My Chance of a Lifetime
It’s been several days since I returned from my great QAF adventure in Cologne and it’s still hard to absorb it all and believe that it really happened. It’s the greatest experience I have ever had in my 12 years in the fandom and if I never have another it will be okay.
At the end of the closing ceremony, I was emotionally drained. Most of the fans and many of the cast were in tears. I love these people and they loved us. They were truly overwhelmed by the outpouring of love after all these years.
I’ll try to relate what I saw and heard and I may jump around a bit as thoughts come to me. I know there are tons of videos and pictures out there but you'll want to order the DVD which should be wonderful as they seemed to be recording everything, the opening, the whole cast Q&A, the panels with two cast members at a time, the Meet and Greets and the closing.
I’ll begin with Friday afternoon, June 8, the Press Conference at Babylon Badehaus which I guess means bathhouse.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket to this which was the first official cast event. They sat around on one side of the pool and we were on the other side with the cameras. They all looked wonderful and seemed to be in great spirits. Hal had just arrived in Cologne with his girlfriend Summer, a very lovely young woman who I chatted with the following day during the autograph session.
Most of the intro by the MC was in German and all I really understood was “homosexual”. The lady Mayor of Cologne was also seated with the cast and spoke before the Q&A began. Fortunately, that was in English and translated in German. This was a long session and we were allowed to take pictures. Hal was really glad to see Harris and gave him a big hug when he was introduced. When it was over, the cast posed for lots of pictures together and then some of them were doing individual interviews around the pool.
Gina, who is Thea’s assistant, brought her over to take pictures with a group of us. I had brought pictures I had taken over the years with the cast to be signed at the autograph session. The only one that I didn’t have a picture with was Thea because I used a throwaway camera when she came to Pittsburgh several years ago for the premiere of Mulligans at our gay and lesbian film festival and the whole roll with her and Charlie David and Dan Payne was destroyed when I took it to be developed. I saw an opportunity to get a picture with her again and when she turned around and saw me, she immediately recognized me and her face lit up and she said, “Oh, Hi!” I was thrilled since I hadn’t seen her since 2008. As the cast was leaving, Robert saw me and recognized me and then Michelle did too because I had seen them in Pittsburgh when they and Sharon came to campaign for Hillary Clinton.
Because the press conference lasted a couple of hours, we were late to check in and get our badges which involved standing in a long line for several hours. During this time, my new German friends, santa_elidan and jule2009 got my photo with Thea developed so I could get it signed in the autograph session the next day and bought me the M magazine with the interviews with Randy, Peter and Robert and a gin and tonic to keep me from passing out in the heat. After about two hours, someone came back and told us that the Loft ticket holders could go to the head of the line but it was still another 45 minutes or so to get our badges. This was a tiring ordeal due to some computer glitches but a necessary evil to accommodate 450 attendees.
Friday night was the party at the Vanity Pub. First, all Loft and Diner ticket holders were put in a separate area with a small bar and then later, just before the cast arrived, the Loft ticket holders were allowed into another area where the cast would be. Sharon told us later that when she arrived, she stopped outside for a cigarette so when she entered the club, she was overwhelmed by the flashes of the cameras and the roar of the crowd. She said she had never had a welcome like that and it brought her to tears.
I talked for a few minutes with Robert, Hal, Scott, Peter, and Thea but missed seeing Michelle. She’s so small that she must have been engulfed by the crowd. I did hear that she and Thea did a few steps on the dance floor but I missed it. Harris, who is now a 27 year old man, remembered me from when he attended the Toronto Con in 2006. I must have one of those faces that look familiar. I talked to Sharon and commented on the fact that Burn Notice was just beginning a new season back home and I was worried that she would have to cancel. She confirmed that she thought she would be unable to attend until she got the script of the episode currently filming and she was not in it so she called and asked if she could still come! She said if she had been filming she could be sued if she didn’t show up. I did not approach Randy as I have seen him so many times and there were so many who had never met him and, of course, he was in demand. I left the Loft area and gave my black armband to a friend who wanted to talk with Harris and I partied with my new friends in the Diner section. Randy and Harris were the last to leave when they ushered us out at 11 p.m. so the regulars could get in. And he says he’s not a club boy!
