain song which damn my bad ass memory, I can't remember, portrays some dude proposing to some chick. Anywho, long story short, Nick and his wife are both fans of Priestly. So, one day Nick put on that particular Brad Praisly song, his wife heard it. Nick suggested they act out the video for the song, which they did, in which Nick pulled out *the ring* and proposed. Afterwards, Nick's wife called up everyone she knew to tell them the news. Um, when Nick told the story, it was a lot more entertaining. Sorry! According to him, his wife is his "soulmate". Ok, say it with me now. 1, 2, 3... 'AAWWWWWEEEEEEE'
Interesting tidbit, Nick's a Spangel shipper which got an "eewww" from me. His fave eppies are Dracula vs. Buffy, The Zeppo, Hush, and The Body. His worst acting experience is filming "Survivor Island", but he mentioned he got paid well so it wasn't all that bad. What else? Lots more, but I can't seem to recall it all at the moment so lets move on shall we. After Nick finished speaking, we then had the autograph signing. *fangurl moment* Nick touched my hands and he smiled at me *squeals and end fangurl moment*
Ok, after that was all done with, we went into the next room where they were selling all sorts of Buffy/Angel merchandise for a freaking arm and leg, though I gave one arm and two legs and got myself the 12 inch Buffy and Angel doll. A few key chains, A pic of Stephanie as Lilah for her to sign the next day and an Angel T-shirt. We then went to our hotel rooms, changed, came back down at 8:30 for the dessert party. BEST DESSERT PARTY EVER!
Iyari, Stephanie, Robin and Robia all were there. We chatted with them, took some pictures. I told Stephanie how much we Angel fans miss her and that Eve in no way replaces her in our hearts and that we wish she would return. She smiled, thanked me and said she had no idea who Eve was. She hasn't been watching this season. Anyways, the night progressed, we chatted and mingled with the stars more. Robin got behind the piano, invited a bunch of fans up to sing along, of which I was one of the first to find my way over to the piano. We sang a few songs from the musical.
FYI: We sucked majorly, but I didn't care, I was having fun singing although I have no singing talent. 1 hour into the dessert party, Nick made his way in. Sadly he didn't quite mingle with the guest, due to him heading to the piano where he and Robin and the fans sang "Hey Jude" and "I'll never tell" along with a few other diddies. We sang Anya's part and Nick sang Xander's parts of course. Major fun was had, though I was quite tipsy as I'm assuming so was Nick. Actually, I'm not assuming... I'm telling. Um word of advice, don't drink on an empty stomach.
A snoopy dance face off took place. One of the fans during the Q and A asked Nick to do the Snoopy Dance which he did, but during the dessert party, it came to light that he actually did it wrong, hence the snoopy dance face off. Can't tell you who won, seeing as how I migrated to the bar for a few more alchololic beverages. I never quite made it back to the dessert party though (it ended at 11pm), but all the stars minus Robia found their way to the bar throughout the night, so that was fun. Nick was chatting away with fans, and taking a few pics, Iyari and Robin were deep in conversation and were still deep in conversation when we left (2am) and Stephanie came by for a short time, then left. If I haven't mentioned this before, Iyari is just the kewlest and most down to earth chick ever. So sweet and inviting. Any Kennedy hate I had before is officially no more.
Woke up the next day with a bitching hang over. So not fun. Sunday was uneventful but still fun regardless. We went back into the merchandise room, spent more money, visited the Save Angel table, got ourselves some Save Angel post cards filled them out and returned them. We walked around some, went back to the bar and guess who was there? Guess? If you can't I'm not telling.
Robia spoke first at 1:15. She looks far better and far younger in person that she does on tv. Lets see, what did she talk about? Errr... she talked about her days on tour with Prince. She was Pearl by the by. Cute little story on how she landed the part as Pearl. Prince was looking for a set of twins, but had no luck finding a pair, so instead, they went for two chicks that looked quite alike. The final two were Robia and the chick that was Diamond. They were early 20's at the time, and thought that whomever landed the role of the twins wouldn't get much screen time in the prince video, so the two decided to sabatoge their audition, and to their surprise and dismay, got in anyways.
Robia talked about her faith. She's majorly religious and has turned down many parts because it was too dark etc. She never researched the "techno Pagan" aspect of her role as Jenny cause that was something she was far from interested in and doesn't believe in, plus it wasn't a major facet in regards to Jenny's character. Something I found interesting was the fact that Robia after seeing "Amends" was very upset. A question was raised which asked if like Amber Benson if she had refused to return to Buffy because she didn't like what direction they were planning to take her character in. When signed on for "Amends" she didn't realize that her character would be, basically satan aka the first whereing Jenny's face. She tried to get out of her contract, but was unable to. She mentioned that while filming she wasn't into the scene hence it may have shown. Personally, it didn't show from where I'm standing.
A question about her faith was brought up again and she asked those in the audience to stand if any would be interested in hearing more about her religion. I stood as did a few, and she handed out a cassette with her picture on it. It's her voice just talking about her faith, and how it has effected her life etc. Haven't had time to sit and listen it yet though. She also gave us her email address so we can contact her if we have any questions in regards to her religion or Christianity in general. Ooh, before I forget, Robia is in talks to become a feature on two soap operas, though she hasn't decided which one if any she will choose. It's between General Hospital (tapes in NY) or Guiding Light (tapes in LA).
She chatted more and answered many more question but as noticed before, my memory sucks, so we shall move on to Stephanie who hit the stage at 5:15pm. She's very very tall was my first thought, then it made sense since she mentioned she started out as a model. She was in Model's Inc until it got canned. Her time on that show was not a happy one.
Moving on... Stephanie is working on a script (she's in the process of researching now) for the true story of Eva Gardner in which she plans to play the lead. She's also in a movie called "Final Cut" with Robin Williams. Asked who she'd love to work with, her reply was: Lela Olin (I think that's Syd's mum from Alias), Robert Downy Jr. and Morgan Freeman.
PS: I'd like to say for our first con, this was freaking fab. I heard horror stories about anarchy. It was not organized or everything ran late or the hotel sucked or paying too much money and not getting it's worth. Well, thankfully none of that was present. Got my money's worth, everything was on time, all the guest were lovely etc.
