LA Hercules/Xena Convention 97 Report Page2

January 10-13 Burbank Hilton Hotel, California

Con Diary - Burbank, CA 1/11/97

SATURDAY
We were up 3 Ť hours later and I even got some reading done on the script before Marit and I headed out to have our continental breakfast meeting with Starseeker. Sal_Fan joined us briefly to chat about the movie as I sipped my coffee. I returned to my room to read more of the first draft and urged Starseeker to go work on the rest of it... Psam's psych profile said I was a "Field Marshall" personality type.... it may have some merit after all;)

Of course I didn't stay long in my room, thinking I may be missing out on something, so I got dressed and went down to the Con. I got in the side entrance, the guard recognized me from the night before and knew I meant business (yeah, right) and made my way to the Michael Hurst and Kevin Sorbo Fan Club Table. There standing tall and beautifully was someone I was hoping against hope to meet. I have been close friends with this lovely lady for over a year, working, laughing and crying together, and it was the first time I ever saw what she looked like, but I knew it was her. Olympiana, tall, black shinning hair and dazzling white smile, sparkling dark eyes. I tell you I cried when I finally got to hug her! I helped her, Mary and Joy set up the easel with a new Kevin Sorbo picture on it guaranteed to draw crowds (the sexiest picture/poster of Kevin I have ever seen - just out of the shower in a white muscle undershirt looking you right in the eyes) and contributed my Kevin Sorbo Fan Club HerK Fest Scrapbook to the display table.

I bought my official fan club T-Shirt (also a new photo, yummy) and visited for a bit. Olympiana had to leave for the MTV softball game so I walked with her over to the hotel. It was then that I gave her a few things for Kevin, to be hand delivered so we know he got them. The bag I handed Olympiana for Kevin contained the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Curriculum Studies from Deb. U, a hand made HerK doll with real woven pants made by me, a Kevin Sorbo Photo calendar by Marit and some chocolate chip cookies made by Ciyeva. I took my T-shirt up to my room, checked messages and got my camera, duh, which I had forgotten in my crazed rush to get to the Con. It was there in the lobby that I ran into the other List Goddess (Spikus we missed you!) attending the Con (and a very lovely one she is indeed!) SandiJ who was walking with Zobrion (one of my very first friends on chat way back when from undernet #Lawless). I was thrilled to meet them at last. SandiJ had some trouble getting out of Denver too and I was very happy she had made it! I think this is when I ran into Barbarella too, finally got that hug from her!

The rest of the morning is rather blurry, I do remember checking my room and getting a message from Trilani, looking for her name tag. I met her in the lobby and walked her over to the Con. Then I went looking for Zepgirl who was outside standing in line, after rounding the furthest corner, having done enough walking already (and it was only noon) I finally just gave one of my authoritative amazon yells... "Is there anyone by the name of Zepgirl here?" and sure enough the yellow blouse and jeans attired blonde I had been told to look for came bounding out of the line (Ť block down the farthest side of the Con bldg) into my arms. Ah, to greet such dear Sisters so was really great! It was here that I first saw Lord Nelson and was so glad he had made it to the Con all the way from NY state.

So we got into the Con and they were directed to get the pix for autographing cause they were going fast, at least the Kevin Smith as Ares, that was most important for Zep, as Psam had nearly sold them out on her own;) I didn't want to miss a thing and so went to lay claim to my Golden Circle seat... B-16. Great seat, Hebea was at the center aisle, then CarlD, then a guy who come to find out was an old school chum of Kevin Sorbo's, then me:) Right behind me was Barbarella and Starseeker and JoBeth and well about 2,000 other people:) I decided to make the most of this possibly once in a life time experience, and hearing some of the questions being asked, decided to get up and ask every guest a question. (The only two I did not ask questions of were Lucy Lawless and Hudson Leick because I didn't want to take away precious time from their hard core fans.)

