All Hell Breaks Loose 5 - Supernatural Convention Report

*writer's note: I wrote this report for a multi-fandom site called capslockit which is run by a couple of pals of mine and is super awesome, so that's why it's a little bit more explainy than I would usually do for purely Supernatural fans. Make sure you check out capslockit, there are some great interviews on there with some Supernatural cast, amongst other fabulous stuff!

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE 5 – SUPERNATURAL CONVENTION REPORT.

Guests: Misha Collins, Mark Sheppard, Richard Speight Jnr., Matt Cohen, Mitch Pileggi, Corin Nemec.

All Hell Breaks Loose is a convention dedicated to the TV show, Supernatural that takes place yearly in Australia at the end of May. The convention is over 1 weekend, but is split across 2 States with the Saturday taking place in Sydney and the Sunday in Melbourne.

I’ve attended the Sydney event each year...except the first year in 2010...which is the only year Jensen, and Jared attended and the only one I couldn’t get to! Of course! Curses! Which is why I now travel over the seas twice a year to attend the U.S. Supernatural conventions because seeing the Js is a MUST!

All Hell Breaks Loose is a pretty casual affair, being as it’s in Aussie and we are notoriously casual. The cast seem to have a great time and are pretty loose on stage…even more so than usual! The day consists of photos with the cast, panels and then autographs.

This year the convention took place over the weekend of May 31/June 1, though technically, it kicked off on the night of May 30 with the Sydney VIP cocktail party and the karaoke (which for some reason is called the “Sing-a-long, which is equal parts cringe-worthy and hilarious!). I had the VIP ticket, so I was having drinks with the cast!

The cocktail party was a seated event (the previous year it had been a mingle) with a maximum on 8 people per table including the guest. If anyone has been to the Creation Supernatural convention cocktail parties, it’s a similar thing…but with less people on the tables and more time with the guests. Where as Creation’s cocktail parties are like speed dating on, well, speed, with only 90 seconds per guest, at AHBL, we get about 15 to 20 minutes with the guest and with such a small group on the table, that’s a good amount of time to chat!

Mitch Pileggi.

I should say, I’ve been doing cons for so long now, that I’ve made a lot of friends and 5 of us out of the 7 on my table at the cocktail party know each other very well. We’ve all done multiple conventions together both in Australia and the U.S. and had met early for some pre-convention drinks and catch-up.

I should also say, we’re all big X-Files fans…

Mitch was the first guest to grace us with his presence. It was the first time any of us had met him. He sat opposite me (got to pick your seat, I find opposite the guest is the best) and we basically all just stared at him, because AGENT SKINNER WAS SITTING AT OUR TABLE! After a short, awkward silence one of us piped up, “I’m sorry we’re silent but we’re all huge X-Files fans so were a little freaked out”. This made Mitch very happy! I think he assumed that everyone there just knew him through Supernatural, but for me, The X-Files was my first big TV love. It turns out Mitch is a funny guy! He looked and me and said, “So you must be excited that David [Duchovny] is on twitter” and I said, “Mitch, to be honest, I was irrationally excited that day!” and Mitch goes, “It is irrational because he’s a dick! Just kidding, he’s a great guy.” Ooooo-kay! He said he doesn’t follow David on twitter because he followed him for 9 years! Mitch had a good sense of humour! He discussed how when he got the call for Supernatural, he said yes without hesitating because he wanted to work with the late director Kim Manners again and a lot of the original crew from The X-Files now worked on Supernatural. He feels blessed he got that chance to catch up with Kim before he passed. He also said that his first episode on Supernatural was one of the favourite jobs he’s had. He elaborated on this in his panel talking about how he really pushed the boundaries with Jensen in the scene where the Yellow Eyed Demon, who was possessing his character, Samuel Campbell, the Winchester brother's maternal grandfather, got real up close and personal with Dean Winchester. Mitch said he got pretty creepy with Jensen, sniffing him and the like and that he was so impressed with how Jensen just told him to go for it, and took it all in his stride.

Over drinks Mitch also talked about an episode of Criminal Minds he did, which randomly I’d just seen! The character of a man consumed with guilt who winds up murdering his family, is probably his favourite part ever. It was a very different role to anything he’d done before and he felt a lot of sympathy for the character he was portraying.

During Mitch’s panel the next day, he delved further into The Campbells and what he thought about their story in Supernatural during season 6. Basically, it confused him. He didn’t feel at the time he understood it well enough and feels that he let the part down by not asking enough questions. A fan had told him her theory about the Campbells at the cocktail party the night before, and he said he’d wished he’d had that information at the time of shooting because it would have made everything clearer! Mitch also discussed his role on Sons of Anarchy and talked about what a great bunch of guys the actors on that show are. Sons happens to be my favourite show after Supernatural so I was in my happy place!

I got a photo with Mitch, because seriously, how could I not and I also got a couple of autographs because I wanted him to sign my photo of us together but also, one of Agent Skinner! I have to say I was super impressed with Mitch. He was disarmingly charming and incredibly thoughtful with his answers and how he interacted with you personally. Like all cast members I’ve met from Supernatural, he was just downright lovely!

Mark Sheppard.

First up. This was Mark’s 50^th birthday and he chose to spend that special day with his fans. We all sung happy birthday to him. I love Mark with a fiery passion. He’s such a fanboy and simply gets us and gets fandom. Every time I’ve seen one of his panels he impresses the hell out of me. Not just because he’s an incredibly articulate and witty man with a tonne of stories, but because of his genuine affection for fandom and how he perceives us a brave, because we wear out hearts on our sleeve. He has made me cry on more than one occasion!

When he sat at our table I took the chance to ask him about THAT speech his character Crowley gave to the apparently dead Dean, in the Supernatural season 9 finale. What did Crowley mean by it was important, “It’s fundamental” that Dean know that he was not lying to him about all the Mark of Cain stuff. Mark said, “I never said fundamental!” (I love how Mark uses “I” when he talks about his character), I said, “Yeah you did”, he said, “No I didn’t, I remember what I said.” Four of us said simultaneously, “Yeah. You did.” So Mark cracks into the speech and he gets to, “I never lied, Dean. That’s important. That’s…” and I go, “Fundamental!” It was a pretty fun moment! Regarding that speech, Mark said that the first half was Crowley eulogising a lost friend but the second half was very much about him laying ground work because he knew when Dean awoke as a demon, he was going to be powerful and Crowley was covering his ass!

Mark also made us question how Crowley was in the bunker. I said I assumed he walked in like every other supernatural creature seems to these days! He also asked us to think about why Crowley didn’t go when Sam summoned him, and I said I assumed that Crowley was able to decide whether he went or not when summoned, if it didn’t work in his favour, he didn’t go. Mark questioned that, saying that Crowley has got himself into devil’s traps when called upon, and that he even had to go during the massage scene. He said we need to consider how Crowley was actually there. Which made us say, “Are you saying he wasn’t actually there?" to which in typical Sheppard form he just smirked! (Misha had something to say about this!)

Where else do you get this kind of opportunity, to talk one on one with an actor you admire in a show you love about a character point! It was beyond fantastic.

