Secaucus Con 07: Friday
So! To begin post one of what will probably be three: registration started at 1 -- except it turned out it actually started at 12:30 -- so I walked in at 12:45 and, tada! The con had already started. Which was pretty excellent, although at that point I don't know anyone, and so I mostly wandered around - probably looking terrified. Yes, fear the scary vendors and ticket ladies! Because I'm a dork. But I digress.
The auditorium wasn't all that large, but there were a lot of seats crammed in there, and the first row was about a foot and a half from the stage. I was in the third row, off towards the side -- not a bad seat at all. Not excellent for pictures (as I'm sure my photos will attest, when I post them) but great for just watching, so, no complaints.
The first hour or so was mostly registration and people milling around the vendors room, but after that the con kicked off. (Some images below, heads up.)
The stage:
Tony Amendola
The funny thing, I found, about Tony, is that some actors have a very different 'look' out of character (Michael Shanks and Alexis Cruz, for instance) and others...not so much. So Tony hopped up on stage, and even out of costume, it was like, Hey! Bra'tac! Unfortunately his talk was before I thought to start writing little notes to myself to remember what was said, so here's what I recall, probably VERY out of order:
He told us a very funny story about getting the part of Bra'tac, and at first being very excited -- "Oh, he's 133 years old!" -- and then realizing that he was probably going to near to wear a ton of prosthetics -- "Oh...he's 133 years old..." So he went up to the set, and got there on his first day, absolutely dreading going into makeup, and they put him in costume, and he tried to sneak away, but was caught and sent over to the makeup area. And so he went over, expecting some huge process, and the woman took one look at him, took his glasses off, and went, "Okay!" No one had explained to him the whole 'Jaffa lifespan' thing and he had a few moments of being quite flustered about not needing makeup to play someone that age.
He talked a lot about working with Chris Judge, and how much he enjoyed working with him -- and also how much he enjoyed that the show people would give him some leeway to work with their relationship. The bop on the head that Teal'c got in Threshold, for example, was something that Tony just felt like adding and [Martin Wood, I think] let him keep in. He also mentioned that he thinks people liked Bra'tac so much because Bra'tac "got to smack Jack around a bit" and that didn't happen much on the show, so people appreciated it. (Heh, I certainly remember liking it.)
Someone asked him about Carmen Argenziano and he had nothing but very nice things to say. Apparently they joke with each other and each taking parts from the other, and auditioning for similar things -- and that he really enjoys getting to work with him. Someone else asked about pranks on set, and Tony said that Chris tended to leave him alone, but was known to duct-tape people into chairs, and that the crew once closed Alexis Cruz in the sarcophagus and left him there. And a kid, who was asking everyone who they would shoot with a zat if they only had one shot, asked The Question. Tony: "*no hesitation* Jack." Heh.
--
Alexis Cruz
...had absolutely no recollection of the sarcophagus incident, for the record. Someone asked him about, and his face went hilariously blank as he tried to remember. He guessed that he might have fallen asleep in there. "That happens." He's also apparently has quite the sweet tooth - one of the volunteers popped up during his talk to give him a coffee and they had this exchange. Her: "Coffee. Sugars...how many?" Him: "Ummmm...lots!" She came down the aisle right near my seat a minute later and whispered to us that it had better be sweet enough, because she'd put twelve sugars in. So of course I watched him very closely when he went to take the first sip and -- no reaction whatsoever. He was drinking the coffee straight through, so I guess he was serious about that lots of sugar thing.
Anyway. He's a really, really interesting guy. He talked a lot about the experience of having been on Shark (which I've never seen an episode of, so I was a bit lost for most of this conversation) and getting killed off. Apparently it was a network decision to shift the focus of the show from intellectually oriented to action-driven, and because his character was "the least developed" and not really an 'action' character, they decided he had to go. He seemed to still be really unhappy about this, and talked a lot about having really enjoyed working on the show and with whoever it was that was starring in it. And then he joked about always getting killed on shows and finding it very traumatic.
Someone asked how he got into acting, and he went into growing up in the Bronx [or possibly Brooklyn, but I think he said the Bronx] and being "this skinny little Puerto Rican kid" who had to go way out of his way walking home from school to avoid trouble. So he got into acting fairly young, and it was really important to him that he make something out of himself and be able to get out of the neighborhood where he grew up -- and that he's glad that he can go back, now, and help to change the area and improve it. He said his parents were very supportive. Another question was about how much of his success did he attribute to natural talent. His answer: "point zero zero zero percent." He talked a lot about acting as a craft, and how important it is to study and build up the technical stills and foundations, and that anyone relying solely on talent is very probably going to not find themselves making it very far at all.