On Saturday, June 9 after a very short night, we gathered in the huge auditorium for the opening ceremony in which each cast member was announced and came on stage to sit at 4 tables. There was a Q&A with all the cast which was hosted by a couple of local celebs and a drag queen. I was in the first row at this and all the panels because of my Loft ticket. After about 45 minutes to an hour, the cast came down off the stage to sit at long tables to sign autographs and everyone lined up. There were lovely glossies of all the cast to be signed if you did not have something with you. I got my photos with them signed and Robert commented on how young he was when he attended the Toronto Con in 2004. Peter recognized his rhinestone studded sunglasses which I got at the set sale and wore in the picture so he drew a square around them and wrote “nice glasses”. Thea was surprised that I had gotten our photo developed and wrote “Amazing to see you again, Dixie. Love Forever, Thea." Harris remembered the photo we took together in Toronto, Sharon said she still had the orange raincoat she wore in the photo. Michelle wrote “Rise Woman”. Hal wrote, “To Dixie, You’re a barrel of fun!” Scott drew a little heart above our heads and his usual “Peace” comment. When I got to Randy and he saw me for the first time, I said, “I’ll bet you’re surprised to see me here” to which he responded, “No, I’m not” and he signed “Happy to see you here, Dixie”. As this session went on for a long time, Thea’s assistant Gina called me over to chat for awhile. She’s a lot of fun and loves working for Thea. Then Hal’s girlfriend Summer joined us.
The autograph sessions broke for lunch and then it was time for the panels of Q&A with two of the cast at a time. Since I had individual pictures with the cast, I decided to only get one with the whole cast and one with Gale and Randy which could be Randy and whoever I chose but those were not taken until the following day so I was able to see all the panels while so many had to miss some to stand in line for pictures. Scott and Peter were together, Thea and Michelle, Hal, Robert and Harris and then Sharon and Randy. You could see how much they all meant to each other and how much fun they have together. It was great having Sharon with Randy as she put him at ease and had fun with him. There was also a panel on Homophobia with Robert, Michelle and Peter and a transgendered man and another woman who I think had something to do with a Lesbian organization. It was very interesting and Michelle is so passionate about rights of equality for everyone.
That evening was the Pub Babylon party at Gallery. Once again the Loft ticket holders were put in a separate area away from the dance floor which turned out to be a small bar area with very few seats. I looked around and decided I didn’t want to be there since I had already had my time with the cast and my friends were all out in the dance floor area so I left the Loft area. I guess the cast went there first when they came in but later in the evening after listening to the same beat of what seemed like the same song over and over, they finally started playing QAF music and that’s when the fun began. First, Scott, Peter and Harris were up on the catwalk and Peter started to dance and then Robert was dancing in a cage in one corner of the dance floor where the costumed dancers had been performing. After a few minutes Robert and Michelle went into a small caged off area on the catwalk and started dirty dancing and bumping and grinding to Dive in the Pool, Some Lovin’, Break for Love and Proud. This went on for a long time. They were really into it and soon Robert raised his shirt and then Michelle raised hers and after Michelle left the cage Peter joined Robert and then they brought Scott in and I really felt like I was in Babylon. Robert danced until I thought he would drop. What energy he has and he seemed to be having a blast. Had I stayed in the Loft area, I think I would have missed this but I was able to get onto the crowded dance floor and see it all. I don’t think we left the club until about 2:30 a.m. It was quite a night!
On Sunday, June 10, the day started with finishing up the photo shoots which were now done onstage so you could sit in the audience and watch. I couldn’t decide whether to get a photo with Randy and the guys or Randy and the girls so when Randy, Sharon, Scott and Peter were onstage I opted to get one with them. For the all cast photos, they had a chair in the middle with the some of the cast seated beside you and others standing behind. When I walked out, they all greeted me warmly and I was so pleased.
After the photos, we had the Meet and Greets which I had thought would be just a handshake, introduction and brief hello but these were small groups in a room with the cast and more Q&A’s which were delightful. I had one with each of the groups and you would go from one to the other by a list they had compiled so while you were with one group, others were meeting and greeting other cast members. Since I can’t really remember what I heard in the panels or Meet and Greets, I will just make some comments I heard at some point during the weekend.
Thea and Michelle were both very soft spoken and passionate about their feelings on equality. Michelle felt that the girls would probably return to Pittsburgh at some point but I think Thea thought they would remain in Canada. I think that is correct.
