"Buffy Fanmeet" Review

Guests met and discussed in this review :-

• Eliza Dushku

• James Marsters

• Nicholas Brendon

Two quick notes before we get started...

1) If this is your first time on "Shangel's Reviews", I'm currently reviewing every single episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" in depth. A list of all the reviews I've written so far can be located here.

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?

For some reason the end of the year ushers in a plethora of conventions in the United Kingdom. This means that for the last quarter of a calendar year, I’m usually pretty broke...but incredibly happy and fulfilled. Since the end of September, I’ve been lucky enough to attend and write reviews for “Vampire Ball 5”, “LFCCW”, “Hallowhedon 6”, “Wales Comic Con 2014 Part II”, and now, finally, “Buffy Fanmeet”. For those of you that have never read one of my convention reviews, I like to write. A lot. These reviews are very detailed and usually pretty darn long. The reason for this is simple. When people read the review, I like the people that attended the event to relive it and the people that weren’t able to attend to feel like they did. I know that a lot of people don’t have the financial means to attend events such as these, but I don’t want them to miss out on the experience, trivia facts, and memorable moments. The “Buffy Fanmeet” was special for a multitude of reasons. One of these is that it was my first time attending a convention outside of the United Kingdom. There was one reason and one reason only why I decided to attend this event...Eliza Dushku. Don’t get me wrong, I love James and Nicky just as much, but James and Nicky frequently attend conventions in the U.K., so I don’t have to travel to Germany to meet them. Eliza is a much rarer convention guest. Off the top of my head, I can only recall one event she’s done in the U.K. and it was a Starfury convention called “Inva2ion” (That’s ‘Invasion 2’). Sadly, I was unable to attend that particular convention so off to Germany I went on the 13^th-14^th of December to meet two of my childhood heroes for the first time, and to see James Marsters again for the first time since the green room of “Vampire Ball 5”. KLZ Events is made up of a group of friendly, energetic, enthusiastic people, most of whom are located in Spain. KLZ is unique in that they run events throughout Europe. If they were to do a 2^nd Buffy Fanmeet, I doubt it would be in Frankfurt like this one, it would probably be in another country, which is kinda cool. They’re taking the events to as many fans as possible. Now, because this was my first international convention, there were obviously a lot of difference in the formatting and schedule than I’m used to. I will explore these throughout the review as well. Like “Hallowhedon 6”, “Buffy Fanmeet” was a smaller, more intimate convention. I would estimate that around 180 people attended this event. I’m perfectly happy with a convention this size because it often gives you a longer time with the guests because there are less people to get through.

Originally, the registration of “Buffy Fanmeet” was supposed to open on the Friday evening, so myself and my friend Winston scheduled our plane journey for the Friday morning. However, a couple of weeks before the event this was changed to first thing on Saturday morning. The result of this was that I had a two-hour train journey from Gloucester to Heathrow Terminal 5, then ten hours of waiting time, a two-hour flight to Frankfurt, followed by another twenty hours of time to kill before registration opened. While this might seem like a nightmare, I was actually pretty happy with it. Having three jobs and a degree means that my time to relax is extremely limited. Having a couple of days to do virtually nothing was bliss. It is incredibly rare for a convention to have three bonafide headlining cast members of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and/or “Angel”. It almost never happens...especially in the past few years as the shows have been off the air for a decade now. My favourite character from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” seems to change about once a year and has done so since 1998 (the year I started watching the show), but the three characters that have held that position the most are Spike, Faith, and Xander. Therefore, the line-up for this event was a dream come true for me. The three actors that play my three favourite characters on my favourite ever shows all in the same building at the same time? How can you resist that, even if it does involve a lot of travel and money?! The pass that myself and Winston went for was a “Vampire Pass” at €230. This included one autograph with all three guests, plus one free photo with a guest of your choosing. Of course, I chose Eliza. I also went on to buy another Eliza autograph, another Eliza photo, a photo with Nicky, and a photo with Eliza and James together. Expensive, yes, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I will admit, I was worried that Eliza was going to pull out and all of this excitement would have been in vain. Thankfully, Eliza and her mother (Mama Judy!) landed in Frankfurt a few days before the event was scheduled to start, so by the time I left my house on Thursday, I knew we were a go!