Stargate the movie came up, and he talked for a while about the Egyptologist that they'd brought in to consult with the writers and coach the actors on the language that was used. Apparently studying Ancient Egyptian as a spoken language had been this guy's life work, and he'd never managed to really get it right -- but when they brought him onto the movie, he found that the piece he was missing was actually the actors themselves -- or specifically, people whose job it was to communicate. And so the guy made a ton of headway on his own work, helping them with the Abydonian. Alexis said that was the first time he'd ever realized that acting as a profession can be used to really elevate the human condition, and that he's never forgotten it.
Another question was on the differences between Kurt Russel and James Spader verses RDA and Michael Shanks -- as actors themselves, not as Jack and Daniel. According to Alexis, Kurt and RDA are "exactly the same... alpha dogs," and into football and the whole leader-of-the-pack thing (which he very much isn't) but are both very, very nice guys and great to work with. James Spader and Michael Shanks "are like night and day," and that he "loves Michael to death, so that's all I'm going to say about that." Heh.
And the zat question...Alexis would zat "certain network executives." (I don't know what network Shark was on, but draw your own conclusions.)
--
There was a break in programing here, during which I put on my big girl pants and forced myself to stop being shy long enough to go track down
hsapiens -- who is awesome -- and meet
selmak,
janiekins, and
triciabyrne1978 -- all of whom are also awesome, although this was my first time meeting any of them on or offline, and so for a while all I knew was that they were very nice women who very nicely put up with what must have initially seemed like some random girl following
hsapiens around like a puppy. (PS, thanks guys!)
Then we all came back for
Tony & Alexis' Cabaret Performances
The cabaret was hilarious. Tony went first, and hopped up on stage to a podium, very serious looking, with a whole bunch of sheets of paper. He opened with one of Shakespeare' s sonnets, beautifully read -- and then followed up for the rest of his set with, I kid you not, what was basically dramatic readings of the equivalent of funny chain letter/spam emails. Lots of very funny jokes, including an obituary for the Pillsbury Doughboy. Hee! I was half expecting him to start talking about Annie-May Peabody throwing one of his jokes out and being bit by a car two hours later, but if we repeated his act to ten people in the next hour, our wish would come true or Bill Gates would donate five cents to cancer research, or something.
While Tony was performing, I heard giggling and a glass clinking -- I turned look and, oh! Paul McGillion, who was definitely feeling no pain by that point of the evening, was trying (very unsucesfully) to sneak his way backstage without being spotted. Very stealthy, dude. So he went back behind the curtain, and when Tony was done he jumped out to surprise everyone and introduced Alexis, and accused us all of being "cheeky little buggers."
So. Um. Alexis. His carbaret act was -- surprising.
So he jumped on stage with a three roses, and half a tuxedo, and started dancing around and throwing the roses into the crowd (to enthusiastic cheers, as I'm sure you can imagine.) Then, with the three in his hands were gone, he unzipped his pants and pulled out a fourth. Quite the intro. Then he went into a very funny, extremely racy monologue about being a "macho" busboy. I'd try to describe it but I think it's a bit...beyond articulation, so let me just say that I will never, in all seriousness, be able to look at Skaara again without giggling just a little bit.
When he was done, Paul ran back up on stage and practically tackled Alexis. "I knew he was funny, but I didn't know he was this funny." Then he gave Alexis a huge bear hug. Alexis: "*deadpan* Don't touch me." We also got a Beckett "I'm uncomfortable," in there somewhere. Fun guys. :)
After that a lot of the con-goers headed to a bar -- and, maybe an hour or so later, so did all three actors. Fun! They spent a very long time there, talking to fans (and in Tony Amendola's case, jumping spontaneously into a big group photo of some of the Gateworld people) and, yeah, drinking (PS, hide your glassware from Paul McGillion, who dropped at least three glasses over the course of the night.) Later, we found out that Jay Acovone had been chilling at the bar and watching all this happen for a while before anyone recognized him -- and even then, it was Alexis who spotted him first and practically ran him over with a hug. (Aww.)
I had an excellent time chatting with a bunch of people - hsapiens, triciabyrne1978 and her family, some Gateworld folks...really, a lot of truly excellent fellow fans with whom I'd be happy to go oder paint-stripping drinks with any time. :)
And that was Friday! Tomorrow I'll try to get at least Saturday (Paul McGillion and Jay Acovone), but hopefully also Sunday (Michael Shanks and Cliff Simon) up as well.