In Sharon and Randy’s Meet and Greet, everyone seemed in awe and didn’t seem to know what to ask so the conversation got to be about Randy’s and Sharon’s other plays and projects. Randy was asked how he learned his lines for plays and he said that he usually didn’t actually memorize them until he was in rehearsals and doing the blocking of the play. He was asked about his Waiting for Godot monologue and he said that sometimes he just said anything if he forgot as it was mostly gibberish and then he gave us a sample of the beginning of the monologue but said he couldn’t remember the lines from Red which he had just performed. Sharon said that she would do a reunion show if the script was good and if it took place in real time several years later. She said she hated the reunion movies for Cagney and Lacey as they had “Cagney married of all things” and Lacey was no longer a cop. She also talked about being almost naked and masturbating to phone sex in the opening scene of A Round Heeled Woman. She said I am a 69 year old woman in a 69 year old body so it wasn't easy.
In Hal, Robert and Bobby’s Meet and Greet, Hal talked about going back to Toronto a few years ago and walking on the street where so much filming was done and really getting a very strange feeling. He also talked about how emotional he got in a scene in season 3 and ended up sitting in a corner sobbing. He did acupuncture for 3 months after season 3 and again after seasons 4 and 5. He said he thought Michael probably had a stunted growth so he patterned Michael’s way of holding his fork when eating after a friend of his father’s who ate that way and felt that Michael was probably bullied in school and affected Michael’s way of walking.
Robert was so proud seeing how Harris grew up that he felt like he was a little responsible for it. Both he and Hal seemed to feel that Harris was like a son to them. Harris was very gracious throughout and everyone made him feel welcome even though he was a last minute substitute.
Scott and Peter talked about how they became fast friends immediately and how hard it was
as friends to play the drug scenes and that they had hand signals to indicate to each other whether they were okay to talk or wanted to be alone.
After the Meet and Greets, it was time for the city walk and lunch. Since I was supposed to go with Gale and Randy, I went with Sharon and Randy. We walked with a guide to a restaurant where we sat at two long tables and then Sharon and Randy came in and sat with their assigned handlers at a table a few steps up from our tables. Before the meal was served Randy came and sat at our table and Sharon went to the other table. He chatted with us and asked us if anyone was going anywhere else and he told us that he had been gone from home two weeks that day and had been in Paris and was going to go to Berlin from here to meet up with a friend. Apparently, Scott, Robert and Michelle were also going to Berlin with him. Then about halfway through the meal, they switched and Sharon came and sat with us.
This was when she first told us that Gale had been one of the first ones to sign the contract almost a year ago and planned and very much wanted to attend until this work opportunity, which she thought was a good one, came up. She said that five of them had made arrangements to come to Cologne early to support him when he was to play in an exhibition soccer game on Thursday. When she had thought that they would both be unable to attend, she said they considered having a live feed with both her and Gale to speak to us but then it turned out to be too expensive, her words.
We sat there and talked for so long that they asked if we wanted to continue there for another 15 minutes or go to the cathedral and since Randy wanted to see the cathedral, that’s what we did. The city walks all concluded at a place where they were having a flash mob for a social campaign down by the river. Scott was eating ice cream and I told him that I had tried to get tickets to his play, The Elephant Man, next month in Williamstown, MA but they were sold out. He said they must have heard he was in it and the Bradley Cooper fans would be disappointed. He said some of his relatives wanted him to get them tickets.
After the lunch, it was back to the auditorium for still more photos because of the sheer number of people who had paid for them and trying to accommodate everyone. Finally it was time for all the cast to return to the stage for the closing. They allowed one last question for each of the cast. Michelle was asked how she managed to pick Thea up and whirl her around when she proposed and Michelle got up, took off her jacket, got down on the floor and did some push-ups and then attempted to pick up Thea but only got hold of one leg so when she spun her around, she dropped her. They all laughed. Randy’s question was a guy who kept calling him Justin and then finally asked what I thought was “Do you like the gay men in Cologne?” but others said he asked, “Do you like blond men?” or “Do you like tall men?” I don’t know which it was but Randy’s answer was “Yes” so that was a waste of his final question. Then each cast member had a chance to say what they would take away from the Convention. All were quite eloquent and seemed genuinely pleased to have come and experienced the love that is still out there for the show and the cast after all these years.
