The True Adventure of Once Hardcore Nutball Xenite at the Burbank Convention

Sunday:

The big day!!!! I couldn't believe it was finally here.  We got up nice and
early and I called Empower and invited her to have breakfast with Panther and
I in the hotel resturant, where we saw many other Xenites in their best
Xena-wear (t-shirts, leather, hats etc)  I wore jeans and My favorite t-shirt
which says "Xenite" in large letters and then "You got a problem with that?"
in small letters underneath.  During breakfast we all made ourselves fresh
nametags.  Mine said, "Ephany: Hardcore Nutball Xenite, Gabfan, ROCker and
proud supporter of the TTT (Technical Tattoo Team).  I also had my dog tag
which said "I have many skills"  After breakfast, we went back to the room,
grabbed our snacks for the day and headed out for a totally Xena day.

The line for people buying tickets was pretty long, but this time I was able
to walk right in to the convention space without waiting. I felt sorry for
all the people without tickets, since Xena day had been sold out since 1:00pm
the day before.

Once I got inside, I was REALLY glad that I had done all my shopping the day
before!  Poor Panther got in line to buy a Callisto picture for Hudson to
sign and they were already sold out.  It didn't take long for all things Xena
to sell out.  Posters, t-shirts, hats, mugs, trading cards, pictures- it all
went.  What I still don't understand is why Hercules still has better ratings
than Xena, when clearly, Xena was more popular and has more devoted nutball
fans.  (Note: Xena has since beat Herc in the ratings at least once that I
know of.) 

Not wanting to miss anything, I didn't dally around in the halls for long.  I
went in and found my reserved seat in the second row on the left side and
settled in just in time for the preview of the animated Herc/Xena feature.
 It was interesting to see the behind-the scenes pictures of Lucy singing for
the role.  So nice to hear her singing again!

Next was the true or false trivia challenge and both Panther and I managed to
weasel our way on to the stage.  We were given true/false cards and everyone
was supposed to answer at the same time.  The questions started out easy and
only one or two people were eliminated in the first two rounds.  Then came
the "trick" question which was: In The Greater Good, Xena says to Gabrielle,
"Sometimes you have to have patience with things that annoy you."  And all
but four people answered true, which was wrong because Xena says that to
Argo.  We were all goners.  But I was proud to see that Panther was still up
there.  It took quite a while to get a winner and I think it was a matter of
one person guessing the right answer to a question no one really knew the
answer to.  The lucky winner got $50 worth of Xena stuff (assuming there was
any Xena stuff left in the building!).

At 1:00 came a treat that I'd been looking forward to all weekend.  Liz
Friedman (producer extraordinaire) and Steven Sears (aka Tyldus- supervising
producer an Centaur extraordinaire) came out to answer questions about the
show.  I made sure to get an early place in line, cause I knew just what I
wanted to ask.

The first thing that crossed my mind when they came out on stage was that
Tyldus looked just like I thought he would look, and that Liz is a total
cutey.  And she has awesome responsibility of producing both Xena and
Hercules.  I could see why Lucy would crawl through broken glass to...well,
if you don't know by now, I'm not tellin' :)

First I asked Liz an innuendo question- whether she thought shooting in New
Zealand gave them more leeway to tantalize the L-mode viewers by walking the
line the way they do (dancing bachae girls, naked fishing, The Quest, ADITL,
need I go on?)  She said that it probably had more to do with being a
syndicated as opposed to a network show.  She also said that one thing she
likes is that once the show airs, the interpretation is completely up to the
viewer.  They make no claims as to the ultimate nature of X and G's
relationship.  When she was through talking I said, "Well, thanks for the
fishing scene anyway."  to which she replied, "My pleasure."

Then it was time to ask Tyldus the thing I'd been waiting weeks to ask... I
introduced myself by handle and he seemed to recognize me from my Xenaverse
postings, which I found flattering. First,  I softened him up by asking a
nice, safe ego-friendly question- whether he had any background in psychology
because there is always so much going on in the eps that he writes.  Turns
out he actually does have a psych minor (did I get that right, Tyldus?)  And
then I hit him with my real question: "Are you ever going to give Kate her
dixie cup?" (If you don't know by now....)

There were howls and hollers from those in-the-know in the audience and an
almost audible collective "huh?" from the clueless.  Tyldus flashed a big
grin and picked an object out of a bag.  He said, "you know, I have a Xena:
Warrior Princess hat for the 1st person to ask me that question." and he
brought over the hat.  He informed me that these were the staff hats, not to
be found in stores or catalogs.  It's black with stylish deep purple
lettering, but no logo like the hats being sold at the con.  He, very
noticably DID NOT actually answer the question about the cup.  (Kate, I
tried!) Although later he told me that he had talked to Sandra and begged for
her help securing the cup so that he might eventually get out of the doghouse
with our favorite sock of a Gabfan.    