The auditorium wasn't all that large, but there were a lot of seats crammed in there, and the first row was about a foot and a half from the stage. I was in the third row, off towards the side -- not a bad seat at all. Not excellent for pictures (as I'm sure my photos will attest, when I post them) but great for just watching, so, no complaints.
The first hour or so was mostly registration and people milling around the vendors room, but after that the con kicked off. (Some images below, heads up.)
The stage:
Tony Amendola
The funny thing, I found, about Tony, is that some actors have a very different 'look' out of character (Michael Shanks and Alexis Cruz, for instance) and others...not so much. So Tony hopped up on stage, and even out of costume, it was like, Hey! Bra'tac! Unfortunately his talk was before I thought to start writing little notes to myself to remember what was said, so here's what I recall, probably VERY out of order:
He told us a very funny story about getting the part of Bra'tac, and at first being very excited -- "Oh, he's 133 years old!" -- and then realizing that he was probably going to near to wear a ton of prosthetics -- "Oh...he's 133 years old..." So he went up to the set, and got there on his first day, absolutely dreading going into makeup, and they put him in costume, and he tried to sneak away, but was caught and sent over to the makeup area. And so he went over, expecting some huge process, and the woman took one look at him, took his glasses off, and went, "Okay!" No one had explained to him the whole 'Jaffa lifespan' thing and he had a few moments of being quite flustered about not needing makeup to play someone that age.
He talked a lot about working with Chris Judge, and how much he enjoyed working with him -- and also how much he enjoyed that the show people would give him some leeway to work with their relationship. The bop on the head that Teal'c got in Threshold, for example, was something that Tony just felt like adding and [Martin Wood, I think] let him keep in. He also mentioned that he thinks people liked Bra'tac so much because Bra'tac "got to smack Jack around a bit" and that didn't happen much on the show, so people appreciated it. (Heh, I certainly remember liking it.)
Someone asked him about Carmen Argenziano and he had nothing but very nice things to say. Apparently they joke with each other and each taking parts from the other, and auditioning for similar things -- and that he really enjoys getting to work with him. Someone else asked about pranks on set, and Tony said that Chris tended to leave him alone, but was known to duct-tape people into chairs, and that the crew once closed Alexis Cruz in the sarcophagus and left him there. And a kid, who was asking everyone who they would shoot with a zat if they only had one shot, asked The Question. Tony: "*no hesitation* Jack." Heh.
--
Alexis Cruz
...had absolutely no recollection of the sarcophagus incident, for the record. Someone asked him about, and his face went hilariously blank as he tried to remember. He guessed that he might have fallen asleep in there. "That happens." He's also apparently has quite the sweet tooth - one of the volunteers popped up during his talk to give him a coffee and they had this exchange. Her: "Coffee. Sugars...how many?" Him: "Ummmm...lots!" She came down the aisle right near my seat a minute later and whispered to us that it had better be sweet enough, because she'd put twelve sugars in. So of course I watched him very closely when he went to take the first sip and -- no reaction whatsoever. He was drinking the coffee straight through, so I guess he was serious about that lots of sugar thing.
Anyway. He's a really, really interesting guy. He talked a lot about the experience of having been on Shark (which I've never seen an episode of, so I was a bit lost for most of this conversation) and getting killed off. Apparently it was a network decision to shift the focus of the show from intellectually oriented to action-driven, and because his character was "the least developed" and not really an 'action' character, they decided he had to go. He seemed to still be really unhappy about this, and talked a lot about having really enjoyed working on the show and with whoever it was that was starring in it. And then he joked about always getting killed on shows and finding it very traumatic.
Someone asked how he got into acting, and he went into growing up in the Bronx [or possibly Brooklyn, but I think he said the Bronx] and being "this skinny little Puerto Rican kid" who had to go way out of his way walking home from school to avoid trouble. So he got into acting fairly young, and it was really important to him that he make something out of himself and be able to get out of the neighborhood where he grew up -- and that he's glad that he can go back, now, and help to change the area and improve it. He said his parents were very supportive. Another question was about how much of his success did he attribute to natural talent. His answer: "point zero zero zero percent." He talked a lot about acting as a craft, and how important it is to study and build up the technical stills and foundations, and that anyone relying solely on talent is very probably going to not find themselves making it very far at all.