The convention itself was taking place in Le Meridien hotel in Frankfurt. The prices of that hotel were, well, extortionate, so myself and my gorgeous girlfriend Robyn decided to stay in the same hotel as my friends Rebecca, Jeremy, Enza, and Claritsa, the Carlton hotel. It was just a five-minute walk away from Le Meridien, but the rooms were about 40% of the price. Winston met me at Heathrow airport at 10pm on Thursday night and we proceeded to get excited about the event until 5am, which is when we were able to go through security and chill in the lounge area until our gate was displayed. While waiting for our gate, Winston fell asleep. When we boarded the airplane, Winston fell asleep. He’s not used to these sleepless nights like my insomniac self, bless him. The hilarious thing about this is that Winston snores...like a freight train. I don’t know what made more noise, the airplane engine or Winston’s nostrils. I had headphones so I was all good, but I took satisfaction in watching some of the other passengers tut and the cabin crew grin. After landing in Frankfurt and saying goodbye to Winston (who was staying at someone’s house through ‘Airbnb’), I decided to get some much needed sleep before the festivities started. I was two days without any sleep by this point, which is even difficult for an insomniac to take. Just as I was drifting into la-la-land, Robyn arrived. It was impossible to sleep at this point because I was too excited to see Robyn. We hadn’t seen each other in about a month, so picture a puppy that’s about to be taken for a walk...all that was missing was me pissing myself. I caught up with Robyn and later in the evening we met up with some of our Buffyverse friends, Rebecca, Jeremy, Enza, Melly, Claritsa, and Winston. We talked about conventions and the weekend ahead, so by the time Saturday morning rolled around, I was more than psyched to get the party started.

Registration opened at 7:30am on Saturday morning and remained open until 9:30am. Ordinarily after registering I like to familiarise myself with the schedule. It’s good to have a plan at conventions and have everything organised in your head. To know where you should be at all times and make sure that you get to everything swiftly. In the case of KLZ, this wasn’t an issue as they released the schedule online three weeks before the event. Take a look...

 

Notice a problem?

Too many of the weekend activities were happening at the same time, in my opinion. If you pay for a convention, you would expect to be able to do everything, right? For example, in my case, I had a photoshoot with Eliza on Saturday morning that clashed with some of James’ talk. I had a photoshoot with Nicky that clashed with some of Eliza’s talk. I had a photoshoot with James that clashed with some of Nicky’s talk...you get the idea. While taking the photo doesn’t take long as you’re called in batches of 50, it still would have been nice to see the entirety of panels, especially as I paid to do so. That’s why I love Starfury’s schedules so much. Starfury have all the photos in the morning, then all the panels, then the autographs in the later afternoon. If you want to do everything, you can. You don’t have to pick and choose. My other big complaint was that the panels were all Q&A’s...all weekend. Something different once per day would have broken up the four or five hours of talking nicely. An episode commentary would have been nice, but I imagine there might have been a little language barrier as a few of the attendees didn’t speak English. Perhaps a game show or James bringing over “Ghost Of The Robot” would have sufficed. That is where my criticisms of the event started and ended, with the schedule. Outside of that the weekend was damn near perfect. One of the wonderful perks of a KLZ event is that they allow you to video-record parts of the panels. For that reason, you’ll find this review, for the first time ever, filled with videos. From James singing a section of “Rest In Peace” to Nicky doing the ‘Snoopy Dance’. From Eliza’s most embarrassing moment on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” to James’ thoughts on the attempted rape scene in “Seeing Red”. They’re all here. So please take the time to check them out. If you wish to use the videos (which are subject to copyright through my friends Melly and Enza, by the way), please ask. So long as you link back to the blog and keep the text in the bottom of the videos, I’ll almost definitely say yes, but please do ask.