During Mark’s panel the next day, he elaborated a little on the scene where Crowley was being massaged when Dean summoned him. He said that the actress playing the demon massaging him, never stopped massaging him in between takes! So for 2 hours, Mark got an awesome massage while the crew actively glared at him! He also talked about the scene during “Blade Runners” where Crowley had sex with another demon. He and the actress playing that role had to do ADR and drop in the sex noises in postproduction. He said he was horrified as he stood and watched this woman over a 20-minute period, fake making the most realistic noises he’d ever heard. He said it suddenly dawned on his how easy it is for women to do that! He also said, rather proudly, that when the episode went to censorship, the producers were told that Crowley’s sex noises were too big. In fact it was told to them as, Mark Sheppard’s sex is too big. Mark was most proud.

He also told a great story about what Jensen did in that final scene of the finale. It was the last scene for both of them for the season. After that, they were done and heading home for hiatus. He said jokingly, he thought maybe Jensen had been drinking! Mark was full into Crowley’s speech, as he said “Chewing up the scenery.” The crew were all engrossed as he went through the scene. It was absolutely silent. Mark got the First Blade out of his jacket pocket and moved towards Jensen, who was playing dead. Mark puts the Blade in Dean’s hand and closes Dean’s fingers around it. Just as he was moving Dean’s hand to press against Dean’s chest, Jensen suddenly sat up and screamed at Mark! Mark said he shat his pants he got such fright! I do so hope that’s on the gag reel! Mark said Jensen is a lot of fun.

Mark’s panel was full of saucy teasing (about torture and us meeting him in room 602) and laughter. He’s a wonderful storyteller and loves to have fun with us. Of course he finished with a speech about how important we all are to him in his life and how thankful he was for us because it was because of us that he was made a series regular for Supernatural season 10. And of course, I cried!

Misha Collins.

Misha came to our table and said, “What was Sheppard talking about?” so we told him and he said, “He’s f***ing with you.” Oh Misha, never change. For a lot of the conversation with Misha, we discussed GISHWHES. He was excited because when he got back to the States he was going to be meeting William Shatner for the first time! He’s as baffled as the rest of us by Mr Shatner’s attraction to Misha and the Supernatural fandom and why he wants to be involved with GISHWHES, but Misha is most obviously thrilled. We got the chance to chastise him for everything he does being at a shocking time for Australia, like the special TSA shorts screening he did at the Supernatural Washington DC Con, for which most of us at the table got up at 2am to watch! He made a note to himself…like literally, typed it into his phone…to make the GISHWHES start time as horrible as possible for Australia. Serves us right. Not like we don’t all know him.

I got to ask if he’d had a chance to talk to the writers at all about where they were going with his character, Castiel next season. He hadn’t and he said he had no f***ing idea what would be happening with Cas.

The next day, Richard Speight Jnr. brought Misha into the auditorium early for his panel, which was the last panel of the day. Richard was auctioning a t-shirt for children’s charities that he’d drawn on, and felt a bit of Misha DNA would push up the price. So he went and got Misha and didn’t tell him why, until he was on stage, when he told Misha to put the t-shirt down his pants! Misha borked at this at first (why I don’t know, I’ve seen him do worse), but eventually acquiesced putting the t-shirt down the front of his pants and masterly pulling it back out the back of his pants! Now that’s DNA (and a bit gross!)

During Misha’s panel, he wore a flower crown throughout the pretty much the whole thing. A girl gave it to him about 10 minutes into the panel and he wore it without flinching. Typically, Misha said very little during his panel. He’s an expert at not answering questions and at teasing people who try to ask questions! I wish I could remember more but I was laughing too hard! Misha’s such a wonderfully weirdo and one of my favourite human beings. He did come down into the crowd to do a selfie with us, which I JUST got in to!

Richard Speight Jnr.

Another one of my favourite human beings!

Three of us at my table had been to Supernatural Vegas convention in March and all had done Richard’s meet and greet. Richard knows each of us by name. So he sat down and said, “Really? Ladies?”

Like most of the cast at AHBL Richard had just come from the Rome convention, Jus In Belo. And he did so, via LA. Why on earth! So he was in the air for 28 hours. That’s in the air! Not including transfers! He did 4 flights! We all just stared at him with our jaws hanging! He was travelling with Matt Cohen and Matt’s wife Mandy. Matt had something to say about his later!

I got a chance to ask Richard about his character, the Archangel Gabriel, making a reappearance in season 9 after being killed off in season 5. Did he see Gabriel as being real or a construct of the angel Metatron for whom Gabriel appeared to be working and how did that inform how he played Gabriel’s return. Richard said he played Gabriel as real. He’d had 2 meetings with the writer of that particular episode, Robbie Thompson, and Robbie had definitely wanted Gabriel to be portrayed as real. He put in two actions to reinforce this. One was Gabriel’s apparent control over his environment with the finger clicking and the other was his trademark eyebrow waggle. So as far as Richard’s concerned, Gabriel is alive. He doesn’t know why or how or if that means there’s room for him to return again, but he’s alive and out there somewhere. Yippee!

He asked us if we were surprised when he popped up on screen, as he had no credit in the opening titles, and we all said, well yes and no. Richard had been photographed in Vancouver with the crew. At that time, he was actually shadowing an episode director as he did his prep, but Supernatural fans have been tricked by cast members creating fake scenarios before, so we weren’t sure if Richard was actually shadowing the director of if he was using that as a cover in case he was spotted in Vancouver. In actual fact, he was shadowing the director. I asked if that meant he was going to get a chance to direct an episode and he said, who knows, maybe in season 11(!!), but he was just taking the opportunity to learn because the crew on Supernatural are all his friends.

I adore Richard; he’s a real Southern gentleman, a sassy gentleman, but a gentleman all the same.

Richard did his panel with Matt Cohen. Matt and Richard have become great friends and travel the world doing the Supernatural convention circuit together. They host the karaoke, both in Australia and at the Creation run conventions in North America, where they have turned karaoke into an event not to miss!

Matt Cohen.

When Matt sat at our table, he had a specific question he wanted to ask us; what did with think of the Supernatural spinoff pilot “Bloodlines” which was not picked up. He’d been asking fans ever since the pilot aired and wanted to know what we thought. FYI, I work in TV, so I came at that pilot from a slightly different angle than a lot of the fans and I looked at it in the big picture of not only the Supernatural Universe and how it did or didn’t affect that, but also from a Network branding and demographic attraction approach! So I gave Matt my opinion on it and he listened silently and then said he’d not heard my view from any other fan and was pretty interested in how I saw what it was and why they went that direction. He then asked us what we thought would make a good spinoff, ensuring that we understood he wasn’t asking for anything about his character, Young John Winchester. We all agreed that the show could do a great spinoff around the Men of Letters origins, which would add to the mythology of the current show, without cannibalising its story or cast. It was a fabulous conversation! Also, Matt is stupid pretty. It has to be said. 

And as I mentioned, he did talk about that 28 hour flying business and was not at all impressed with how Richard organised their flights from Italy to Australia! He won’t be letting him do it again!