Stargate the movie came up, and he talked for a while about the Egyptologist that they'd brought in to consult with the writers and coach the actors on the language that was used. Apparently studying Ancient Egyptian as a spoken language had been this guy's life work, and he'd never managed to really get it right -- but when they brought him onto the movie, he found that the piece he was missing was actually the actors themselves -- or specifically, people whose job it was to communicate. And so the guy made a ton of headway on his own work, helping them with the Abydonian. Alexis said that was the first time he'd ever realized that acting as a profession can be used to really elevate the human condition, and that he's never forgotten it.
Another question was on the differences between Kurt Russel and James Spader verses RDA and Michael Shanks -- as actors themselves, not as Jack and Daniel. According to Alexis, Kurt and RDA are "exactly the same... alpha dogs," and into football and the whole leader-of-the-pack thing (which he very much isn't) but are both very, very nice guys and great to work with. James Spader and Michael Shanks "are like night and day," and that he "loves Michael to death, so that's all I'm going to say about that." Heh.
And the zat question...Alexis would zat "certain network executives." (I don't know what network Shark was on, but draw your own conclusions.)
--
There was a break in programing here, during which I put on my big girl pants and forced myself to stop being shy long enough to go track down
hsapiens -- who is awesome -- and meet
selmak,
janiekins, and
triciabyrne1978 -- all of whom are also awesome, although this was my first time meeting any of them on or offline, and so for a while all I knew was that they were very nice women who very nicely put up with what must have initially seemed like some random girl following
hsapiens around like a puppy. (PS, thanks guys!)
Then we all came back for
Tony & Alexis' Cabaret Performances
The cabaret was hilarious. Tony went first, and hopped up on stage to a podium, very serious looking, with a whole bunch of sheets of paper. He opened with one of Shakespeare' s sonnets, beautifully read -- and then followed up for the rest of his set with, I kid you not, what was basically dramatic readings of the equivalent of funny chain letter/spam emails. Lots of very funny jokes, including an obituary for the Pillsbury Doughboy. Hee! I was half expecting him to start talking about Annie-May Peabody throwing one of his jokes out and being bit by a car two hours later, but if we repeated his act to ten people in the next hour, our wish would come true or Bill Gates would donate five cents to cancer research, or something.
While Tony was performing, I heard giggling and a glass clinking -- I turned look and, oh! Paul McGillion, who was definitely feeling no pain by that point of the evening, was trying (very unsucesfully) to sneak his way backstage without being spotted. Very stealthy, dude. So he went back behind the curtain, and when Tony was done he jumped out to surprise everyone and introduced Alexis, and accused us all of being "cheeky little buggers."
So. Um. Alexis. His carbaret act was -- surprising.
So he jumped on stage with a three roses, and half a tuxedo, and started dancing around and throwing the roses into the crowd (to enthusiastic cheers, as I'm sure you can imagine.) Then, with the three in his hands were gone, he unzipped his pants and pulled out a fourth. Quite the intro. Then he went into a very funny, extremely racy monologue about being a "macho" busboy. I'd try to describe it but I think it's a bit...beyond articulation, so let me just say that I will never, in all seriousness, be able to look at Skaara again without giggling just a little bit.
When he was done, Paul ran back up on stage and practically tackled Alexis. "I knew he was funny, but I didn't know he was this funny." Then he gave Alexis a huge bear hug. Alexis: "*deadpan* Don't touch me." We also got a Beckett "I'm uncomfortable," in there somewhere. Fun guys. :)
After that a lot of the con-goers headed to a bar -- and, maybe an hour or so later, so did all three actors. Fun! They spent a very long time there, talking to fans (and in Tony Amendola's case, jumping spontaneously into a big group photo of some of the Gateworld people) and, yeah, drinking (PS, hide your glassware from Paul McGillion, who dropped at least three glasses over the course of the night.) Later, we found out that Jay Acovone had been chilling at the bar and watching all this happen for a while before anyone recognized him -- and even then, it was Alexis who spotted him first and practically ran him over with a hug. (Aww.)
I had an excellent time chatting with a bunch of people - hsapiens, triciabyrne1978 and her family, some Gateworld folks...really, a lot of truly excellent fellow fans with whom I'd be happy to go oder paint-stripping drinks with any time. :)
And that was Friday! Tomorrow I'll try to get at least Saturday (Paul McGillion and Jay Acovone), but hopefully also Sunday (Michael Shanks and Cliff Simon) up as well.