To kick off the event, James, Eliza, and Nicky were welcomed to the stage for a brief introduction. I’ll never forget seeing them all together on stage for the first time, my three favourite “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” characters. It was magical. Suddenly, a wave of images crept across my brain. Watching “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” for the first time as an eight-year-old (“Killed By Death”), cheering for Faith and The Mayor to survive graduation and go live in a cottage by the sea somewhere, watching the evolution of Xander’s character, watching Spike burn in “Chosen”, talking to James in the green room of “Vampire Ball”...it’s one of those moments that will stick with me forever. The opening ceremony is a short, precise, simple thing. They say “hi”, say a few words, and the festivities start. It’s really that simple. Much like at “Vampire Ball”, James took charge of the stage. He always knows just what to say and he always gives off the aura of being the guest. Of being the main attraction and the headliner. The thing that most of you might not know is that James is every bit as much the leader behind the scenes as he is on the stage. At “Vampire Ball”, it was James getting the other guests psyched for the event, enforcing the point that they were there to make sure everyone went home happy, and getting everyone pumped up. Out of every cast member I’ve met, James is the biggest fan of the show. He understands how much it means to us to meet them. He understands the power of the show and the connection the fans have with it. For many people, these events are legitimately once in a lifetime, so James knows that everyone is desperate to go home feeling effulgent (diehard fans will get that reference). During the opening ceremony, James mentioned that when he was dating his now-wife, he would often travel through Germany via train to visit her at college and would always miss his stop. He said that the German people were lovely and would often push him back in the right direction after he was lost and disoriented, trying to figure out how to get back to where he was supposed to be going.

After the opening ceremony, it was time for James’ panel and my photoshoot with Eliza. Another problem with doing photoshoots and panels at the same time is that at various points of the panel a new batch of numbers are called for the photoshoot, which disrupts the panel and makes it hard for the guest to get a rhythm going as half the attendees are disappearing on them. A little later in the day during Nicky’s panel, I swear, two-thirds of the room disappeared for James’ photo and Eliza’s “meeting room”. Myself and Robyn missed the first five minutes of James’ panel because we had our first photo with Eliza. When it was my turn, Eliza turned to me, told me she loved my style, called me a ‘cutie’, and loudly exclaimed “we have a handsome one over here!” to the room (including her mother), and the photo was taken. Luckily, my blushing started after the photo was taken. Outside of needing an emergency optician’s appointment, she was in great spirits. As I was leaving, I thanked her for coming and she called me handsome again. Well, that was a memorable first conversation with Eliza, wasn’t it? The first time I spoke to Eliza in my life, one of my biggest childhood crushes, she called me ‘cutie’ and ‘handsome’ with complete sincerity. My inner-child was beaming. I said goodbye to Mama Judy, waited patiently for Robyn (who also had a very pleasant conversation with Eliza), and we returned to James’ panel.

 

Highlights from James’ panel! :-

·       James thoroughly enjoyed his time working on “Witches Of East End”. He particularly enjoyed the hotel he was staying in too. It was oriental-themed and it was incredibly posh. He had a little towel placed by his bed every night so he could wipe his feet before getting in. THESE ARE THE TYPES OF TRIVIA FACTS YOU WILL ONLY FIND HERE, FOLKS!

·       As the next batch of people started leaving for Eliza’s photo, James quipped, “It’s alright, I don’t take it personally!”

·       James has one family pet, a cat called “Monkey”. Yep, Monkey. James described it as the ugliest little thing in the world with low intelligence because it took ages to learn how to walk and clean itself.

·       Before landing the role of Spike on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, James was a stage actor. The problem with stage acting is that it doesn’t pay well. Therefore, James spent a lot of his younger life living in poor areas of big cities. Therefore, he got in a lot of fights and has been hit with a lot of objects, including a baseball bat, brass knuckles, and a pipe.

·       James talked about what it was like being a parent. He’s an avid gamer so the analogy he gave was in gaming terms. He thought acting and working on TV was a 5* difficulty mission until he had children. Then he realised that acting is simple in comparison. He described parenting as a 20* difficulty.

·       As I mentioned above, James was poor before getting the role of Spike. So poor that he and his then-wife earned $7,000 in a year...combined. All they could afford to eat was oats and ‘gruel’. He said that if they could afford butter it was a good day. That’s one of the things I love about James. He’s so honest and open. He voluntarily talks about his struggles and challenges. When you think about where he is now and where he was just before “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, it’s a startling comparison.

·       James is a method actor. What this basically means is that James becomes the character he’s playing while the camera is rolling. His thoughts are Spike’s thoughts, his facial expressions are Spike’s facial expressions. To prepare himself for “Lessons” and the beginning of season seven, James w0uld think about all the things he ever felt guilty about. He would mentally torture himself for hours before filming those scenes where Spike was mad in Sunnydale High’s basement after just getting his soul back. He said that he was literally driving himself insane with his thoughts while filming those scenes.