The next day, during Matt and Richard’s panel, Matt told another fantastic story about flying which took place during the previous year’s visit to Australia. Richard, Rob Benedict (who attended the convention in 2013), and Misha were on the flight and not many others. Matt decided to sit next to Rob, because Richard is terrified of flying and Rob is pretty calm. Matt isn’t a keen flyer either, so he was hoping that Rob’s calm would rub off on him. Unfortunately, the flight hit an air pocket and dropped a substantial amount. Calm Rob freaked out! Matt freaked out and then freaked out that Rob was freaking out who was not supposed to be freaking out! Meanwhile Richard, who was supposed to freak out slept through the whole thing, and Misha, who was in the bathroom at the time, came back to his seat covered in his own pee, as hitting an air pocket whilst your midstream does that! It was way funnier than it sounds. Matt and Richard set the chairs up on stage like they were on a plane and Matt acted the whole thing out while Richard pretended to sleep!

Matt is also fascinated by how Australian’s say tumblr, as in tumblahhhh (see photo). I will never hear tumblr any other way.

Corin Nemec.

Corin was the last guest to our table at the cocktail party and stayed to chat long after the event was called to a close and he was told he could leave. It was great to see Corin, who played the Winchester brother's cousin, Christian Campbell. He was supposed to have attended last year but had a horrific accident and nearly lost not only his leg, but also his life. I had seen Corin at the Supernatural convention in Dallas in September 2013 and he was walking with a cane and quite a bad limp. When I saw him again in Vegas in March of this year, the cane and the limp were gone, though there were still traces of the injury in his walk. Come Sydney in May, he seemed even better. To see his progress as he healed has been amazing. Corin is a sunny guy. Happy, friendly, smiley. 

He’d spent the day doing a mural in Bondi – he’s a street artist and had been commissioned to do a piece while in town. We basically talked about his art. He showed us a photo of the piece he’d done that day. We talked about other murals he’d done around the world. We randomly chatted about Corey Feldman, who it turns out Corin knows – both being teen stars of the same era. My friend Shelley and I had met Corey at a convention last October and Corin told us was a great guy he is. He also said Corey had parties at his house where he showed his own movies on a big screen! So also a bit of a character it seems. We basically just shot the breeze with Corin, we talked about Australia and food, I discussed Venice Beach, L.A. with him, as it turns out it was a favourite spot of both of ours. Eventually and long after everyone else had gone – except Mark Sheppard who stayed around for most of the evening – Corin excused himself because he was shattered from jetlag. He’s such an interesting and nice guy.

During his panel the next day, Corin told a hilarious story about a Star Trek convention he went to. He was booked for the convention and he wasn’t sure why as he’d never been on Star Trek, he was on Stargate! But he went along anyway. It was his first.

When he was making his way back to his room after a day of panels and whatnot, he ran into a very drunk, very large Klingon who wanted to play wrestle him. There was nothing at all Corin could do about it. The guy was twice his size and basically attacked him! He ended up on the ground with this drunk Klingon on top of him mashing his face into hotel carpet – which seemed to disturb Corin more than the wrestling bit, because hotel carpet…ewww! He said, people were walking past and just kind of glancing at them like it was the most normal thing to see a giant Klingon wrestling a skinny guy from Stargate! He finally got free and raced off to the lifts to escape! He decided to write off going back to his room. He said he made his way downstairs, trying to find somewhere to chill and hangout and he came across a bunch of Klingons in a hot tub, drinking blood wine and being serenaded by the original Flash Gordon, Sam Jones! This was Corin’s introduction to conventions and fandom. I’m glad he decided to give it another shot!

The karaoke on the Friday night was a little smaller than usual, but Rich and Matt held the fort and made it a lot of fun. Mark hung around for a while – he got birthday cupcakes given to him! Corin and Mitch hung around for a bit too, later we found out Mitch’s room was directly above the karaoke room, so even though he went to bed, he still heard the whole thing!

The next day, prior to the panels, I had photos with all the cast members…I wasn’t going to, but in the end I couldn’t resist! I also got an “angel sandwich” with Rich and Misha…because it’s Rich and Misha! They squeezed the bejebus out of me as usual.

Last part of the day was autographs, where I discovered Misha also knows my name! I have met him about 10 times I guess, and he did come to my work once to do a morning TV show and I surprised him in the studio for which I got a hug and a kiss…so maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised.

As usual, every guest was warm and gracious and a lot of fun…as were all the fans.

And then it was finished, and we all went back to real life...which is nowhere near as fun as convention life!

I attend a lot of conventions, three Supernatural ones per year as well as a few multi-fandom cons, and one of the best things is getting to hangout with all the friends you’ve made at various conventions and getting to meet and make new friends.

That was All Hell Breaks Loose for another year. No date has been announced for next year as of yet, but when it does, you know I will be there!

For more from All Hell Breaks Loose 5 - listen to me and Jules from the Supernatural Wiki, who attended the Melbourne day, chatting about all the shennanigans in the Women of Letters Podcast - click here to listen and download.

Thanks for reading!

-sweetondean

Supernatural - ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE IV Convention Report

On the first weekend in June I attended the Sydney leg of the All Hell Breaks Loose 4 convention.
 
Our special guests were Misha, Richard, Matt, Rob, Mark Sheppard and Sebastian. You might as well have called it The Bad Boys of “Supernatural” tour!

 
The lads had all arrived on various days. Sebastian had been in Sydney for about a week, as his girlfriend is a Sydney girl and he was catching up with family. Rob, Rich, Matt and Misha all arrived on Thursday and caught some of the sights around town and Mr Sheppard arrived Friday…missing his birthday all together, when he crossed the international date line, his birthday simply disappeared!
 
Officially the convention was Friday night and all day Saturday, but my convention started a little bit earlier…
 
It was Thursday night and I was just crawling into bed to watch a bit of “Supernatural” (what else) when Sebastian Roche tweeted….

 
Well crikey. Let’s just say, I laughed out loud, a lot. You see this show is produced where I work! Talk about brilliant!
 


So I headed off to sleep knowing that the next day there’d be a pretty good chance of having a pretty good day! I was already excited for the convention, now I was excited to be going to work! Who ever heard of such a thing.
 


Friday morning came and I got to work a bit early, slipped up to the studio at about 9 to accost someone to find out when the lads would be on and walked straight into Ginger Spice! Literally. Geri Halliwell was on the show too. I found out the guys were going to be on just after 10, just Misha and Seb, so I proceed to try and busy myself while I waited…concentration levels were at an all time low!
 


About 15 minutes before they were due on the show I headed up to the studio with a couple of colleagues, both of whom I’d introduced to “Supernatural”. We slipped into the studio and I could see that Misha and Sebastian were already in there getting mic’d up. I must have been feeling pretty brave, being on home turf and all, so I went straight over to where they were standing. When Seb was by himself I went up and said hi. He shook my hand, said it was nice to see me and then I said how I’d seen him tweeting last night and said, “Are you shitting me? I work there!” He went, “You work here? That’s amazing, are you coming to the convention?” and I told him, yep, I’d be there tonight in fact for cocktails and he said lovely, we could have a drink later. Then someone came and spoke to him so I backed away and turned to face Misha.
 


