Cherry Hill, NJ 1999 Xena/Hercules Convention

Gabrianne's Tales of the Cherry Hill, NJ 1999 Xena/Hercules Convention

A Happy Xenite...

This was my first convention and I gotta tell ya, I had a blast! My mom, my dad, my brother and I went on Sunday only. There was a cosutme contest, an auction, and I got to see a real chakram up close. It was awesome! My mom even said, she couldn't remember the last time she laughed so much.

Maybe you saw me there. I had long brown hair with bangs (Gabrielle-style prior to "Between the Lines" :) and glasses. I was wearing a Xena shirt (yeah, like everyone else) -the one where she's holding her sword out in front of her with the chakram border- (yeah, like about three other people, one of which was a little girl, so that wasn't me). I was sitting in seat S-3.

So What Was So Great?

The guests at the convention were Bruce Campbell (Autolycus), Claire Stansfield (Alti), and Jacqueline Kim (Lao Ma). They were great, very sincere, and funny! The best part was being able to crawl up next to the stage and take pictures of the actors as they were answering audience member's questions, and the autographing session.

For the autographs, we waited in our seats for about 45 minutes until it was our turn to stand in line and then my brother and I stood in line for another half hour, but it was worth it!

New Items Aquired...

Let's see, what did I buy? What did I buy? Actually, most of the things I purchased at the convention were things I'd planned to buy if they had them. And surprise, surprise, they did have them! I bought 8x10 photos of Autolycus and Lao Ma for Bruce and Jacqueline to autograph (I had something of my own that I planned to have Claire sign). I also joined the Xena fan club (minus the $8 shipping fee for the fan club package, whee!) and I bought a t-shirt with Salmoneus, Joxer and Autolycus on it. I wanted to get a Gabrielle shirt, but the one that I liked was only left in size XXL. I also got a 8x10 photo of Joxer and Gabrielle. When I paid for the photo, the woman said, "Ah, a Joxer fan?" I nodded enthusiastically and she replied, "He's very sweet."

My brother got a different 8x10 photo of Lao Ma to get autographed and a Xena puzzle cube. My mom got an Ares t-shirt. She said my dad could wear it too and pretend that he was Ares. Hee hee.

I took pictures too! Hey, they're not the greatest, but they're mine. :) So wherever you see one, just click on it for a larger image.

On With The Show!

Since my family and I were only there one day, here are some of the highlights from Sunday, August 22, 1999:

* There were these two women that at every mention of the word "Ares" screamed little girlie screams at the top of their lungs. Yes, I know to those who were there it sounded like a small army, but there were only two of them (I should know, my family and I were sitting only two rows behind them :)

* An unscheduled Ares music video (to the song "Bad to the Bone") was played. Yup, those two women screamed. :)

CLAIRE STANSFIELD (Alti)

* Claire Stansfield was the first guest on Sunday. She was great, funny, and really down to earth.
* As time went on, I got more brave with the picture taking, but darn it, I wish I had gotten at least one decent photograph of Claire!
* Claire said that even though she's been going to these conventions for awhile, and that once she's on stage she's fine, the worst part is the wait right before she goes up on stage. She laughed as she explained, "I'm back there hyperventilating and Sharon (Delaney) is like, 'is she going to be okay?'." She said seeing that spooky Alti music video right before doesn't help much either.

* Claire was telling a story and she was explaining, "I was like oh fff-" she then paused and said something like, "But see, Creation has told me, 'Claire, you can't say that word' so I'm trying to behave myself." At this point, Sharon spoke up saying something about a little joke they had going. If someone wanted to use that word they can just say, "It's really 'Claired' up." Claire then raised an eyebrow at Sharon for a second and then said, "Thank you, Sharon." Everyone laughed.

* Claire mentioned how it seems whenever a cancellation occurs at a convention, they always seem to say, "I know! Let's send Alti in their place!"

* I think someone asked Claire who she would like to do a convention with. She started by saying how much she enjoyed the Minneapolis convention with Danielle Cormack (Ephiny) in July. She went on to explain how "those kiwis love to drink" and started talking about Danielle and Kevin Smith (Ares) (both Native New Zealanders, if you didn't know) at which part those two Ares fanatics started screaming again. Honestly, I'm afraid of how those two girls would have behaved if Kevin Smith had actually been a guest. :) Anyway, Claire mentioned something about the time she first met Kevin Smith (at the May Xena/Herc convention in Orlando, Florida that Ted Raimi cancelled on in which Claire was sent instead) and how he had asked her out for drinks. "So I go to his motel room and knock on the door and Kevin opens it and says... 'Hi'." Claire mimicked how she must have stared at what was to her this absolute hunk of a man and she said, "And then Danielle waves from inside the room, 'Oh hi, Claire, come on in!'" Claire paused as the audience laughed before she said, "Well a girl can dream, can't she?"

