Finally! A soap opera event in New Jersey! Not just any soap opera event, but a GH soap opera event. I cannot say how much of a blast I had at this. I was so excited to find out that there were soap events in NJ. I usually end up going to NYC....LOL!
This event was in Point Pleasant, NJ - it was about an hour drive. The venue is also half resturant as well, so the comedy club part is very small, and when I mean small, I MEAN SMALL. We were really close to the stage, and it didn't matter where you sat - you got a great view. I was in the second row.
Originally, it was going to be Bradford Anderson and Kristen Storms (Maxie Jones), but due to Kristen getting an offer to do a pilot for some show at the last minute, Julie Marie (LuLu Spencer) replaced her. It was all good because I've always wanted to meet Julie Marie. I had already met Bradford once last year.
There were two showings of this event. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. I went to the morning one with some really cool people who I had met at the Greg Vaughan and Kelly Monaco event. At first, the morning event was sold out; but because of the last minute change, I was told that ten people backed out of the morning one; so we ended up with 46 people as opposed to 56, which was still a good turn out.
Oh and when Dino, one of the owners (the place is owned by two brothers), had sent the e-mail about the change, he called Julie Marie Jamie Bergman; so just about everyone e-mailed him back correcting him on her name. He said he got about 50 e-mails and one phone call at 1:15 in the morning....LOL! He asked, "who was the one who called the resturant at 1:15 in the morning just to say that her name is Julie Marie?" LOL! He also said, "God forbid if I get the names spelled wrong." HILARIOUS! The two brothers are still getting used to who is who on the soaps....hee hee! He also made announcements about other soap opera events and asked people who they would like to see.
Once that little bit of entertainment was over, Bradford came out first and talked with us for about a 1/2 an hour before bringing in Julie Marie. He thanked all of us for being so understanding regarding Kristen Storms not being able to make it. Since the GH hospital crisis storyline had just recently ended, he started off talking about that and how ridiculous the storyline was (but somehow it worked....LOL) and we all cracked up about that. He asked us if we liked that storyline and we all said that we did. We spent a real good amount of time talking about that storyline actually....LOL ("poison balls"....LOL)!
There were also questions about the character of Winifred and if she may end up being with Spenelli. Bradford said that originally the character was supposed to be an FBI agent that was faking the whole "Spenelli talk" thing just to get the goods on him, but the writers had a change of heart. Someone asked now that he can't hack into computers anymore, would Spenelli end up working with Sam as a P.I. He said that it was very possible. Someone gave him a bag of barbaque potato chips, V8 orange fusion, and orange soda....LOL! At his event in NYC last year, someone did the same thing minus the V8 Fusion....LOL! I wonder if it was the same person? LOL! He was also very excited that he and Kristen made it to the top five in SID (Soaps In Depth magazine) because usually it's Maurice Bernard (Sonny Corinthos), Steve Burton (Jason Morgan), Trevor St. John (Todd Manning OLTL) [and yes they were still on the top five]; so he was happy to be one of them. We were happy too (not that Maurice, Steve, and Trevor aren't bad to look at; but that's a topic for another day....hee hee)!
He asked all of us, "how about Scott Clifton being on One Life to Live?" We all were very happy about that and there was this one lady that made it obvious she was a big Scott Clifton fan....LOL! Bradford ended with singing a song in honor of Kristen, which was the same song he sung on the show. It was called "No You Can't Take That Away From Me" (I believe that is the title....LOL)! After that, he announced Julie Marie and she came on the stage.
When Julie Marie came on to join Bradford, there were questions about the Johnny/Lulu/Spenelli/Winifred/Maxie situation. Someone also asked if Genie Francis (Laura Spencer) was returning (or as the person said "is Laura coming back?") and Julie Marie said that she moved back to California (with Bradford jumping in asking "You mean the character of Laura?" Just to clarify that the person wasn't talking about Laura Wright [Carly Jacks]....LOL! Then Bradford was like, "Laura is in Paris"....LMAO). Julie said, "Laura is in Paris and Genie is in California". She also said that you never know with regards to Genie coming back. Bradford asked us, "I wonder what she and Scott are doing?" That was an interesting question. A lot of people had some ideas the were just being bounced around as to what Laura and Scott are doing.
Both Julie Marie and Bradford said that they love being on the East Coast because the audience seemed more lively (and Julie Marie was like, "you laugh at my jokes"). Bradford made fun of Steve Burton (as usual....LOL) and the subject of people without shirts came up and he was like "I seem to be the only one that ends up with his shirt off, which doesn't seem right" and we all laughed. Then, Bradford started joking about how short Maurice Bernard (Sonny Corinthos) is and then he said that although he makes fun of Maurice and Steve all the time, he can't really since he is not that tall himself....LOL! Julie Marie mentioned that she was only 5' 3". Bradford said that Jason Thompson and Ingo Rademacher are the taller ones and then he was like "what's up with them being obsessed with Australians?" LOL! (Ingo Rademacher is Australian).
Someone said that when John J. York (Mac Scorpio) first came on the show, since he was Robert Scorpio's younger brother, he had an Australian accent. However, it was a really bad accent! Julie Marie was like "What? John J. York had an accent?" LOL! It really was a terrible Australian fake accent. I'm glad they decided to not have him have one anymore.
I love Bradford, he is always so energetic at events and Julie Marie, although more calm, she was awesome too. When they stood up for people to take pics of the both of them, they turned around for everyone to get good shots, and then they turned their backs so people could take pics of their backsides as a joke - it was funny and I wasn't expecting that one....LOL!
They had signed pics for sale too, so I purchased one of Kristen and Bradford, even though she wasn't there. I had Julie Marie and Bradford sign my GH book. Bradford remembered me from last year and he was like "it's good seeing you again". I told both Julie and Bradford that they were doing great jobs on the show and I hope they are on for a long time, and I thanked them for coming to NJ. They both said thank you. I also had Julie take my picture with Bradford and then Bradford to take a picture of Julie Marie and I (that was hilarious....LOL)! I also had a group shot taken.
Overall, a great event as usual. I never been to Uncle Vinny's before, so now I know what to expect when I come back here for Michael Easton (John McBaine - OLTL), and Steve Burton and Derk Cheetwood (Max Gambino) in March, and Tyler Christopher and Sarah Brown (Nikolas Cassadine and Claudia Zacchara) in April. Also, Dino said that Jason Thompson (Dr. Patrick Drake) will be back as well as Laura Wright, so that's cool. I'll definitely go whenever they get the dates up for that one.
I really had a good time and it was great seeing "the gang" again as well and I had met some new people in the process. You guys rock! We should do this again soon!
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