There were some other good questions during the sessions.  A little girl
asked why all Gabrielle's boyfriends die.  Tyldus said something about the
ackwardness of having either main character have an ongoing relationship, and
it just seemed to work out that way.  He also said that Gab's boyfriends
would henceforth be identified with red shirts. :)  This question was one of
the three questions that could earn the questioner a Xena hat.  I found out
later that the little girl who asked it had forgotten her own question and
gotten that one from the woman behind her.  Needless to say the woman was a
little peeved about her 'lost' hat!  There was one other hat earning question
which I can't remember.

Another highlight was the woman who got up, and at the end of her turn,
informed Liz that Lucy wasn't the only one who'd crawl through broken glass
to... well, you know.  Although she didn't specify the rest of the quote, it
was clear that Liz knew what she meant and she looked as if she would like
the stage to open up and swallow her at that moment.  

It was nice having Liz and Tyldus on stage together because they each have
unique perspective based on their role in the show.  For instance, when
someone asked why Gabrielle doesn't have a horse, Liz gave the production
answer (horses are expensive) and Tyldus talked about the ways that the
character was able to develop due to not having a horse, such as exploring
why it is that Gab hates to ride.

All too soon, Tyldus and Liz left the stage.  I thought it would be a good
time to wander some more.  I ended up running into both Ty and Liz in the
hall.  Liz let me take a picture with her and I sensed that for her, being
the object of so much attention was a strange experience.  I also got to meet
her girlfriend, who's name I forget.  She was really nice and they looked
very cute together.  I talked to Tyldus for quite a while and found him to be
quite charming and funny.  He was a good sport when I asked when he was going
to have Mr. T be a guest star on Xena and blow up a chariot. :)  He signed my
program and took a picture with me and yes, he does show up on film! 

Also wandering the halls was Alan Glueckman, who wrote "The Black Wolf."  It
was nice talking to him also.  I've been to a few conventions, but never one
that was so large and yet had so many people involved with the show be so
accessable and friendly.  Truely the Xenastaff is in a class by themselves.

The next big event was a presentation about the Xena Scrolls.  I thought it
was going to be about the fictional scrolls described on the official MCA
Xena page so I stayed out and wandered some more.  I was talking with Sandra
again when I heard a roar from the auditorium.  Something told me I'd better
check it out so I hustled back inside.  The room was dark and there on a huge
screen was ROC, dressed in her best Indi Jones style and shooting the crap
out of some bad guys.  What followed was a 25 minute sneak preview of the
episode titled The Xena Scrolls.  Let me tell ya, there's nothing like
watching a rip roaring Xena ep with all the action you could want and 2000 or
so of your closest Xenite buddies.  What a rush!  And afterwards, I ran right
back out to Sandra at the fan table and asked if she had seen the preview.
 She said that she hadn't and that Renee doesn't give her spoilers either.
 So I told her what we'd just seen and what an amazing daughter she has
(which I'm sure she knew already!).

I skipped the computer fx presentation but went back for Robert Field's
editing presentation.  It was fascinating and allowed us to see just a little
of how hard everyone has to work to make just one scene come together.  Using
clips from Return of Callisto, he took us through the different angles of
shooting, and showed what the different stages look like from dallies to
finished product.  I love seeing the different interpretations during
different takes.  And no matter how much they fool around between takes,
everyone is all business when the cameras roll.  And they fool around a lot
from the blooper tape Avicus showed us.  Now we know what's really in between
those bite scenes! Great clips of flubbed lines, physical goofs and a fine
display of Lucy's wacky sense of humor.  My favorite scenes are LL and ROC in
full bachae make-up, singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas"  and Lucy on the
cross from Destiny, singing, "I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts."  Thanks
Avicus for the great footage!

At the conclusion of the editing presentation, Avicus, explained that some
viewers may be watching the show a little too closely.  One such viewer had
written to him about seeing a fork on the ground in a scene from The Greater
Good.  Of course he couldn't believe that such a mistake would make it past
every staff person to end up in the finished episode, so he did a little
research into the mystery of what has now come to be know as, "the furkin'
fork."  Using all the high tech equipment at his disposal, Avi determined
that the item in question was not in fact, an actual fork, but a piece of
fork-like foliage no doubt unique to the New Zealand landscape.  But for the
viewer who had brought the matter to his attention he made a huge replica of
this fork foliage and called it, the Furkin' Fork Award which he presented to
said viewer right then and there.

Next up was the unexpected surprise of the weekend.  20 minutes of Q & A with
Hudson Leick aka Callisto- everyone's favorite psycho bit-uh female.  I was
thrilled when I heard she was going to be there.  I've always liked Callisto
and welcomed the chance to see what the actress behind our favorite villain
was really like.