Now as most of you know, I’ve been to a few conventions. Misha has got to the point where he recognises me at those events and teases me (for some reason), so I was expecting him to probably recognise me a little…but… he looks up and sees me, looks completely taken by surprise and goes… “Hey…Hi! What are you doing here?” Lunges for me, wraps me in a big hug and plants a massive smooch on my cheek! I smooched his in return! O.M.G. Flail! Weirdly, I stayed collected…on the outside…and said, “I came to see you!” and he said “You came here to see us?” and I said…”Well yeah, up the stairs, I work here!” and Misha goes, “You’re shitting me!” I said, “I am not shitting you and that’s exactly what I just said to Sebastian!” Anyway we stood there for a few minutes chatting, I introduced him to both of my friends and he shook their hands and apologised on my behalf that I’d introduced them to “Supernatural”. He said, “Let me apologise for her, I’m so sorry she did that to you.” Idiot! Then we grabbed a couple of photos and the guys went on set.
 


I stood in the studio and watched as they did their segment. There were quite a few people in the studio who had come up specifically to see the guys. When they came off set, I said goodbye and they both said they’d see me that night, and then they got grabbed by all the other people wanting pics with them. Which was AWESOME! I stood there watching, as they were absorbed into the small crowd of TV professionals who’d come in specifically to see the hotties from “Supernatural”! I felt super proud. I then went back to work, sort of…after about an hour of running around and gushing to anyone who would listen!
 


So that’s how my con weekend started!
 


Later that afternoon, I left work a bit early to head into the city. I was staying in town (even though I live in Sydney), as it’s just easier. I was meeting my convention pals at the hotel and we were going to have some drinks before the evening cocktail function. There ended up being about 12 of us all catching up! It was great to see everyone and I met a couple of new friends too. The friends you meet through conventions really is the best bit!
 


At 7pm the Platinum/VIP cocktail party kicked off. How the parties work here is very different to the Creation parties. This year there wasn’t even any sitting at tables, we just stood or sat on lounge chairs in a small function room. My friends and I all managed to snag a high table and propped ourselves up. The guests come and chat to you, but it’s not timed or anything. They hang out and then move on, sometimes you get a couple of people at once, or they crash each other’s chats, so it’s super laid back and easy, even more so this year.
 


We got to chat to everyone. Obviously Misha and Seb recognised me from the morning. Misha said to me he was surprised how many people had come up to the studio to see them and get photos with them. Bless. He seemed pretty chuffed. It turns out Seb was staying just around the corner from the studios as his girlfriend’s family is from that area, so he could have walked there that morning, but of course a car came and got him. Mark Sheppard was seriously jetlagged as he’d just arrived but he chatted to us about the show a little bit and about the finale. I asked him his thoughts on the script, specifically the Tet Offensive/Girls speech. He said he loved it and that’s what’s so great about the show, that they can do that kind of thing. Everyone sung him happy birthday at some point. Richard and I chatted about Vegascon and how next year, with it being 4 days, we’re going to have to go into training. Rob remembered he’d seen me recently and I said it was Vegas and he said, “Oh yeah, of course.” We chatted about that and how great it was having the band on stage and how he’s excited to do it all again. Matt told us how terribly jetlagged he was, so much so he felt drunk and so was avoiding alcohol! He said he body was really angry with him! Australia is the end of their tour. These guys had gone from New Jersey to Rome to Birmingham to Germany to Sydney (via LA)! I was surprised any of them were even standing!
 


For the first year, we had Karaoke! It was Rich and Matt’s idea…or rather their insistence. I think they told the organisers rather than asked! So after the drinks, we headed in to the other room to join the rest of the crowd. I bumped into Sebastian’s girlfriend in the doorway (Alicia) and she said hi because she recognised me from the morning and we got chatting. She happened to go to the same high school as my best friend! She knew her name, which was a bit odd. Small city, man. A few of us chatted to her for a while. She’s totally got Seb’s number by the way, she was pretty hilarious how she spoke about him and when he came over at one point she just teased the crap out of him! Super nice gal…of course, because she’s from Sydney!
 


Karaoke, as usual, was a blast. The funny thing was, the guys didn’t know half the songs because there were a lot of Aussie songs being sung. But in their usual style, they bounced around with astonishingly high levels of energy! Sebastian, Matt, Richard and Rob put on a great show. Mark hung out in the audience for a while, Misha stayed in the other room chatting to the Platinum and VIP ticket holders, we could drift in and out. The night wrapped up around 10.30 (very early) with a rousing rendition of Carry on Wayward Son. We all said our goodnights and headed off to try and get some sleep before the big day of panels.

The Aussie “Supernatural” con schedules the panels day a bit different to how other conventions work. We get all our photos done in the morning, then all the panels run back to back and then we do all the autographs. The venues are small – less than 500 this year – and in Sydney we were in an auditorium at a University.
 


Originally Corin Nemec was supposed to act as M.C., but he was unable to attend as he’s still recovering from the injuries caused by his horrific accident. Rob Benedict was a last minute replacement for Corin. So Rob was our host!




While we were all up and down getting various photos and photo combinations, Rob entertained us with Q&A, live commentary on “The Real Ghostbusters” and a couple of Louden Swain songs. Thankfully, he brought his guitar! It was all fantastic! The live commentary was particularly fun! Rob talked about how brilliant he thinks the Js are, that after 8 seasons you can still see them giving everything to every scene where as, in his experience, on other long running shows the stars are phoning it in by that stage. He also talked about how the direction for Emily whilst Chuck was destroying the ghost and Becky was looking at him longingly, was that she “felt hot inside”. It was hilarious watching that scene with Rob. He said it was wonderful to be onset watching Emily do that and knowing it was all for him!
 


I got photos with all the cast, plus a Misha/Richard double, a Richard/Rob double, which I named the bromance double…yes I said that to them – in their matching blazers. They were wearing nearly identical blazers. Richard said he was a trend-setter and Rob a trend-follower! God love their adorableness. I also got a photo with all the guests, which I shared with 3 of my friends.
 


I had an epic fail with Sebastian. I totally forgot I shoved his photo ticket down my bra before I had my photo with Richard. Richard had held on to me after the photo and had a bit of a chat. I walked away all buzzing and totally forgot to get the ticket out of my underwear and suddenly I’m in front of Seb and…yeah…the con volunteer asked for my ticket and…OH CRAP! So I said, “One moment please” and stuck my hand down my top. Sebastian goes, “What are you doing, darling?” and I pulled the ticket out and handed it to the girl and said, “Where else was I going to put it?” and he said, “Oh darling, I can think of plenty of other places to…put it.” By now he has his arms wrapped around me and I’m trying to get my face in order for the camera…but me being me I had to say, “Hmmm, yes, I bet you can” to which he replied, “Oh you naughty, naughty girl!” As I walked away he said, “Thank you darling, you naughty girl.” I was laughing so damn hard I could barely collect myself! Of all people to have that happen in front of!