·       James said that the audience want vulnerability. They don’t just want a badass that knows he’s awesome because it’s boring after a while. There’s no personal connection, no reason to emotionally attach to the character. That’s why Spike was so interesting because Spike was a badass killer, but also had the heart and soul of a poet.

·       All the actors on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” would try to guess what Joss was going to do over the next few episodes and James would always win. When Joss would get frustrated and ask James how he always knew, James would respond that Joss has a formula. Take what any regular writer would do, do the exact opposite, and somehow make it amazing even though it shouldn’t work in theory.

·       James’ favourite fight scene on “Angel” was the Spike-Angel battle in “Destiny”. This led James into one of the funniest stories of the weekend. James and Juliet Landau (Drusilla) would often watch the show together (how cute is that?!). At the time, James was dating a girl that would get jealous of Juliet and James whispering to each other about the episode and their time filming it. To get back at James, she lied to him and pretended that she had a massive crush on David Boreanaz. Therefore, James would channel that when playing Spike. For a lot of “Angel” season five, James was a little jealous of David because his girlfriend apparently had a crush on him. He’d use that annoyance on screen whenever Spike was pestering Angel or fighting him. So, kiddies, it turns out the Angel-Spike love-hate relationship was legitimate for a while...

·       James then went on to say that David Boreanaz always supported him and helped him after he arrived on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. David told James during Buffy season two that it was only a matter of time before James had his own trailer and was a star. He was right.

·       Someone asked James if people ever thought he was legitimately English because of his convincing accent. James said that he sometimes switches accents to mess with people. So he’ll speak American, then switch to English and pretend that he’s English, pretending to be American, pretending to be English. He explained all this while doing the accents and it was hilarious.

·       While filming “Flooded” or “Life Serial”, the cast of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” didn’t receive their regular scripts, they received a cassette tape instead. It was of Joss and his wife Kai singing all the songs that would eventually appear on “Once More With Feeling”. James and the rest of the cast thought Joss had gone mental. They all tried to convince Joss to change his mind and thought that it was going to be a massive failure. James said that the music didn’t sound magical on the cassette tape because Joss and Kai are wonderful people, but “horrid singers”. After Joss refused to change his mind, the cast all banded together and James said it was the proudest he’d ever been on the show. He said that all the cast coming together and hiring vocal and dance coaches (with their own money) really showed him how special and talented the cast were. Before “Once More With Feeling”, only James and Anthony Head had paid singing experience, so the prospect of an entire musical episode was daunting. In the face of doom, the cast came together, tried, and succeeded. It’s his favourite and most proud episode.

·       James can’t say “Tabula Rasa”, by the way. If you ever see him, as a personal favour to me, ask him to say it. It’s hilarious.

·       James was a big martial arts fan as a teenager and would often enter marital arts tournaments. In fact, he placed 2^nd in the state of California at one point.

·       James would do a lot of Spike’s stunts himself. Too much, actually. By the end of “Angel” his back was so messed up that he could barely walk. More than once he literally had to crawl to the chiropractor. As far as fight scenes go, James would tell directors the following...if the camera was just on his face, he looked like a black belt. If it was on his upper-body and face, he looked like a green belt. If the camera was showing his entire body, he looked terrible. Basically, keep the shots of him in a fight scene close to his face as it makes him look more skilled and badass.

·       Someone asked James if he could sing a little of “Rest In Peace”. James said that he doesn’t remember most of the words, but he’s in the process of re-learning them because he promised to sing the song online as part of a Kickstarter campaign. He then proceeded to sing part of “Rest In Peace”. Kudos.

·       The best stunt that James ever performed was on “Dragonball Evolution” (which he described as an abysmal film). When Winston mentioned to James how terrible the film was, James agreed and apologised. The stunt involved James jumping backwards off a cliff that was 30-feet up. When the stunt-double first attempted the jump, he ended up smacking into the cliff and scraping a load of skin off. James managed to nail it in two attempts.

·       Speaking of stunts, James’ most embarrassing stunt came in Buffy season four’s “Doomed”. Just after Spike realises he can hurt demons, Xander and Willow watch Spike battling one. Off-camera, while the camera is facing Xander and Willow, James tripped over a cable and ended up falling through one of the cave wall sets.

