Leverage Con-1 Highlights
Just got back from Con-1, the first UK Leverage convention! I'm putting the highlights here, mostly for my own memories, but some of you other con-goers might enjoy reading it - especially as there were several guests who would be of interest to SPN and Kane fans.
All of the main cast except Tim Hutton were there, with Mark Sheppard as a late surprise special guest (replacing Amy Acker, who cancelled). There was music by Bryan Nutter, Life of Riley, and Kane.
Riley Smith needs to find a new spray-on-tan salon, Jesus Christ, he was completely orange. He's a little overly conscious of his own good looks, and thick as a box of rocks, but he was good-natured and won self-knowledge points with me by relating a story of a girl who met him when he was drunk, and told him, "Well, you're pretty... but boy, you're stupid!"
I think both Beth Riesgraf and Gina Bellman were con virgins, they did their best but they haven't really got the hang of it (deer-in-headlights faces, got thrown by really fairly standard questions, didn't have a couple of anecdotes ready for the start of the session while the fans get up the courage to ask questions, etc). The session Beth did with Aldis was way better, they have incredible rapport and found lots to talk about, sparking off each other. They were utterly charming together! Someone asked what Parker and Hardison's special song would be, and Aldis started singing "Ebony & Ivory", ha!
Beth told a story about how she persuaded Jonathan Frakes to start a Twitter, but forgot to tell him to untick the box for email notifications of new followers, and he got over 7,000 emails overnight. She also played a prank on Tim Hutton where she snuck into his apartment building early one morning in black joggers and hoody and tacked saran wrap all across his front door to freak him out when he left for work. He was duly freaked, and on checking the security cameras, mistook the figure all in black for Aldis, and blamed him for the prank.
Aldis brought his momma to the convention with him again, which I find completely adorable. He told the story of how J2 took him out for his 20th birthday when he was filming SPN, and got him roaring drunk (it being legal in Canada). Also, regarding the Eliot/Hardison hug at the end of the Grave Job, "that's what you call top-notch bromance!"
Steve Carlson apparently keeps getting randomly mistaken for Christian Kane by people, and encouraged us all to start calling Chris "Steve", just to bend his brain.
Gina has a voice coach, Mary Macdonald, to help her with the various accents she has to put on. Christian fell out with Mary big-time because the first time they met, she offered to help him get rid of his southern accent. (Is she insane? It's luscious!)
There was this awesome kid - geeky little fanboy, a small 12 maybe? - who kept getting up to ask really interesting and thoughtful questions. The entire convention fell in love with him because he was so into the show and came up with the best questions every session, all about characters' backstories, unexplained canon points and implied off-camera scenes. Personally, I'm praying he grows up gay, because with the way the kid's brain works? He would write incredible fanfiction (and I'm hopelessly biassed in favour of slash, so).
I was very deliriously happy about Mark Sheppard being there, as he was awesome at Asylum 5 - and in fact, he was far and away the best and most entertaining guest there. In sessions, he's alternately snarky and hilarious, or thoughtful and intelligent, and then when it comes to autographs and photos, he's pleasant and approachable. You can have a laugh and a banter with him, he's a con veteran and completely comfortable with fan interactions. His session with writer Chris Downey was full of good, meaty discussion about acting, writing, character development and the TV industry. Somebody asked if Leverage was going to have more love scenes next season, given the burgeoning relationships within the team over recent eps, and Mark suggested that "Eliot and Sterling" would be a possible future storyline, which got a slashy fangirl squeal outta me. And as for his session with Aldis... well.
The entire convention up to this point had been polite and pleasant and, frankly, incredibly vanilla compared with Asylum, and I... was enjoying it, sure, but my God, it needed cranking up a gear. So I picked a quiet moment in Mark and Aldis' session, and reminded Aldis of the stuff he gets up to at Asylum, busting dance moves, doing push-ups and showing his abs, and asked what he was going to do for us to outdo that. That definitely got the reaction I wanted from the audience - hoots and whistles. Aldis laughed his arse off, complained loudly about being objectified, and refused to oblige me.
Somebody said something I missed about Mark in high heels; Aldis said heels make Mark's calves look great, upon which a woman took off her heel boots and brought them to the stage for him to try on. He didn't, but joked about a future Leverage ep with Sterling cross-dressing. Mark: "This panel is taking on a distinct tone!"
Aldis was asked what his least favourite word is - it was "moist".
Mark: *filthy voice, rolling the vowels around in his mouth* "Moist."
Mark said that if Aldis were in Doctor Who, he could be his companion. "No, wait - he could play my husband! (pause) The fanfiction from this is going to be amazing."
Somebody pokes Aldis again about dancing for us. He demonstrates Cat Daddy and The Jerk, both of which involve a great deal of entirely filthy crotch movement. Good grief, that boy is limber!
Mark, in pretend disgust: "Roll your tongues back in, you lot!"
Yes, my darlings - I took a nice, vanilla panel and, with one well-chosen spoke in the wheel, derailed it into objectification, cross-dressing, gay relationships, crotch thrusting and FANFICTION. I'm taking full credit, and you better believe I'm proud of myself. *high-fives everyone*
When I got my autograph from Chris Kane, I begged him to say my name because I wanted to know what it sounded like in a southern accent. For the record? SEXY AND HOT. My knees wobbled, I fucking swear. People should drawl my name at me like that forever.