Anyway, the first panel up was Sebastian and he was his normal, chaotic self. Rob stayed just off to the side of the stage the whole time, shaking his head in amazement, bewilderment and possibly shame! Sebastian answered a few questions (I was quite impressed), but mostly danced, funny walked, told random stories, had us fake orgasm as a crowd, broke out into random French sentences, made his penis talk…I don’t even know. It doesn’t matter how many times I see Seb do his thing, I’m always gleefully astonished by the audacity of him! He had us all in tears with his shenanigans! At one point he called Rob onto stage and said, “Come to daddy” and then grabbed Rob in a hug and preceded to dry-hump him! Rob pulled away going…in that squeaky Rob/Chuck voice…“That is not the relationship I have with my father! I’m going to need therapy!” Funny stuff.

Up next was Mark Sheppard. I adore Mark. He’s a fan boy at heart and he simply gets us. I love how he asks the next person in line for their question. In that cockney brogue of his he goes, “Go on you”. I freakin’ love that! He teased the life out of the people in the audience who hadn’t seen the finale, going back to them every so often and saying, “You really should watch the show.” He said that the scene between Crowley and Sam took 3 days to shoot and was exhausting. There was a lot more of Crowley speaking and changing than we saw. The scene was trimmed purely for timings and hopefully we’ll get to see more of the scene on the DVD because it was all really good.

Mark insisted that Crowley did not kill Sheriff Mills, however, he did skip out on the cheque! He said that we shouldn’t assume that Crowley is a demon just because of the Mrs Tran red eyes thing…you know how Mark loves to imply that Crowley could be something else. We’ve never seen Crowley’s eyes turn as Crowley, so Mark thinks we shouldn’t be so sure.
 


Someone asked to see the photo of him kissing Jim, which he still has on his phone, so he got it out and showed us a couple of the different versions. Rob was off to the side of the stage and he goes, “Wait, you kissed Beaver?” and Mark said, “Didn’t you know?” at which point Rob came on to stage to have a look and literally fell to the floor laughing! Literally. On the floor. It was a fantastic moment!
 


Mark ended with a speech about how doing the conventions is akin to the live theatre experience, in that we give back to him while he’s on stage. He told us how thankful he is that he has these opportunities with us and how we’ve enriched his life by being part of it. He told us that he loves us all. His eyes were all watery…mine were crying. I love Mark Sheppard to pieces. He gets us.

Next up were Rich and Matt…and Rob. This was the funniest of the panels. I laughed so hard at one point I had to massage my face because it was aching! These guys are all such good friends and it shows. They have such a wonderful time together. Matt and Rich gave Rob a “sandwich” or a mandwich. It was so cute!
 


They were all asked to show their dance moves, so Richard did a Cossack dance (he does it well…though he was joking that he may have dislocated a knee), Matt did…yes, the jerk and Rob did… well an eighties kind of thing shuffle thing. I don’t know. Then Rob and Matt danced together…it was all so energetic. Like this onstage frenzy!

I can barely remember what was going on during this panel because I was pretty much crying throughout. The funniest part was when a girl in the audience asked Rich and Matt if they had their own show, what would it be and she said, Rob could be a guest star. They preceded to improv a sitcom called “Damn You, Matt!” Basically everything that could go wrong was Matt’s fault and the catch phase yelled during the show would be, DAMN YOU, MATT! Matt pretended he was walking around half naked and rubbing oil over his body, Rob knocked on the fake door and came in (he was the hi-ho neighbour guy) and because of Matt’s oil habit, Rob slides all the way across the stage yelling, “DAMN YOU, MATT”. It was BRILLIANT! They improv’d a whole bunch of damn you, Matt scenarios…one of which Rob was dying because he was impaled on something, like a pole or something and no-one could work out why and they all started losing it on stage because it was so ridiculous. Oh gosh. They should have their own show. They really should.

Last but of course, in no way least was Mr Collins. He came on when the three guys were auctioning off t-shirts they’d decorated for charity. Misha did the auction. It was ridiculously disorganised! But somehow he managed to figure out who got which t-shirt. He then stayed on stage until one of the convention reps said they hadn’t played his intro tape and so he went, “Shit” and ran off the stage and hid while they played his intro, then he ran back on stage pretending he’d not already been there for 10 minutes!
 


I was in the front row and he looked down and saw me snapping away and kind of pulled this frowny face at me and then grinned like crazy (we can only take photos for the first 5 minutes) and so I pulled my camera away and gave him a cheesy grin back to which he said, “I’m just kidding, go on” and then totally struck a pose for me! Agh. I love Misha!

Somehow we ended up talking about the Easter bunny and Santa Claus with him. We yelled out about how we have the Easter Bilby (a small marsupial) and kangaroos pull our Santa’s sled and he thought we were teasing him so the audience gave him a quick rendition of an Aussie Christmas song called “Six White Boomers” (a boomer is a roo). He said it was one of the more bizarre conversations he’d had at a convention! I think we all felt proud!
 


By the way, a fan made Misha’s sock monkey tie. She gave it to him at AECON4 and then started seeing the photos of him wearing it at the Aussie con and was SO EXCITED!

Of course, one of the big things that came out of Misha’s panel was that Ben Edlund was not returning for season 9. It was a CLANGER! I’m pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to tell us and I’m pretty sure the minute he did he regretted it because the gasp from the audience was shocking. He was standing almost in front of me when he told us and I gasped and put my hand on my heart. He saw me and then looked around at the rest of the audience, with their faces ashen and their jaws agape and said, “Oh shit, you didn’t know that? Oh shit.” To be honest, it took me a fair amount of time to regain my equilibrium. I nearly burst into tears! 

The panel got back on track (though I never quite did) and ended in the normal Misha wrongness style when he had to decorate a t-shirt and, well, let’s just say he drew a used feminine hygiene product on it…why? I do not know. Seb drew a naked effigy of himself…that made perfect sense!
 

Then the panels were over. After that it was autographs and our last chance to thank the guys for a totally great day.
 


The Aussie convention is an exhausting and frenetic affair, being all crammed into one day. After Sydney, the guys all got on a plane that night to head to Melbourne where they had to do the whole thing again on the Sunday. I have to say; I always love the Aussie con because in many ways, it’s so relaxed. That’s just kind of us though and the guests all role with it and seem to enjoy that laidback thing we have going on.
 


So, I said goodbye to all my friends on Sunday morning as we all headed off to various parts of Australia. Hilariously, my friends Shelley and Scott live only an hour flight away up north, but we were like…”Hey see you in a few months in Texas!” because our next stop is DallasCon!
 


If you’d like to listen to Jules from SuperWiki and I chat about All Hell Breaks Loose 4, it’s the subject of this week’s Women Of Letters Half Hour podcast. Jules attended the Melbourne day, so she has some extra stories to tell, like the Misha/Sasha switcheroo! The link is here.
 


Thanks for reading! I hope hellatus is being kind to you!