First up was the delightful and sweet, Robert Trebor "Salmoneus".
He was disalarmingly open and generous with the crowd, telling us about the pleasures of working on the shows, with the stars and a bit of his own acting history. He was more youthful than he appears on the shows and seemed genuinely happy to be there and be part of the whole experience. We were asked to join the queue at the side of the stage to voice our questions. At some point I hope to be able to remember all that was said but as for now I'll relate what I remember. I do remember Robert sharing about a scene from "Centaur Mentor Journey" when he and HerK are talking about their pasts and feelings, his best work and some of Kevin's too, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. It didn't move:( His favorite episode was "Fire Down Below", the hot tub was NOT hot, far from it and he had to wear gloves cause his hands kept turning to prune skin.. but he did finally get the girl in that one:) He was very animated and thrilled when Sal_Fan introduced himself at the microphone before asking a question. Robert announce that very shortly he would have his own fan club and that we could sign up for more information when we got his autograph. I asked and what he replied, albeit paraphrased galore:

AP: Have you ever done stand up comedy? Do you or are you writing scripts for the shows?
RT: I did stand up for a couple of years - 2, 3, 4. Do you remember Stiller and Meara? Nichols and May? It was like that. But you know it was tough, it was hard. These people don't want to hear the same jokes time after time and it's hard coming up with new material all the time. Writing scripts, screenplays? I have written up some ideas and they tell me that they are nice, good ideas, but they haven't used any of them (laugh). He said that he was available to work for anybody, and mentioned an upcoming episode of H:TLJ which deals with time travel to the French Revolutionary era. When asked about the Titus brothers and if he'd be in an episode with them again, he said he'd love to but hadn't seen a script yet. He also said he'd like to work with Cory Everson (Atalanta) again, well who wouldn't. He promised he'd be available to sign autographs later and off he went to thunderous applause.

Next came the trivia contest and they stumped the Queen with a trick question. I've blocked it completely from my memory ... something about a stuffed owl. Tyche, Ceallach and a few others got to the final rounds but I didn't know the final winner.

We then got a sneak preview of the upcoming "Direct to Video" release of "Hercules and Xena" the animated feature. Though animated film was not ready or available we saw some of the drawings and some video of Lucy Lawless singing. We asked if Kevin was going to be singing too. The Lady giving the presentation didn't know if Kevin could sing, but thought that singing didn't quite fit the character. We, the crowd, disagreed rather forcefully and shouted out such illuminating statements as "YES HE CAN", "HE CAN PLAY THE GUITAR TOO", "WE WANT KEVIN";) note: we were screaming;)

Next out were three talented magicians, Kevin Kutchaver, Kevin O'Neill and Doug Beswick of Flat Earth Prod. who presented video clips of their CGI contributions to the shows and gave an informative talk about how they go about it. The time was short but I found it interesting and loved seeing the Echidna model and another that I couldn't identify (maybe the Harpy from "Mortal Beloved"?).

Great fun came next with the Blooper reel. They were indeed Hilarious, some of which you have seen on the Blooper TV show. I would have loved to have seen more, I know they have oodles and have an absolute blast on the set. Over and over I have heard different people who work on or have visited the set speak of the fun atmosphere on H:TLJ, so you know they just have to have a ton of out takes. This is the tape that is part of the Creations H:TLJ fan club packet. One of the high lights of the blooper reel for many of us Sorbonnes was a nice shot of, well Sorbo's buns. In an out take from "Hercules In The Circle of Fire" when Kevin jumps out of bed chasing after Deianeira, grabbing the coverlet to cover his bare backside as he runs out the door... his hands didn't connect with the fabric and he gropes masterfully for the draping fabric as it flaps in the breeze (the fabric) presenting a full view of his gluteus maximus, much to the delight of many in the audience. I foresee this blooper tape will be the main selling point for the H:TLJ fan club.;)

Saroj Selvan
Apollena
Queen of the Amazons
Keeper of the Entertainments
ROTFWKS ..... really!!!
Forum Amazons Absentee Hug Receptacle and Beneficiary
HerKulean Hair Flipping Team - Founding Member - Captain
Keeper of the Mazola
Sorbonne Lace n'Leatherette
KSSS and so on and so forth....
Apollena, Keeper of the Entertainments

These pictures were taken by IRCmommy, Ceallach, MsMoo, Robinsnest and Apollena a far as I know.

Last Update: July 24, 2001
Web Author: Vel Selvan