* Claire said that she'd like to do another convention with Kevin Smith, but if not, "I'll just be in the audience with the rest of you screaming, 'Kevin, sign these!'" at which point she placed her hands on her chest! The audience roared.

XENA/HERCULES COLLECTIBLES AUCTION

* During the Xena/Herc collectibles auction, I heard some people in the audience laughing and looked over to see what was obviously Bruce Campbell walking quickly to the "backstage area" with nothing more than a piece of paper held up to his face.

* The auctioneer was calling out, "Okay, I have fifty. Anyone care to go any higher?" Suddenly Bruce jumps onstage and yells, "Fifty-five dollars!!" which flustered the auctioneer enough that he almost forgot the current amount. Bruce did it a second time too, much to the audience's delight and much to the dismay of the auctioneer. :)

BRUCE CAMPBELL (Autolycus)

* Bruce Campbell was introduced with, "Well, I guess you already know he's here..."
* One of the first things Bruce said when he came out on stage after the Autolycus music video was, "I don't know, there was certainly a lot of Salmoneus in that video."
* Someone asked Bruce if he'd do more flips (like he did for the audience on Saturday). He just pointed to the stage and said, "There's a flip for ya."
* Bruce seemed a bit disconcerted at the prices some Xena collectables go for at auctions. He cited hearing that a Xena sword went for something like, $31,000 at a recent convention. "Are you people crazy?", Bruce shouted. "YES!" the audience screamed back, the only "natural" response. :) "Okay, I was just checking," Bruce hastilly replied.

* Speaking of "crazy", my family must have been seated near some of the craziest people there. :) There was this guy sitting right in front of us who was constantly scratching his head and talking to himself. He also had this laugh that could raise the dead and even Bruce took notice. When Bruce shouted out, "Who's dumb laugh is that??" everyone, even those two Ares fans, pointed to this guy, to which Bruce added, "See, now when you hear it, you'll know, that's the guy."

* When someone asked Bruce about his new book, "Confessions of a B-Movie Actor", Bruce sounded offended, "Are you calling me a B-movie actor?? Is that what you're saying?? Well, you're right. That is the name of my new book."

* Some little kid asked what it felt like being a star to which Bruce replied, "I dunno, I'll tell ya when I get there." Bruce went on to say that he's only really widely recognized when he appears at conventions, "Actually, I live a pretty normal life, except for these occasional... strange... weekends."

* Someone else basically asked if Bruce's cocky attitude helped him land many decent acting roles. Bruce sort of raised his eybrows and said, "Look where I am today!" The audience laughed. Bruce grinned and added, "I think that pretty much answers your question."

* A woman asked which Bruce liked better, his mustache and goatee or the clean shaven look to which she added she liked the latter better. Bruce's reply was, "When it's real, I like the mustashe better, but when it's fake, it just feels like a caterpiller crawled up on my lip."

* Someone asked Bruce something about who was the most annoying person he had ever met. He then looked out over the audience and said, "Hmmm..." Everyone laughed.

* At this point, Bruce didn't see any hands raised so he read some email that he had printed out to illustrate some of the most annoying people he had met. He mentioned that he was publishing some of these emails in his book, "So you better think carefully before you write to me!" Bruce then laughed and said, "I find it funny how the audience always gets really quiet after I tell them that."
* Later someone asked Bruce what his email address was. He replied with, "BC -as in my initals- ACT -as in what I do- @aol.com. And I know what you're thinking, 'Why AOL?' Because it's free."
* Bruce also took time to read the "mother of all emails" which he said would be included in his book, from "the guy who's like a son to you, Billy". I think he said the subject of the email was "So Sorry About Your Career". This was the meanest fan letter I had ever heard, but the way Bruce presented it, it was hilarious.

COSTUME CONTEST

* In the kiddie competition Autolycus won (I'll bet his mother's glad all her hard work on that costume paid off :). The grownup competiton winners were Callisto and Cupid! It was a tie! All had terific costumes!

TOP TEN FAVORITE MOMENTS FROM XENA

* Creation had some major problems with the AV projector during the Top Ten Favorite Moments From Xena. The audience was a bit upset, but at least nobody got really mean about it. Well, I mean, come on, at least it wasn't anything we all hadn't seen before. :) When they had to stop during the "Bitter Suite" scene to fix the failing picture, some people in the audience stared whistling "Joxer the Mighty". That envoked some laugher.

* We were assured that would be the last convention for that particular AV projector.

JACQUELINE KIM (Lao Ma)

* Jacqueline Kim was next and final guest. She was very sweet. It was a shame that folks couldn't think of too many questions to ask her. A lot of what was asked was the same question, only phrased a little differently.