When Hudson came out on the stage, the crowd went nuts.  Hudson was clearly
unprepared for such a reception.  For a moment she looked totally shy, like
she was seriously thinking about running off the stage.  She said something
like "Wow, this is weird. It's just a job.  When you're working down there
you don't really think about...this."

After a few minutes she seemed to relax a little.  The questions started and
I was right up there near the head of the line.  I didn't care what my
question was, I just wanted to talk to her and also thank her for killing
Perdicus.  When it was my turn I asked her about switching roles with Lucy
and whether they got together to "tutor" each other on their respective
characters.  She said that she hated being Xena- it was too hard to take
someone elses established character and make it work.  "I mean LOOK at me,
I'm little- Lucy IS Xena."  She thought she'd done a horrible job but I told
her that I thought she did great.  Also, this woman just likes being bad.
 She said as much on several different occasions and you can just tell that
it suits her.  She said that it's like therapy and its great to do all those
nasty deeds and not get in trouble and  she also said that she certainly has
more than enough rage to play the part.

Somewhere in the midst of having those Callisto eyes completely focused on
me, I forgot to mention the thing about Perdicus.  But while I was kicking
myself, lots of other people went up with great questions and comments.  The
funniest part was watching these scared little kids go up, looking like they
were sure they were taking their young lives into their hands, getting so
close to "Callisto."  They must've really wanted to talk to her!  And Hudson
was great with the kids, saying, "it's ok, what did you want to ask? and
squatting down so as not to be so imposing.

One kid asked her if she'd ever been told that she looked like a goddess.
 She got "that look" in her eye and said, "Keep watching and maybe I'll be
one....  That sure perked us up.  

My favorite question was from Jadzia, who noted that there seemed to be a lot
of flirty behavior on Callisto's part toward Xena and wanted to know- "What's
up with that?"  

The reply: "I like it like that.  I think Callisto is obsessed with Xena IN
EVERY WAY. I swear she's got that look down to an art.  Just when you thought
you were talking to a nice young woman (maybe a little too thin) who "only
played a psycho on tv" she'd switch on us.  And we ate up every word, every
evil laugh.  Hudson was a hit.

She was even a good sport when some brave soul asked if she would "do the
scream."  It took her a minute or so to work up to it and then she just let
fly right into the mic with a bloodcurdling scream that had the entire
audience cringing.  

All to soon, her time was up.  I had to wonder why they only gave Hudson 20
minutes while Ted had 30.  Not that I have anything against Ted  And I can
handle Joxer a lot better than a lot of people, but It's clear who's the more
well loved character here.

Next came the charity auction.  I missed this part of the con during Herc day
but I heard that they raised a couple of thousand dollars.  The auction was
one of the many things about the con that proves that Xenites, are just a
little more devoted that the average fan.  Here's just a few of the items
that were sold:

Script from Hercules:  $60.00
Sript from Xena: "Sins of the Past":  $200.00
(2) Xena cardboard stand ups:  $500.00 each (Had to stop the bidding due to
time considerations so they gave one each to the two top bidders).

And finally the Chakram which sold for a whopping $8,500.00.  
After it sold, I went up and took some close up pictures and actually got to
touch it.  It felt smooth and heavy.  Indeed the Chakram is a powerful
weapon.  Just by being there it made $8,500 dollars for some kids who really
needed it.  I think Xena would approve.

On the program the heading for the next event was "Joxer the Brave.  And I
have to admit, it was pretty brave of Ted to come out there, knowing how many
Joxer bashers there are out there.  He did a little prat fall as he entered.
 I don't remember too much about his session but there were a lot of little
kids who wanted to know why he kept letting people beat him up.  Ted was a
good sport although he did joke about wanting to have chicken wire put around
the stage before he came out.  Someone asked him what it was like kissing
Lucy and he said nerve wracking cause her boyfriend aka the boss is standing
there the whole time.  Aside from the usual flirty innuendo (not that kind),
one thing that was a common thread with all the male Xena and Herc costars
was that they all talked about how great Lucy is to work with.

During the next two events, the costume contest and the Swordplay
demonstration, I took the opportunity to head for the bathroom.  I couldn't
sit still for long when it was getting so close to the time we'd all been
waiting for.  On my way into the bathroom I almost literally ran into Hudson
on her way out.  You know how when Xena was in Callisto's body, Joxer kept
jumping everytime she came up behind him?  That's what happend to me.  And
before I could recover she was off backstage again.  There were several
large, serious looking men keeping the curious out of the back hall.  I
wandered some more, trying to work off nervous energy.  I felt sorry for the
poor Swordplay guys, having to perform right before Lucy.  It was all the
audience could do to remain civil.  I could almost see the collectively
envisioned cane coming out to grab them off the stage... It seemed to be
taking forever.