This was Sharon’s opportunity to mention the elephant in the room and she gave her very heartfelt speech about how proud she was to represent Gale Harold and that she got to play with Randy by subbing for Gale. She said “Please know anyone who is in doubt how badly he wanted to be here. We all feel him here. Gale Harold was major in this cast and this story. I think we all miss him and feel him here and I hope I can take home and tell him how much he is loved and missed” which brought everyone to their feet with thundering applause. “I’ll tell him you said that.” Scott took a picture of the audience which he texted to Gale.
When everyone had their final say, the whole cast came to the front of the stage to hold hands and stand and bow to the cheering crowd. Cheers and tears all around. It was such an emotional and perfect end to a perfectly wonderful convention. I think the cast was overwhelmed by the love and support after so many years and I think they enjoyed it as much as we all did.
Some tidbits I remember, not sure when they were said:
When Peter and Scott first came onstage together, they did the curtain routine that they did in the showers when they were looking for Zach O’Toole…peeking out 3 times. So funny.
Hal was asked to sing so he sang a few bars beginning with “Since you’ve been gone”. He has a rocker's voice.
Robert:
When he came out on the cover of a gay magazine, his mother said and I quote, “Why don’t you just shoot us through the heart with a rifle first”. It broke my heart.
Peter:
Said Cowlip didn’t want everyone to have a happy ending and he thought Emmett got the shaft. When asked if the thought he ended up with Drew, he said, “in my dreams at night” and then took the mike and imitated giving it a blowjob. He thinks that Drew came back and told him it was you all along.
Sharon:
When asked about the scene when Ted and Emmett tried to teach her how to give a blowjob, she said that the only time her husband ever came to the set was during that scene. She hoped he would say she didn’t need lessons but he didn’t.
I’m sure I will think of more things that were said or that happened but this is it for now. It was a dream come true in so many ways and more than I ever expected or hoped it would be.
I cannot end this without saying how much I enjoyed meeting so many fans and getting to know several very special ones. santa_elidan, jule2009, pet0511, Natalia “Natty”, arrowthroughme and Nicki, Natasha and Sam from Switzerland, Margorata from Poland, the two Tanyas from Russia and of course my travel mates,
predec2 and galeandrandy and my roomie bigj52. They made the trip so much fun for me. Thank you all.
At the end of the closing ceremony, I was emotionally drained. Most of the fans and many of the cast were in tears. I love these people and they loved us. They were truly overwhelmed by the outpouring of love after all these years.
I’ll try to relate what I saw and heard and I may jump around a bit as thoughts come to me. I know there are tons of videos and pictures out there but you'll want to order the DVD which should be wonderful as they seemed to be recording everything, the opening, the whole cast Q&A, the panels with two cast members at a time, the Meet and Greets and the closing.
I’ll begin with Friday afternoon, June 8, the Press Conference at Babylon Badehaus which I guess means bathhouse.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket to this which was the first official cast event. They sat around on one side of the pool and we were on the other side with the cameras. They all looked wonderful and seemed to be in great spirits. Hal had just arrived in Cologne with his girlfriend Summer, a very lovely young woman who I chatted with the following day during the autograph session.
Most of the intro by the MC was in German and all I really understood was “homosexual”. The lady Mayor of Cologne was also seated with the cast and spoke before the Q&A began. Fortunately, that was in English and translated in German. This was a long session and we were allowed to take pictures. Hal was really glad to see Harris and gave him a big hug when he was introduced. When it was over, the cast posed for lots of pictures together and then some of them were doing individual interviews around the pool.
Gina, who is Thea’s assistant, brought her over to take pictures with a group of us. I had brought pictures I had taken over the years with the cast to be signed at the autograph session. The only one that I didn’t have a picture with was Thea because I used a throwaway camera when she came to Pittsburgh several years ago for the premiere of Mulligans at our gay and lesbian film festival and the whole roll with her and Charlie David and Dan Payne was destroyed when I took it to be developed. I saw an opportunity to get a picture with her again and when she turned around and saw me, she immediately recognized me and her face lit up and she said, “Oh, Hi!” I was thrilled since I hadn’t seen her since 2008. As the cast was leaving, Robert saw me and recognized me and then Michelle did too because I had seen them in Pittsburgh when they and Sharon came to campaign for Hillary Clinton.
