Yes folks, my only decent picture of James so far... sorry
And that was yet another convention for me. For a girl who said she only wanted to go to one convention in her life, I sure go to a lot of those! This one I worked though. And don't believe the hype about being staff at a con: you don't get to meet the stars personaly unless you're lucky... yeah, ok. I was a little bit lucky on Sunday morning, I'll admit that much. ;-) But seriously, I didn't accept thinking that would happen, I did it because I love the excitement of conventions and I love to meet people who love Buffy as much as I do. And getting to see James Marsters again was a definite plus! lol
Guests:
JAMES MARSTERS
JAMES LEARY
ANDY HALLETT
IYARY LIMON
ROBIN ATKIN DOWNES
MERCEDES MCNAB
FRIDAY: Noting much happened on Friday actually. It was registration day and I was selling pictures at a table. Then we went to eat (one of the very few times when I got to actually put food in my mouth) we came back, got dressed, and it was cocktail party time.
The cocktail party didn't go all that well. About five women will tell you they had their money worth, but that's because they were the only ones who got to talk to James. He walked in, one hundred hysterical ladies rushed him, the five or so first ones to get to him monopolized his attention, and that was pretty much it.
So 95 women went back home disappointed. At lest in Cleveland, everybody got their 5 seconds with him because he was taking pictures. I understand that it was his idea to mingle with the fans, but someone has to rotate people so everybody get attention. I didn't get to talk to him on that night, because the senior staff member decided she didn't want to leave the room. We were supposed to rotate, but she didn't understand the concept. Nevermind. That's also when I met Charma. We became buddies right away and thank God for that because I wouldn't have had such a good time if she hadn't been there.
After the cocktail party, we went to the dance, but we had to wake up at 8am for the photo shoot in the morning. So by the time we were in bed, it was 4am and you can only imagine what I looked like when I woke up. But that's nothing compared to what I looked like by the end of the con lol.
SATURDAY: 9am, photo session with Mercedes. I don't have much to say about her because I haven't talked to her myself and barely saw her at all. She didn't interact much with fans during the photo session. Actually, I got feedback from some fans who told me she hadn't been all that nice to them, but I don't know if that's true or not so lets not start rumors here.
Then James arrived. He's been his gracious self with fans as usual, taking time to say something to everybody, shaking hands, hugging, etc. Then Fernando drove him back to his hotel.
At the Q&A, people were asking the same exact questions as usual, and getting the same answers. So I'll skip that. Oh, and if you guys have friends who are going to cons, please tell them to drop the rape thing. Oh, and the "sock" or anything "nudity related". Everytime, there's some moron asking. Even though they know it makes James uncomfortable. I don't understand that.
The signing took forever, but that's normal, that's one of James stipulation that he will take time to shake hands and exchange a few words with people. And the promoters should know that by now. If a fan asks JM about politics, or what he thinks of life after death, JM will answer. It is THAT bad. So knowing that, you'd think the promoters would arrange the schedule in consequence, right? Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Anyway, all this to say that the signing was very long. Charma and I didn't know what to do, so we stood there... then were too exhausted to stand, so we sat by the wall, waiting. Left the room when our savior informed us that staff had a room with free food in it, which no one bothered telling us until then (it was 6pm and we hadn't had anything to eat since the night before) So we left and came back. When it was over, we went to change for the banquet and came back down.
Amongst all the things we were promised and didn't get (getting a chance to meet the stars, shake their hands and take a picture, for example) we were also told we would have a staff table at the banquet. Never mind that. We were told to stand by some table, which we did for a good half hour, then we were told to grab some food and leave the room. We ended up eating in an empty panel room, with like ten people looking at us and asking us questions. I felt like the King and Queen of France must have felt like when they were having dinner at a table with all the courtiers staring at them. Ok, enough with the bitching. I'd like to say more about the banquet but I wasn't in the room for most of it so I don't know much about what happened there. I heard James Leary started some kind of contest between the tables and people had a blast. Andy, James and Robin have been the life of the party all weekend. They are great guys and it's awesome that they can still mingle with the fans. Unfortunately, James Marsters can't do that, even though I'm sure he would love to. As soon as he shows up, the poor guy is surrounded by the crowd so it makes it kinda hard for him to just chat and have fun with the fans the way the other guys do. Too bad.
Once we were done, it was time for the karaoke contest. That was the good part actually. Charma was supposed to sing some Michelle Branch song and she was going first to break the ice, since she was staff. She was a nervous wreck. So I got her a drink. Didn't work. Let me just describe the room first. The ball room was really big, and 2/3 or it was being used for the banquet. There were huge panels separating the banquet room from the karaoke room. So there we were, playing with the sound while Charma was practicing. She was still very nervous so I said: "what the heck, here's the Britney Spears CD, lets be silly and sing 'hit me one more time'. You'll feel better" so we did. Half way through the song, I unfortunately turned around. Only to be faced with 800 people looking at us with smiles on their faces. The banquet was over and they had removed the panels. I still can't believe we finished the song anyway lol.