* Jacqueline pointed out her boyfriend in the audience as "that little greek man standing over there". Some people must have chuckled because a few moments later, Jacqueline came out with, "Oh I get it! Xena! Greek!" It was cute.
* Even though she didn't know his name, Jacqueline did stick up for Joxer. :) She was asked if she would like to play any other character in the show other than Lao Ma. Jacqueline confessed that she is somewhat clumsy and that it would be fun if she could play a character that was kind of goofy. She said that while filming Lucy told her not to worry because she is also clumsy. Jacqueline explained that oriental characters are so often portrayed as intellegent that she'd like to play someone who was perhaps "slow or dim". Then someone in the audience snickered, "Joxer." People started to laugh and Jacqueline said, "Who? Joxen? Oh, you mean that delightfully funny character who's always falling down." Jacqueline said playing "the fool" would be fun. People began to laugh and she then explained that in theater the fool is often one of the wisest and most insightful characters and that they see what the rest of the cast does not. People seemed to have trouble swallowing that Joxer is actually intelligent.

* Someone asked if Lao Ma really intended for Xena to kill Ming Tien by giving her the hair pin. Jacqueline explained that giving the hair pin to Xena was symbollic of passing on the knowlege of everything Lao Ma had taught her. What Xena did with that knowledge was up to her.

* Jacqueline got to talking about accents. She said that the little boy who played young Ming Tien "had this adorable kiwi accent and he wanted to talk so bad".

* Jacqueline said how a few hours after getting off the plane in New Zealand, there was a scheduled read-through of the script for "The Debt". The other Asian actors were using accents during the read-through. They asked when Jaqueline was going to start doing her accent. Jaqueline explained that when she was offered the part of Lao Ma, nobody told her that she was supposed to have an accent, but the other actors were told "Oh, she'll start tomorrow." Jacqueline told us that she had no problem with accents, but if she was going to have to do one, she wanted to do it right. She wants to be able to study the time period and location that a certain accent was used. She doesn't want it to come off stereotypical. So she just told the producers that she didn't do accents. "They weren't too happy with me for that, at first."

* Jacqueline said she has a strong theatre background and that one of her first loves is singing. The audience started clapping loudly and suddenly it occured to her why. "Oh no, Chinese singing!" she explained.
* A little kid asked Jacqueline if she ever regretted playing Lao Ma. After a brief pause, Jacqueline shook her head and gave a very sincere and sweet, "No."
* Jacqueline said that one of the first roles she ever had was Anita in "West Side Story".
* Jacqueline didn't seem too intimidated by the crowd, but by the end of the evening during autograph time, she looked exhausted.

AUTOGRAPHS

* It was nice to see that Creation tried to at least make sure that the general admission folks remained seated until the Gold and Preferred seating people were in line. It really didn't make that much difference for me. My family was in Row S 3-6 and the Preferred Seating ended with "T". :)

* Interesting how one line for autographs suddenly became two lines and then three lines. After getting autographs from Bruce Campbell, I didn't know *where* I was supposed to stand.

* When I was about ten people away from Bruce, I saw him make a big show of shading his eyes and looking down the line to see how many more people there were (this was about an hour into autographing).
* When I was two people away from Bruce, he suddenly stood up on his chair and shouted to the lines for Claire and Jacqueline, "C'mon hurry up those lines! Look how short my line is compared to yours!"

* I had Bruce sign my 8X10 photo of Autolycus and I showed him my Okkra: Warrior Princess pics (almost done so far are Gabrianne, Aphrodottie, Wakkxer, and Bootolycus). He just sort of smiled and said, "hmmm". When he asked if I wanted him to sign my sketch of Bootolycus, I was like, "Oh! Sure!" I also gave him my Gabrianne's Warrior Princess Lair page address. When I'm completely done my drawing of Bootolycus, I'm planning on emailing it to him. After all, what I showed Bruce was just a quick sketch that I drew up the night before the convention. The finished Bootolycus will be cooler.

* My pride and joy photo from the batch! I also got a picture taken sitting next to Bruce thanks to one of these two guys (that could be characterized as enthusiasts of every-movie-Bruce-Campbell-has-ever-been-in) who were behind me in line and kind enough to snap the photo.

* Since volume 4 of the Xena Soundtrack CD has music from episodes that Lao Ma and Alti were in, I wanted Jacqueline and Claire to sign it. I was told that Jacqueline would only sign one autograph per person so I had her sign my 8X10 Lao Ma photo instead.

* So I just asked Claire sign the CD and she did, right beside the picture of Xena from "Adventures in the Sin Trade". Then she drew a little picture and wrote "Alti" beside it. When she first started drawing, I was like, "What are you..." then I realized and said, "Oh, you're drawing Alti!" We both laughed. That was cute. :)

During dinner after the convention and on the three hour car ride home that night, I was shaking with excitement over the day's events. My family and I talked about it for days afterwards. We all had such a great time. When I first began writing (what you've just read) of all that happened that day, I started to get excited about it all over again! I hope I can make it to another con in the near future. Until then, battle on!!

Gabrianne

LAST UPDATED: Monday, February 14, 2000.
Check back often. I am constantly remembering new things to add!!