Because the press conference lasted a couple of hours, we were late to check in and get our badges which involved standing in a long line for several hours. During this time, my new German friends, santa_elidan and jule2009 got my photo with Thea developed so I could get it signed in the autograph session the next day and bought me the M magazine with the interviews with Randy, Peter and Robert and a gin and tonic to keep me from passing out in the heat. After about two hours, someone came back and told us that the Loft ticket holders could go to the head of the line but it was still another 45 minutes or so to get our badges. This was a tiring ordeal due to some computer glitches but a necessary evil to accommodate 450 attendees.
Friday night was the party at the Vanity Pub. First, all Loft and Diner ticket holders were put in a separate area with a small bar and then later, just before the cast arrived, the Loft ticket holders were allowed into another area where the cast would be. Sharon told us later that when she arrived, she stopped outside for a cigarette so when she entered the club, she was overwhelmed by the flashes of the cameras and the roar of the crowd. She said she had never had a welcome like that and it brought her to tears.
I talked for a few minutes with Robert, Hal, Scott, Peter, and Thea but missed seeing Michelle. She’s so small that she must have been engulfed by the crowd. I did hear that she and Thea did a few steps on the dance floor but I missed it. Harris, who is now a 27 year old man, remembered me from when he attended the Toronto Con in 2006. I must have one of those faces that look familiar. I talked to Sharon and commented on the fact that Burn Notice was just beginning a new season back home and I was worried that she would have to cancel. She confirmed that she thought she would be unable to attend until she got the script of the episode currently filming and she was not in it so she called and asked if she could still come! She said if she had been filming she could be sued if she didn’t show up. I did not approach Randy as I have seen him so many times and there were so many who had never met him and, of course, he was in demand. I left the Loft area and gave my black armband to a friend who wanted to talk with Harris and I partied with my new friends in the Diner section. Randy and Harris were the last to leave when they ushered us out at 11 p.m. so the regulars could get in. And he says he’s not a club boy!
On Saturday, June 9 after a very short night, we gathered in the huge auditorium for the opening ceremony in which each cast member was announced and came on stage to sit at 4 tables. There was a Q&A with all the cast which was hosted by a couple of local celebs and a drag queen. I was in the first row at this and all the panels because of my Loft ticket. After about 45 minutes to an hour, the cast came down off the stage to sit at long tables to sign autographs and everyone lined up. There were lovely glossies of all the cast to be signed if you did not have something with you. I got my photos with them signed and Robert commented on how young he was when he attended the Toronto Con in 2004. Peter recognized his rhinestone studded sunglasses which I got at the set sale and wore in the picture so he drew a square around them and wrote “nice glasses”. Thea was surprised that I had gotten our photo developed and wrote “Amazing to see you again, Dixie. Love Forever, Thea." Harris remembered the photo we took together in Toronto, Sharon said she still had the orange raincoat she wore in the photo. Michelle wrote “Rise Woman”. Hal wrote, “To Dixie, You’re a barrel of fun!” Scott drew a little heart above our heads and his usual “Peace” comment. When I got to Randy and he saw me for the first time, I said, “I’ll bet you’re surprised to see me here” to which he responded, “No, I’m not” and he signed “Happy to see you here, Dixie”. As this session went on for a long time, Thea’s assistant Gina called me over to chat for awhile. She’s a lot of fun and loves working for Thea. Then Hal’s girlfriend Summer joined us.
The autograph sessions broke for lunch and then it was time for the panels of Q&A with two of the cast at a time. Since I had individual pictures with the cast, I decided to only get one with the whole cast and one with Gale and Randy which could be Randy and whoever I chose but those were not taken until the following day so I was able to see all the panels while so many had to miss some to stand in line for pictures. Scott and Peter were together, Thea and Michelle, Hal, Robert and Harris and then Sharon and Randy. You could see how much they all meant to each other and how much fun they have together. It was great having Sharon with Randy as she put him at ease and had fun with him. There was also a panel on Homophobia with Robert, Michelle and Peter and a transgendered man and another woman who I think had something to do with a Lesbian organization. It was very interesting and Michelle is so passionate about rights of equality for everyone.