-sweetondean

sweetondean is Chief Editor and a writer for The Winchester Family Business
For all the latest Supernatural info and article links, follow The Winchester Family Business on Twitter at @WinFamBusiness

All photos (c) sweetondean 2013

Supernatural Convention Report - Viva Las Vegascon Part 2: Jensen, Jared and Misha

All photos in this report (c) sweetondean 2013

IT’S J DAY!

Truth is, I come to these conventions for many reasons, but the main reason is to see the boys and if truth be known, one specific boy…or man…MANLY MAN (I mean these boys are in the 30’s after all!).

Normally the Js are on the Sunday of the convention. They’re the showstopper if you may, but at Vegascon, they were on the Saturday. Whether this was because of flights back to Vancouver and timings of work or whether it was because they wanted to be able to play up after their convention commitments I have no clue – but I’m betting on the later!

Jared had his mum and dad in town; they were with him at the convention at the panel and in his photo-ops. Clif flew down on Friday and Johnny and Sean came in with the boys on the Saturday.

But once again, I’ve jumped ahead! The day started a bit later than the usual J day. Normally I’m up at about 5.30am getting ready for a 7.30 breakfast start – or something along those lines. But this time, we could actually have a relaxing morning. The Js weren’t arriving at lunch until 2 and before then, we had Emily Perkins’ and Misha’s panels. So there was plenty of time to get ready, sort the makeup, do the hair…prepare for what was ahead!

(My apologies, I can’t for the life of me find my photos of Emily!)

I’ll admit we were a tiny bit late to Emily’s panel – moving a bit slow that morning – but we caught most of it. Emily is super tiny – I actually walked past her later in the casino and I’m talking TINY! She seemed a little nervous too, which was sweet. Plenty of people asked questions – it’s always awkward when there’s a guest and there’s no one to ask questions! But plenty of people lined up. There were a few of those, what do you think Becky is/was/has/done/doing questions which kind of drive me crazy, because really, unless you are asking about the character motivation in the episode they’re in, or unless the actor has created their own back-story for their character, these are questions for the writer. Some cast members are ok with saying, “I have no idea, ask the writers” but most try and come up with an answer on the spot. Convention handy hint: If asking a question, remember that the actor and the character are not the same thing and remember that the actor may not have complete insight into where the character might be now…or probably hasn’t even thought about it! I will say that when someone asked why Sam didn’t have pants on when Becky tied him up, I liked Emily’s answer – she was trying to make him comfortable and he was hot. It was left up in the air as to whether she meant he was warm or HOT! I think we know the answer to that one!

After Emily it was Mr Misha Collins! I’m going to come clean, I’m not a minion and where as I like the character of Castiel here and there, I’m not one that feels the need for him to be in all the episodes. The show for me is and will always be about the Winchester brothers. Other characters fill out and colour in their world, but they will never take the focus away from Sam and Dean, nor should they. But over the last few years of meeting Misha (whom I tend to call Collins), I have developed a healthy respect for him and frankly, have fallen a little in love with him. He’s funny and inspiring and I love that he teases the fandom and I love that he teases me! But I’ll get to that.

This convention had the most Castiels I have ever seen! From your standard Castiel, to Steam Punk Castiel, to pink Castiel! There were Cass’ everywhere!

First thing Misha did when he came on stage was inappropriately grope Richard, or at least fake it…so it was going to be one of those panels huh? Excellent. Then he grabbed Rob’s ass! Ah Misha, don’t ever change.

It was a fantastic panel, where Misha managed to inspire and offend us all at once, as only he can do. As usual, he took no crap. If he didn’t like your question or he was simply over it, you knew – I say this but he’s never rude, it’s always done very tongue in cheek and frankly, I think it’s what people enjoy about the back and forth with Misha.

To decide which side of the auditorium went first for questions he made the first people in line go up on stage and arm wrestle! The Castiel won, but then Misha never answered her question, saying he was trying to demonstrate to her that violence was not the answer! She said, he started, he said, “Don’t turn this around on me!”

People congratulated him on becoming a regular for season 9. He was asked about directing and said he was terrified of what Jared was going to do to him…which according to Jensen and Jared he should be, though I have a sneaking suspicion neither will be anything but supportive. He discussed Random Acts and how it was because of our passion and creativity that he started the charity. He could see what we were capable of and wanted to harness that into doing good (as opposed to evil, which I think he’d also enjoy quite frankly).

At one point he got all the Castiels up on stage and led them in a dance – what I called The Dance of the Castiels. Or rather he got them to “frolic” with him. He told them to follow him and he proceeded to dance around the stage in a way that looked remarkably like that ridiculous dance from the gag reel, complete with twirls and pirouettes!

He told an awesome story about on set shenanigans. How they recently had a guest star on set and the crew dressed in drag while shooting the guest star’s scenes and then the next day, wore ball-gags in their mouths. The guest star, to his credit never mentioned it. Just did the scenes professionally and went on home. What the cast and crew didn’t realise was that this guest star was only on set for 2 days, the in drag day and the ball-gag day! When he wasn’t on set on the 3rd day and everyone realised he’d finished up his scenes the day before, they were mortified! Because they never got a chance to tell the poor guy that it was just a joke. He must have gone away thinking, “What the hell?” This story came up again later in the J’s panel…Jensen had a field day with the sulking and the pouting, but I’ll get to that!

I love Misha’s panels. I love the way he talks to the fans. He can bounce between serious and gracious and just telling someone to get out of here! This one was probably my favourite of his panels so far – though maybe not as dirty as his panel in Sydney last year! He did manage to drop a few F-bombs, but he kept it pretty clean as a whole!

After Misha, it was time for the Gold lunch. The lunch, followed by the Js ops meant that we missed Rob’s solo panel, Richard’s solo panel and Jim’s first panel (we caught Jim on Sunday). This is the first time I’ve ever missed a panel because of clashes. I’ll be honest, I was kind of bummed. I mean Rob and Richard are two of my favourite guys… I did feed this back to Adam from Creation in my post con email (which I always do) and he said they were trying to give as much bang for our buck as they could. So, I guess yeah, if you weren’t Gold you got the panels…but I was still disappointed. I told him that next year with the 4 days (I’m going to have to go into training), maybe some of those clashes could be avoided. Here’s hoping.

Anyhoo, it was time for lunch with the boys (MEN). I’ve got to say, Creation really put on a spread! Lot’s of lovely stuff to choose from and yummy desserts. But yeah, I could hardly eat because of the nerves. My stomach was playing ping-pong or something! This was the 5th time I’d be seeing/meeting Jensen and Jared and I was still as nervous as hell! Go figure!

The boys arrived right on 2, looking fabulous as usual. Jensen in his denim shirt and Jared in some scarf ensemble which was exactly at Amy height – which I’ll explain later! The lighting was absolute rubbish so I got no decent photos at the lunch. There was a spotlight right about Jensen’s head which cast the most awful shadows on his beautiful face and we were back a fair ways as there was a dance floor in front of the stage and obviously no tables were allowed on it. My friend Karen called it the demilitarised zone! Jensen asked if we were having a dance party later!