Also on a convention note, I'm bouncing and squealing in glee at the news that Jared has confirmed for Asylum 8. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! (obstinatrix has been waging a one-woman campaign to turn me into a Jared!girl, partially successfully, so she now has 5 months to finish the job...)
All of the main cast except Tim Hutton were there, with Mark Sheppard as a late surprise special guest (replacing Amy Acker, who cancelled). There was music by Bryan Nutter, Life of Riley, and Kane.
Riley Smith needs to find a new spray-on-tan salon, Jesus Christ, he was completely orange. He's a little overly conscious of his own good looks, and thick as a box of rocks, but he was good-natured and won self-knowledge points with me by relating a story of a girl who met him when he was drunk, and told him, "Well, you're pretty... but boy, you're stupid!"
I think both Beth Riesgraf and Gina Bellman were con virgins, they did their best but they haven't really got the hang of it (deer-in-headlights faces, got thrown by really fairly standard questions, didn't have a couple of anecdotes ready for the start of the session while the fans get up the courage to ask questions, etc). The session Beth did with Aldis was way better, they have incredible rapport and found lots to talk about, sparking off each other. They were utterly charming together! Someone asked what Parker and Hardison's special song would be, and Aldis started singing "Ebony & Ivory", ha!
Beth told a story about how she persuaded Jonathan Frakes to start a Twitter, but forgot to tell him to untick the box for email notifications of new followers, and he got over 7,000 emails overnight. She also played a prank on Tim Hutton where she snuck into his apartment building early one morning in black joggers and hoody and tacked saran wrap all across his front door to freak him out when he left for work. He was duly freaked, and on checking the security cameras, mistook the figure all in black for Aldis, and blamed him for the prank.
Aldis brought his momma to the convention with him again, which I find completely adorable. He told the story of how J2 took him out for his 20th birthday when he was filming SPN, and got him roaring drunk (it being legal in Canada). Also, regarding the Eliot/Hardison hug at the end of the Grave Job, "that's what you call top-notch bromance!"
Steve Carlson apparently keeps getting randomly mistaken for Christian Kane by people, and encouraged us all to start calling Chris "Steve", just to bend his brain.
Gina has a voice coach, Mary Macdonald, to help her with the various accents she has to put on. Christian fell out with Mary big-time because the first time they met, she offered to help him get rid of his southern accent. (Is she insane? It's luscious!)
There was this awesome kid - geeky little fanboy, a small 12 maybe? - who kept getting up to ask really interesting and thoughtful questions. The entire convention fell in love with him because he was so into the show and came up with the best questions every session, all about characters' backstories, unexplained canon points and implied off-camera scenes. Personally, I'm praying he grows up gay, because with the way the kid's brain works? He would write incredible fanfiction (and I'm hopelessly biassed in favour of slash, so).
I was very deliriously happy about Mark Sheppard being there, as he was awesome at Asylum 5 - and in fact, he was far and away the best and most entertaining guest there. In sessions, he's alternately snarky and hilarious, or thoughtful and intelligent, and then when it comes to autographs and photos, he's pleasant and approachable. You can have a laugh and a banter with him, he's a con veteran and completely comfortable with fan interactions. His session with writer Chris Downey was full of good, meaty discussion about acting, writing, character development and the TV industry. Somebody asked if Leverage was going to have more love scenes next season, given the burgeoning relationships within the team over recent eps, and Mark suggested that "Eliot and Sterling" would be a possible future storyline, which got a slashy fangirl squeal outta me. And as for his session with Aldis... well.
The entire convention up to this point had been polite and pleasant and, frankly, incredibly vanilla compared with Asylum, and I... was enjoying it, sure, but my God, it needed cranking up a gear. So I picked a quiet moment in Mark and Aldis' session, and reminded Aldis of the stuff he gets up to at Asylum, busting dance moves, doing push-ups and showing his abs, and asked what he was going to do for us to outdo that. That definitely got the reaction I wanted from the audience - hoots and whistles. Aldis laughed his arse off, complained loudly about being objectified, and refused to oblige me.
Somebody said something I missed about Mark in high heels; Aldis said heels make Mark's calves look great, upon which a woman took off her heel boots and brought them to the stage for him to try on. He didn't, but joked about a future Leverage ep with Sterling cross-dressing. Mark: "This panel is taking on a distinct tone!"
Aldis was asked what his least favourite word is - it was "moist".
Mark: *filthy voice, rolling the vowels around in his mouth* "Moist."
Mark said that if Aldis were in Doctor Who, he could be his companion. "No, wait - he could play my husband! (pause) The fanfiction from this is going to be amazing."
Somebody pokes Aldis again about dancing for us. He demonstrates Cat Daddy and The Jerk, both of which involve a great deal of entirely filthy crotch movement. Good grief, that boy is limber!
Mark, in pretend disgust: "Roll your tongues back in, you lot!"
Yes, my darlings - I took a nice, vanilla panel and, with one well-chosen spoke in the wheel, derailed it into objectification, cross-dressing, gay relationships, crotch thrusting and FANFICTION. I'm taking full credit, and you better believe I'm proud of myself. *high-fives everyone*
When I got my autograph from Chris Kane, I begged him to say my name because I wanted to know what it sounded like in a southern accent. For the record? SEXY AND HOT. My knees wobbled, I fucking swear. People should drawl my name at me like that forever.
Also on a convention note, I'm bouncing and squealing in glee at the news that Jared has confirmed for Asylum 8. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! (obstinatrix has been waging a one-woman campaign to turn me into a Jared!girl, partially successfully, so she now has 5 months to finish the job...)