During the contest, we sat on the floor in the dark corner right behind James Leary and Andy Hallet. We were making comments to try to get them to laugh. Then, James left and Andy asked me to keep his seat warm, so I sat next to him. You should have seen the comments those two were writing on their sheet. Hilarious. I started laughing then Andy turned red and snatched the sheet away from me, which made me laugh even harder.
When James came back from wherever he was, this cute little boy came to him and asked, with the innocence of a child. "How come you kept leaving the room during the karaoke?" James started stuttering and Charma and I burst out laughing. The thing is, James had a little incident in Cleveland. The kind of incident that resulted in a major hangover in the morning. And his wife heard about the rumor. That's why she went to the next convention. So his answer to the little boy was that he had to go to the bathroom and he had to call his wife. When he heard us laughing, he started telling us that story about the neighbor who's a really bad man and he was scared for his wife, and he was going on and on and turning red. So I didn't let it go the entire night. He must have liked being teased cause he hung out with us until 4am. And I was saying stuff like: "James, shouldn't you go to bed? Remember Cleveland?..." and he'd answer: "Actually... no I don't." He's the sweetest. Him, Andy and Robin stayed in the lobby until 4am, Robin at the piano, fans singing, it was a blast. Andy went to bed, but he was really really sick. At one point, he was green... without make up. And by the morning, he was only getting worse.
SUNDAY: 4am in bed, 8am up. Again. The photo session started with poor Andy, who was feeling worst than ever, but doing a great job at hiding it. The guy is a sweetheart, did I mentioned it already? When I said out loud, in front of him "Is it too late for Charma and I to pay for a picture?" He was horrified that we would have to pay. But the promoter said that was the rule. So he gave us both a hug and mentioned in our ear that it wasn't fair for staff to have to pay for a picture, and that he'd take one with us after his signing. The Vulkon people were really nasty on Sunday. There were some personal reasons for them to be nasty to me and Charma and I won't get into that here cause I don't want to start a reputation for them. But they were also bad with fans and stars. I understand they were tired and stressed out, but there is no excuse for that.I needed to say that so you'd understand the rest of the story.
So... Andy is sick. He just wrapped the photo session and there's nothing else for him to do. There's a couch in the hallway. So he asked me and Charma to lay down with him for a minute because he's not feeling good and he wants to cuddle. We have nothing to do so he puts his legs on Charma, he puts his arms around me and we just lay down for a bit. Two minutes later, one of the Vulkon guy that I won't name makes a scene. And it's not the first time (he made a scene in front of James Leary the night before) He yells at us to get off that couch for some phony reason. Andy tries to tell him to leave us with him, and the guy doesn't even answer, he just turns around and leave. So we follow him, asking "so, what do you want us to do?" He brings us in the ballroom and says: "stand there." and that's exactly what he wanted: for us to stand in an empty ballroom for 20 minutes. There was nobody there. Just the photographer adjusting his camera. James wasn't there yet, there were no fans or anything. That was pretty shitty for Andy.
Now, it was James Marsters' turn to take pictures. That's when one of the promoter's true colors started to show. Rule number one in my book: Never yell at your main star even if you don't like the way he works. I was just starring at that guy with my jaw slack. I couldn't believe it. He was yelling at people to move, at James that it wasn't the signing and he wasn't allowed to talk to fans, at fans not to give their gifts to James, at me... he was yelling at everybody! And all for nothing because there were only 150 pictures to be taken that day, and it took about half an hour, maybe 45 minutes top. Well, good for us though, because since he didn't have anything left to do, James sat with us for a bit. He gave us each one of his redbulls because we looked just about to pass out and we chat for a few minutes.... with the promoter staring at us with hatred in his eyes, and the Vulkon guy who pulled us away from Andy earlier pacing two feet behind us. Then, the "promoter" (not Joe, someone else) rudely interrupted our conversation only saying to James: "Back to the Hotel". James's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he mumbled: "Ooookay then..." He gave us an apologetic look and said "see you later girls" and that was it.
As usual, Andy gave the best Q&A ever. He was funny, charming, sweet, etc. James Leary even interfered when people were discussing a possible love interest for Lorne, and someone said Clem. Leary walked in the room with a mic and made funny comments. Before leaving, Andy made us sing happy birthday to his mom on his agent's cell phone. That was really sweet.