First up, there was the usually chat about season 8, season 9 and then the boys thanked us for the People’s Choice Award. How if it weren’t for us, they wouldn’t be there or be receiving such accolades. Then someone congratulated Jensen on the bub. I must say I was very impressed with the fandom and the lack of questions about the coming baby. I feared the whole thing would be gushing about said bub and Jensen is a pretty private dude so I was worried all the baby talk would make him uncomfortable. But there was really very little. Nice work fandom! Anyway, there was the baby congrats pretty early on which led to that adorable moment of Jensen sticking out his tummy as if he was pregnant and Jared placing his hand and ear on Jensen’s tummy as if listening for a heartbeat and saying that Jensen was barley showing. Gah. These boys! (Though I think I heard fanfiction writers the world over squee in weird delight…)

One of the really interesting titbits revealed in this panel was that Jensen and Jared did not confer on their outfits for the PCAs. They both have friends who are stylists who helped them out individually. Jensen was just going to wear something out of his wardrobe…until the stylist saw what he was suggesting, and went out shopping for him! The fact that they matched – well... Jared said that they spend so much time together that now they think alike. Jensen said, “My suit actually matched your tie” the fans all said “Yes” which cracked Jared up! But, the whole matching thing was a complete fluke.

The wonderful thing about these lunches/breakfasts is that they are super casual. You don’t have to get up and queue at a microphone, you simply raise your hand at your table and the Js will get to you – point you out. I know that at Burbank, there isn’t a breakfast; it’s an additional panel, in your assigned seats. I’m hoping this isn’t the way it’s going because that would lose the casual intimacy that these events have.

Anyway, this lunch panel flew by. They are 30 minutes and I think this one may have been the fastest 30 minutes of my entire life! It was a blur of nerves and laughter and lurve…and it was all only just beginning…

Next up it was photos with Jensen. I had 2 singles and a shared with Hazel. Hazel and I laugh that in our friendship, she’s the Jared and I’m the Jensen. You know how Jensen is always going “What?” and turning to Jared who whispers what the question was or what was said? Well that’s us. Something happens to me at these convention things and I lose the ability to hear properly or think clearly, or something! So thank goodness Hazel is there to organise me! I’m forever going “What are we doing?” and she tells me!

I never do daft poses with Jensen. I mean, I mix it up a bit to get really good shots, but I’m all about getting my arms around that man! I’m always polite, say hello, say please and thank you, say goodbye. So first I asked for a hug photo and along with a big smile, I got a great, big all engulfing hug! Then I asked if I could kind of hug him from the side with my arms around his belly and he pulled me in, wrapped his hands over my hands and well…he pulled an adorable face! Like he’s doing an O with his mouth! Of course I didn’t know until I got the photo back, but it’s super cute and I love that he does that without me asking. I guess he’s seen me enough now to know he can play up and have a bit of fun and I’ll be cool with it. If you follow me on twitter it’s my current icon.

As usual, it was all too quick and it was off to wait for our J2s. Oh, I also have to say, my friend Kellie was a first timer this year and joined us in the photo op queue. She was so nervous about her first op. We gave her some in-queue coaching and backup! She got an epic hug from Jensen and bless her, was so thrilled when she came out of the room. I waited for her to see her reaction and it was shaky and teary and giggly. I remember my first time I met Jensen, I ran to my friend Tiny and hugged the life out of her and we jumped up and down on the spot! Of course, I’m pretty sure Jensen caught that! Seeing as we were still in the photo room! I love seeing people meeting him for the first time. It never gets old and it never gets old for me. He glows, with inner and outer beauty. And yes…I ran my hand down his back again. I simply can’t help it. It’s a subconscious thing, honestly it is! I just gotta touch the man! *sigh*

Ok, then it was our J2s. We had a single, a shared and for something different we got an op just with them. So my single was hug city again. By the way, that Padaleski dude just keeps getting more gorgeous. He’s like a golden God! Seriously, every time I see him I’m like…crikey, he got prettier again! Anyhoo, for our shared op we asked the boys to hug each other and we’d hug around them. Well, when we got the photo back they’re giving each other funny looks and sort of pushing each other away with their hands up like, yuck don’t you hug me, man – it’s brilliant! I’m in love with it! Then we got them to do a pose on their own and they did this kind of rock n’ roll thing with Jensen pointing at the camera and Jared kind of pulling a rockstar face. This one will never see the light of day I’m afraid. It’s really epic and just for us and well, we don’t want it all over the net!

Then it was queuing for Jared time. We had to wait at the photo room straight after our J2’s because we had Jensen’s meeting and greet and we had a 10-minute window to get our Jared ops and get to the meet and greet room!

Now like I said, Jared was wearing a scarf and it was Amy height. So when I went in for my hug, I was buried in scarf! I stopped Chris and asked Jared if I could shift his scarf and he said, “What’s happening?” and I said “You’re blocking me with your scarf!” and he said… “Oh yeah, I do that kind of thing!” and grinned at me. Gah! Then my second op, even though I change positions, it happened again and I said, “Err Jared, you’re blocking me again” and he laughed and shifted the scarf saying, “Is this better babe?” Bless him. This also happened with his collar at Vancon…so I must be just the right height to get buried in Jared’s clothing – not such a bad thing. By the way…he called me babe, sweetheart and love. Good grief! Oh and also, Mrs Padalecki was in there videoing the photo ops…so we all may be on a Padalecki family home video!

After our lovely Jared ops it was time to sprint down to the meet and greet room for our 30 minutes in Heaven…I mean, with Jensen.

As you’re probably aware, Creation has modified the guidelines around the private meet and greets. They’ve asked that attendees do not transcribe or report verbatim what was said. I know there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle about this, but let me say, as someone who’s done 6 meet and greets – 4 with Jensen, 1 with Jared and 1 with Richard, I support this request. These are relaxed and open forums where the guests feel comfortable sharing information and stories with a small group. Both Jensen and Jared have said things in the meet and greets I’ve attended, which I’ve never written up because I didn’t feel they were appropriate to share. Sometimes things slip out and it’s up to us to ensure that anything that may have been said in candour remains protected. This is about protecting the people we’re fans of. It’s also about protecting the integrity of the private meet and greet situation. I want to ensure that Jensen feels comfortable in the room and doesn’t have to worry about anything coming back to bite him on the ass.

To clarify the new guidelines, I contacted Adam from Creation. He told me that blogging about the event and paraphrasing a few lines here and there was fine, but entire transcripts was not in the spirit of the event. I guess, they’re not doing an interview; they’re having a candid chat with fans. There is a difference. To be honest, I usually only remember a handful of questions anyway, because I can barely remember my name when sitting in a small room with Jensen, let alone exactly what was said! So, with respect for Jensen (always), I will just paint a picture of the experience.

As usual, we had to pull numbers from an envelope to allocate our seats. I pulled front row but Hazel pulled second row (there were only 2 rows). It’s Hazel and my policy to always sit together at these things (I say it’s our brand), so I swapped with a reader of my pieces on The Winchester Family Business, I took her second row seat and she took my front row seat.