·       The blooper reels you see on the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” DVDs were put together by Joss for the end-of-season parties they used to throw while filming the shows. James makes very few appearances on these blooper reels. When James asked Joss why, Joss said it was because James isn’t funny. James is a method actor so after each take he looks down, makes sure he’s on his marker, and returns to his seat. James said, “yeah, I know, it’s called being a professional actor”. LOLs.

·       James then proceeded to talk about the attempted rape scene in “Seeing Red”. He said that it was the one mistake the show ever made and that he despised filming it. I was going to write a long paragraph about this as he talked about it in depth, but I’ll just let the man explain it himself instead.

·       Someone asked James who the better kisser was: Sarah Michelle Gellar or John Barrowman. James said it’s better to know the truth than just say something witty and the truth is that he doesn’t know. Filming a kiss on camera is so technical and so un-lifelike that he has no idea who is a better kisser. He did mention how much he loves John though. It took fourteen attempts to film the “Once More With Feeling” kiss between Spike and Buffy because James is a method actor. Instead of filming the kiss technically (getting in the right position for filming and lighting purposes), he’d kiss Sarah like he was Spike in that moment. When James and John kissed on “Torchwood”, James’ wife Jasmin was helping to direct it from behind the camera. Jasmin was enjoying the kissing a little too much and kept getting them to re-film it. James said this is the moment he realised that females like the man-on-man action just as much as males like the female-on-female.

·       James’ favourite part of conventions is the Q&A section because he gets to directly interact with everyone. At the start of every panel, he always encourages the audience to ask anything they want and always dares them to embarrass him.

Simply, James is the King of the stage. Regardless of how silly or mundane the question is, he has an interesting story for everything. He has a wealth of knowledge on the Buffyverse, the Buffyverse comics, stage work, theatre, gaming, and, most importantly, life experience. I’ve learned so much about the world and what it means to be a man just listening to him talk and having conversations with him at “Buffy Fanmeet” and “Vampire Ball”. If you ever get the opportunity to go and meet him, do it! Next up was Eliza’s panel! Again, I missed the first five or ten minutes because I had my photoshoot with Nicky. Nicky is...well, Xander. Seriously. The similarities between Nicky and Xander are insane. They are basically the same person. Nicky said as much during his panel. He said that when people insult Xander, he gets offended because Xander is basically him. My photo with Nicky went like clockwork. Nicky was all smiles, all jokes, and all goofiness, which is exactly what you’d expect. 

 Highlights from Eliza’s panel! :-

·       Eliza mentioned that she’s been in Frankfurt for a few days before the convention started with her mother, Judy. They’ve been going out on the underground trains and exploring the city. It’s pretty badass that Eliza has been travelling around the city using public transport. She’s much more down to Earth than you’d expect from someone who’s been around the Hollywood environment since she was a pre-teen.

·       Mama Judy was a college professor of political science before she retired. Eliza was starting her first semester at college when she won the role of Faith on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. It was originally supposed to be a three-episode role, which was then extended to five, then the full season. Eliza ended up leaving college to move to Los Angeles for “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. A few months ago, after fifteen years in Los Angeles, Eliza moved back to Boston to go to college. She’s currently studying sociology and just completed her first semester the day before “Buffy Fanmeet” started.

·       Her favourite Echo imprints are the ninja character from “Man On The Street” and Margaret from “Haunted”.

·       Eliza adores the Angel-Faith relationship as Angel is the only character to not discard Faith when she messes up or does something unforgivable. She’s happy that they’ve been working together in the comics and she’s pleasantly surprised to hear that Giles left her his house and wealth.

·       Joss used to have message board parties (read: forums) in 1998, way before this was the norm. for television shows. Today’s equivalent of that would be live tweeting, I guess.

·       Eliza’s a big fan of “Homeland”.

·       There was no communication between Eliza and Sarah on their body-swapping for “Who Are You?”. In fact, there was a little friendly competition between the two to see who could outperform the other.

·       Eliza’s end-goal is to continue acting, but also to do something with her degree, such as counselling people with addiction and recovery. Eliza came across as such a grounded, intelligent, composed woman that has her priorities in order. She was constantly talking about how appreciative she is for her parents, her family, and for the opportunities she’s received through acting. These are the type of people I like to see achieve fame because they’ll actually do something constructive for the world with it.

·       Eliza made a point of emphasising what a groundbreaking show “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was for feminism on television.