That evening was the Pub Babylon party at Gallery. Once again the Loft ticket holders were put in a separate area away from the dance floor which turned out to be a small bar area with very few seats. I looked around and decided I didn’t want to be there since I had already had my time with the cast and my friends were all out in the dance floor area so I left the Loft area. I guess the cast went there first when they came in but later in the evening after listening to the same beat of what seemed like the same song over and over, they finally started playing QAF music and that’s when the fun began. First, Scott, Peter and Harris were up on the catwalk and Peter started to dance and then Robert was dancing in a cage in one corner of the dance floor where the costumed dancers had been performing. After a few minutes Robert and Michelle went into a small caged off area on the catwalk and started dirty dancing and bumping and grinding to Dive in the Pool, Some Lovin’, Break for Love and Proud. This went on for a long time. They were really into it and soon Robert raised his shirt and then Michelle raised hers and after Michelle left the cage Peter joined Robert and then they brought Scott in and I really felt like I was in Babylon. Robert danced until I thought he would drop. What energy he has and he seemed to be having a blast. Had I stayed in the Loft area, I think I would have missed this but I was able to get onto the crowded dance floor and see it all. I don’t think we left the club until about 2:30 a.m. It was quite a night!
On Sunday, June 10, the day started with finishing up the photo shoots which were now done onstage so you could sit in the audience and watch. I couldn’t decide whether to get a photo with Randy and the guys or Randy and the girls so when Randy, Sharon, Scott and Peter were onstage I opted to get one with them. For the all cast photos, they had a chair in the middle with the some of the cast seated beside you and others standing behind. When I walked out, they all greeted me warmly and I was so pleased.
After the photos, we had the Meet and Greets which I had thought would be just a handshake, introduction and brief hello but these were small groups in a room with the cast and more Q&A’s which were delightful. I had one with each of the groups and you would go from one to the other by a list they had compiled so while you were with one group, others were meeting and greeting other cast members. Since I can’t really remember what I heard in the panels or Meet and Greets, I will just make some comments I heard at some point during the weekend.
Thea and Michelle were both very soft spoken and passionate about their feelings on equality. Michelle felt that the girls would probably return to Pittsburgh at some point but I think Thea thought they would remain in Canada. I think that is correct.
In Sharon and Randy’s Meet and Greet, everyone seemed in awe and didn’t seem to know what to ask so the conversation got to be about Randy’s and Sharon’s other plays and projects. Randy was asked how he learned his lines for plays and he said that he usually didn’t actually memorize them until he was in rehearsals and doing the blocking of the play. He was asked about his Waiting for Godot monologue and he said that sometimes he just said anything if he forgot as it was mostly gibberish and then he gave us a sample of the beginning of the monologue but said he couldn’t remember the lines from Red which he had just performed. Sharon said that she would do a reunion show if the script was good and if it took place in real time several years later. She said she hated the reunion movies for Cagney and Lacey as they had “Cagney married of all things” and Lacey was no longer a cop. She also talked about being almost naked and masturbating to phone sex in the opening scene of A Round Heeled Woman. She said I am a 69 year old woman in a 69 year old body so it wasn't easy.
In Hal, Robert and Bobby’s Meet and Greet, Hal talked about going back to Toronto a few years ago and walking on the street where so much filming was done and really getting a very strange feeling. He also talked about how emotional he got in a scene in season 3 and ended up sitting in a corner sobbing. He did acupuncture for 3 months after season 3 and again after seasons 4 and 5. He said he thought Michael probably had a stunted growth so he patterned Michael’s way of holding his fork when eating after a friend of his father’s who ate that way and felt that Michael was probably bullied in school and affected Michael’s way of walking.
Robert was so proud seeing how Harris grew up that he felt like he was a little responsible for it. Both he and Hal seemed to feel that Harris was like a son to them. Harris was very gracious throughout and everyone made him feel welcome even though he was a last minute substitute.
Scott and Peter talked about how they became fast friends immediately and how hard it was
as friends to play the drug scenes and that they had hand signals to indicate to each other whether they were okay to talk or wanted to be alone.
After the Meet and Greets, it was time for the city walk and lunch. Since I was supposed to go with Gale and Randy, I went with Sharon and Randy. We walked with a guide to a restaurant where we sat at two long tables and then Sharon and Randy came in and sat with their assigned handlers at a table a few steps up from our tables. Before the meal was served Randy came and sat at our table and Sharon went to the other table. He chatted with us and asked us if anyone was going anywhere else and he told us that he had been gone from home two weeks that day and had been in Paris and was going to go to Berlin from here to meet up with a friend. Apparently, Scott, Robert and Michelle were also going to Berlin with him. Then about halfway through the meal, they switched and Sharon came and sat with us.