Things got really out of control ugly during James signing. The thing is, the promoters had known for two months that James had an early flight on Sunday. His flight was at 6pm. Any logical person would have thought, either way to skip the second Q&A all together and do it after the signing if time permits, or to start everything way early. But nooooo. Not vulkon. It was much funnier to start the signing at the same time as Saturday, and pray to all Gods that James would become a different person overnight and sign 800 and more autographs in 2 hours, not looking at anybody. It lasted from 2h30 until 8pm the day before, why in the hell would it be any different?! So instead of dealing with it and arranging the schedule accordingly, they thought it would be more interesting to yell at fans, and at James, some more. The "promoter" has been standing by his table during the entire thing, trying to pull people away. And the more he would do it, the more James would get annoyed and do the exact opposite. Yeah, that's a trait of his personality that I've noticed. He does that a lot. When he wants to do something and someone's trying to stop him, he'll bend backwards to do it even more. He'd be hugging someone during the photo shoot for example, Mr. "promoter" would say no hugs, and James would give the person a second one. I thought that was pretty hilarious. More classy than yelling back at Mr. "Promoter" to shut his big mouth (something I would have done at some point if I was him). So anyway, the two Vulkon guys were yelling and pulling at people, until they realized that, oups, no more time and still lots and lots of autograph to sign... it's 5pm, James is going to miss his flight, and there's still at least 200 to sign. So they made the announcement that James was going to be walking the line. That's when Charma and I got in the line because we still hadn't had the two autographs we were promised. So by then, Mr. "promoter" is red, and pulling James from one person to the other, the staff have no clue what the hell they are doing, they are not communicating. So the owner of Vulkon would tell everybody off, saying that only the one day badges would get an autograph and that the VIP badges could go to hell (his exact words). And meanwhile, nasty Vulkon guy who pulled us away from Andy, would tell VIP badges to stick around in case James would have time. And Mr. "promoter" would make James sign only VIP badges. People were yelling, shouting, swearing. It was horrible. Through all this, James finally made it to Charma. He said a few words, hugged her, and Mr. "promoter" shouted at her to get the f*ck off of him. Annoyed, James hugged her longer, so Mr. "promoter" physically pulled her off. Now, he's spreading the rumor over the internet that she was being hysterical and clinging to James, invading his personal space. If you hear that... it is not true, I saw it with my own two eyes. Anyway. While that guy was saying something to her, James moved on to me. We exchange a few words, nasty Vulkon guy almost ripped my Andy picture out of my hands thinking it was the picture I wanted to get signed. When he realized the mistake, he threw my pic on the floor and grabbed the stake I wanted James to sign out of my hands and held it for him. Well, on purpose, he held it loosely so my autograph would be ruined. It was so obvious he did it on purpose that James pulled it away from him to finish signing. But it doesn't change anything. The autograph is ruined anyway. It's not worth a penny because it doesn't look anything like James' signature. Not that I would have sold it, but if I had wanted to, I couldn't have. Once he was done signing, James took a step towards me, opening his arms to hug me... and nasty Vulkon guy put himself between us, put his hand on my chest and pushed me back roughly. He pulled James away, and that was it. But I kept watching, and the most outrageous thing happened two minutes later.
Andy had a flight at the same time as James too and he was walking the line from the opposite end. When they met, James hugged Andy. Well believe it or not, Mr. "promoter" yelled at him (his words) "We don't have time for that shit!!!" Now, James politely snapped. He just turned around to look at the "promoter" in the eyes, and said in a cold voice: "THIS is more important." and he gave Andy another hug to prove his point, and said something in his ear. Well you guys want to know what he was saying? He was actually trying to save Vulkon's ass by asking Andy if he would cancel his flight and stay longer so the fans wouldn't destroy the place. He was doing them a favor, and they were screaming at him. That's class my friends.
Being the class act that he is, Andy accepted. The fans cheered him, knowing that he was tired and ill. And everything ended well because James managed to sign everything, except a few extra that people bought, but he signed those on his way to the airport.
So that was the end of the con guys.
I know it sounds like it was awful, but there were definit good moments and even though two of the Staff members (nasty Vulkon guy and Mr. promoter) were really bad, the rest of the staff were nice. Hats off to Dizzy, the DJ, who did a fantastic job at keeping things smooth and entertaining the fans. And also Juan Carlos, the photographer, who was a doll with everybody. I loved working the con. I even stayed until 10pm on Sunday just to discuss with a few fans. Loved it!!
Here are some pictures. I barely have any pictures of James though. My pictures of the Q&A didn't turn out well and the only other picture I have is the one from the photo session that I still haven't received yet.
Yes folks, my only decent picture of James so far... sorry
Gotta love Clem! It would be so great if they would have him on Angel! a girl can hope, right?
Yup, he's THE ultimate one man show
Andy calling his mom so we could sing happy birthday for her
There were a few items from BTVS. I couldn't get over the radioactive dress lol!
Creepy little guy from OMWF
The famous picture Andy promised us
Andy trying to make Charma more comfortable before she sang at the karaoke
The best staffers at Vulkon! Full of myself much? lol
on sunday morning, with James Leary, trying to hide that I'm about to pass out.
So that's it for me as far as conventions are concerned. I might go again eventually, but definitely not anytime soon, and definitely not a Vulkon (personal stuff got in the way and I have serious doubts that I'll be invited again). But I am planning on going to a Ghost of the Robot concert eventually so I'll still have stuff to write. I'm planning on a trip to L.A. in November or December so I'll make sure to go when GotR have a gig.
Til then... I wish you all a lot of happy encounters with James, Take care,
Isabel
Shoreleave 24, Baltimore July 2002