Anyway, Jensen strode in all smiles and hellos, seating himself on a tall chair in front of us. He was wonderful, as usual. There was discussion around directing and around his interest in photography, which he was warned would become much more important soon! We talked about the introduction of the MoLs bunker and Dean’s room and I discussed with him Dean’s prayer to Cass and the fact that Dan Loflin, the writer of that episode, had been on set when that scene was shot. I congratulated him on the scene and he thanked me, I said it was very emotional and he smiled and thanked me again and then I said, “At least it was for me” and he gave a great big laugh! I made Jensen laugh! I think that might be one of my favourite meet and greet moments ever!

He was gracious and attentive. He always ensures he puts maximum thought into your question. Mine was such a good one that we went back and forth with it a bit. I was totally stoked! He always looks you right in the eye when he talks to you and addresses his answer directly to you. It’s your answer and he ensures you have your moment in his orbit. He’s funny and yet soft-spoken. Jensen is quite different in this environment than he is in the panel with Jared. Less boisterous, a little more quiet. This is not to say there isn’t plenty of laughter, he has a great sense of humour and likes to joke and tease. There’s a lot of laughter in these things believe me! He seems totally relaxed and at ease with us in this environment. It really is awesome. Jensen’s meet and greet is always my favourite moment of the convention. I can’t imagine not doing it, like ever and I’ll always have his back no matter what. I have to say, these 30 minutes generally feel like a good amount of time, but it’s always so sad when he thanks us and gets up to stride back out. I could sit and talk to him for hours. He’s smart and interesting and amusing…and yeah, incredibly beautiful to bask in.

So then it was the J’s panel!

Richard told us in his meet and greet on Sunday evening that the Elastic Waste Band was not originally supposed to be on stage with the Js. But Richard asked Jensen if he’d like them to stay and Jensen said yes and thank goodness for that, because having the band on stage with the boys during their panel was so much fun. I mean, I’ve always thought Jensen must love to dance…what with how often he dances around on the gag reels, well, in this panel…he danced quite a bit! He bantered, played air-guitar, air-drums and of course…he sang. Jensen really enjoyed the band. But hey, I’m getting ahead of myself again!

Jared brought the PCA out for us all to see – which Jensen then danced across the stage with. Jared is so proud of that thing. They set it up on the podium on stage so we could all enjoy it during the panel.

Thankfully someone had said to Jared that the chairs were too low on stage (they were) so the boys sat up on the back of the chairs so we could all see them – and enjoy their long legs sprawling!

I think Jensen is getting sassier in these things. In the couple of years that I’ve been doing the Creation conventions, he has definitely relaxed more and now he gives the fans so much cheek! Also, he’s naughty and sometimes kinda dirty! It’s so appreciated I can’t even tell you!

There was a great question about script writing and what they like and don’t like as actors. For me, hearing them talk about their craft is always a highlight, because they are both so passionate. Later there was a funny moment about method acting, where the nervous fan tried to explain method acting to Jensen, which made Jared whisper – “He’s a professional actor”.

Ty swung by for a visit to ask a question about the J’s identical trailers and motorcycles and then bring a little boy, whose name was Jensen, up on stage to meet big Jensen. Awwww.

Then later Misha tried to crash the panel – sneaking up on Jensen and Jared, even though they could see him in the monitor on stage – which made Misha laugh like a crazy man! They sent him off to the band to play the cowbell and the band started playing (Don’t Fear) The Reaper. The guys totally cracked up. Great moment.

Another brilliant moment was when a girl asked what’s it like to be really attractive and Jensen turned to Jared quick as a whip and said, “I should probably take this one”. Jared totally lost it! One of his hand clapping, laughing fits! It was fantastic. Then someone shouted out that Jensen wouldn’t know because he’s married! Which made him go on a baffled tirade about how obviously a wedding ring was an ugly ring and how you must disappear when you get married! It was epically snarky!

Then there was the moment when Jensen went to tell the story about the guest star and how the crew dressed in drag…which of course we’d already heard! Jensen said “That little shit stole my story…I don’t wanna tell it now.” Then he fake pouted and Jared took it and ran with it going, “But did he tell you” and Jensen jumped in and said, “Oh I’m sure he told them that” and they ran that shtick for a bit, back and forth! It was brilliant to watch them adlibbing a joke on the fly!

Of course there had to be one awkward question. A girl asking Jared about some I Blame Jared Padalecki for Everything Facebook page. Beyond the initial confusion, it went down like a tonne of bricks – but it was cool to see Jensen jump to his friend’s defence, shoot the question down in flames. Why do fans ask inappropriate questions? It wasn’t funny; intentional or not, it came across kind of rude and was a bummer at the end of a great panel.

Anyhoo…through the panel there was loads of good-humoured yelling out from the audience, which was so funny. It’s great that the audience’s off the cuff comments can completely crack the boys up. I’m pretty sure they enjoy themselves doing these things just as much as we enjoy watching them. This panel was probably the most laughter filled one I’ve seen. I don’t know if it was the Vegas thing, but everyone, including Jensen and Jared were in incredibly high spirits.

Of course then the band cracked into The Boys Are Back in Town and Jensen did a bit of air-guitar and then joined Rob and Richard to sing. Jensen loved having that band on stage, you could just tell!

After the panel, it was time for the J2M op. It was super quick, because the day was running behind and the guys had to be out by 9pm. But it was still great; I mean how often do you get squished in-between Jensen, Jared and Misha! Never! In my op, at the very last moment Misha kind of scooped an arm around me and then had to quickly adjust, as he was about to grab my boob. SERIOUSLY! The photo looks like he’s cupping my boob! Hahaha! Awkward!

Then it was autos. I got Jensen to sign my Mac! I have a Dean and the Impala decal on my Mac and now I have Jensen’s signature above it! I’ve literally have started calling my Mac, Ackles. I do so love my Mac…and now I love it even more and Jensen thought it was pretty cool! I also got a Sam, Dean and Cass banner signed by all 3 of the guys.

When I got to Jared I was so exhausted, I absently mindedly leant on the autograph table and let out an exasperated sigh! Jared looked up and said, “Deep breaths, deep breaths and relax” and laughed. I was like, “Oh ahh sorry, forgot where I was for a minute.” When I got to Misha he looked up and went, “Oh it’s you!” Now I’ve met Misha like 7 times now I guess, because he’s been to Australia a couple of times and last time he was here I ran into him in the lobby of the hotel and we had a chat. Then, because he recognised me, he teased me at the cocktail party and then in the photo op, so now I guess that seems to be a thing with us! Because in my op with him later that night with Hazel, he looked at me, shook his head and said, “You keep going!” and pointed towards the door…before breaking into a great big smile. So I guess now I Misha fodder! I’ll see him in a couple of months in Sydney again…let’s see what happens this time!

And then it was over. It was one hell of a long and wonderful day. But it’s always so heartbreaking…because when you walk away from your autos with Jensen and Jared, you know that’s it…and you’re not going to see them for a while and like I’ve said before, every time I see Jensen, it’s harder to walk away…
 


Coming soon… Viva Las Vegascon – Part Three. Sebastian dances, Mark drums, Ty parties and the Richard’s meet and greet.
 


Thanks for reading!

-sweetondean