This was when she first told us that Gale had been one of the first ones to sign the contract almost a year ago and planned and very much wanted to attend until this work opportunity, which she thought was a good one, came up. She said that five of them had made arrangements to come to Cologne early to support him when he was to play in an exhibition soccer game on Thursday. When she had thought that they would both be unable to attend, she said they considered having a live feed with both her and Gale to speak to us but then it turned out to be too expensive, her words.
We sat there and talked for so long that they asked if we wanted to continue there for another 15 minutes or go to the cathedral and since Randy wanted to see the cathedral, that’s what we did. The city walks all concluded at a place where they were having a flash mob for a social campaign down by the river. Scott was eating ice cream and I told him that I had tried to get tickets to his play, The Elephant Man, next month in Williamstown, MA but they were sold out. He said they must have heard he was in it and the Bradley Cooper fans would be disappointed. He said some of his relatives wanted him to get them tickets.
After the lunch, it was back to the auditorium for still more photos because of the sheer number of people who had paid for them and trying to accommodate everyone. Finally it was time for all the cast to return to the stage for the closing. They allowed one last question for each of the cast. Michelle was asked how she managed to pick Thea up and whirl her around when she proposed and Michelle got up, took off her jacket, got down on the floor and did some push-ups and then attempted to pick up Thea but only got hold of one leg so when she spun her around, she dropped her. They all laughed. Randy’s question was a guy who kept calling him Justin and then finally asked what I thought was “Do you like the gay men in Cologne?” but others said he asked, “Do you like blond men?” or “Do you like tall men?” I don’t know which it was but Randy’s answer was “Yes” so that was a waste of his final question. Then each cast member had a chance to say what they would take away from the Convention. All were quite eloquent and seemed genuinely pleased to have come and experienced the love that is still out there for the show and the cast after all these years.
This was Sharon’s opportunity to mention the elephant in the room and she gave her very heartfelt speech about how proud she was to represent Gale Harold and that she got to play with Randy by subbing for Gale. She said “Please know anyone who is in doubt how badly he wanted to be here. We all feel him here. Gale Harold was major in this cast and this story. I think we all miss him and feel him here and I hope I can take home and tell him how much he is loved and missed” which brought everyone to their feet with thundering applause. “I’ll tell him you said that.” Scott took a picture of the audience which he texted to Gale.
When everyone had their final say, the whole cast came to the front of the stage to hold hands and stand and bow to the cheering crowd. Cheers and tears all around. It was such an emotional and perfect end to a perfectly wonderful convention. I think the cast was overwhelmed by the love and support after so many years and I think they enjoyed it as much as we all did.
Some tidbits I remember, not sure when they were said:
When Peter and Scott first came onstage together, they did the curtain routine that they did in the showers when they were looking for Zach O’Toole…peeking out 3 times. So funny.
Hal was asked to sing so he sang a few bars beginning with “Since you’ve been gone”. He has a rocker's voice.
Robert:
When he came out on the cover of a gay magazine, his mother said and I quote, “Why don’t you just shoot us through the heart with a rifle first”. It broke my heart.
Peter:
Said Cowlip didn’t want everyone to have a happy ending and he thought Emmett got the shaft. When asked if the thought he ended up with Drew, he said, “in my dreams at night” and then took the mike and imitated giving it a blowjob. He thinks that Drew came back and told him it was you all along.
Sharon:
When asked about the scene when Ted and Emmett tried to teach her how to give a blowjob, she said that the only time her husband ever came to the set was during that scene. She hoped he would say she didn’t need lessons but he didn’t.
I’m sure I will think of more things that were said or that happened but this is it for now. It was a dream come true in so many ways and more than I ever expected or hoped it would be.
I cannot end this without saying how much I enjoyed meeting so many fans and getting to know several very special ones. santa_elidan, jule2009, pet0511, Natalia “Natty”, arrowthroughme and Nicki, Natasha and Sam from Switzerland, Margorata from Poland, the two Tanyas from Russia and of course my travel mates,
predec2 and galeandrandy and my roomie bigj52. They made the trip so much fun for me. Thank you all.