·       Someone asked Eliza what the funniest fan gift she ever received was. Eliza said that a few fans over the years have given her photo albums of themselves. Them, like, on holiday in Disneyland or something. That’s just weird...

·       Eliza recorded a documentary on her father’s home country of Albania a couple of years ago and it’s now at the point of almost being released.

·       Eliza’s most embarrassing moment on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” involved kissing David in season three’s “Enemies”. I’ll let Eliza explain it for herself...

·       Eliza had trouble making ‘cheerleading faces’ while filming “Bring It On”. Eliza was the anti-cheerleader at school, she was a tomboy. So it took her ages to learn how to smile while performing these intricate moves.

·       Eliza was just as unconformable as Faith was while wearing the pink dress for The Mayor. For the longest time, Eliza’s dress sense was similar to Faith’s and she hated wearing dresses or trying to look glamorous. This side of her personality has changed a little bit over the past few years, but she still finds it uncomfortable sometimes when she has to dress up.

·       Eliza often asks fans their names when she meets them and she said it’s funny when they sometimes forget their name for a few seconds. She said this in a jokey way, not a mean way.

The final thing of note from Eliza’s panel has nothing to do with Eliza, actually. People who’ve read my review of “Vampire Ball 5” will know that Jeff Ricketts (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, “Firefly”, and more) had a very embarrassing moment at the autograph table with a girl named “France” while I was sat with him. I’ll copy and paste the story from that review so everyone is caught up...

“All weekend Jeff was phenomenal at the autograph table. Really friendly, really chatty, completely customised autographs, writing essays, messing around with Jonathan...there was only one time all weekend where Jeff’s cool persona hit a speed bump. At the convention, there was a young female from France called “France”. Yep, it was her name too. So, when Jeff found out that she was French and called “France”, he made a little joke out of it. He turned to Toni and said to France, “this is my friend Uzbekistan”, before turning to me and saying, “this is my friend Turkey”. Now, in that situation, you’d expect to get a giggle from the person, right? To have a bit of banter and have some fun. France’s response was ice cold. She looked as though she was going to burst into tears and punch Jeff in the face in equal measures. Jeff quickly realised that he’d somehow offended her and tried to back-pedal. While he was back-pedalling and trying to explain to France that “France” is a lovely name, Toni caught my eye and we had to swiftly look away from each other before bursting into hysterics. The most challenging part of my weekend wasn’t trying not to fanboy in front of James Marsters in the end; it was trying not to burst into tears of laughter with Toni in front of Jeff and France. Jeff kept digging himself a deeper and deeper hole by telling France that his surname, Ricketts, is a disease in American. My brain was screaming “stop talking, Jeff, stop talking!”. Eventually, Jeff mercifully moved on and started writing the autograph. What did he write, you ask? “France is a lovely, lovely name!”. Shoot me, shoot me now.”

Well, guess what? FRANCE WAS AT THE BUFFY FANMEET! I took such satisfaction in sending Jeff a text and asking him if I should say “hi” to France for him. I think he’s still having Vietnam flashbacks from that incident. I swear, as soon as France and her translator approached the microphone to ask a question, I couldn’t stop giggling for five minutes because I was reliving the “Vampire Ball” hilarity.

After Eliza’s panel drew to a close, it was time for Nicky’s panel. For the third time in a row, I missed the beginning of it because I had a photoshoot with Eliza and James together to attend. When I approached the photo area, James turned around, looked me in the eye, and said, “Shane! It’s so good to see you again! How’re you doing, man?!”. That’s right! James Marsters, the man who took up an entire wall of my bedroom growing up with a gigantic Spike poster, not only remembered me from “Vampire Ball”, but also remembered my name. That’s Tony Head and James out of the main cast now! Yay! Then Eliza said “the cutie’s back!” and I didn’t even need to smile for the photo...it was already plastered across my face. For sixteen years I’ve loved and admired these people so I can’t put into words how amazing moments like these are. Photo turned out pretty badass too!

 

Straight after my photo with James and Eliza, I collected my beautiful girlfriend from Nicky’s talk and we headed back to the photo area for James’ solo photoshoot. Originally, I wasn’t going to get a photo with James as I got two decent ones at “Vampire Ball” three months earlier, but Robyn didn’t want to meet him for the first time by herself, so I bought one too. James greeted me with a “nice to see you again, mate!” before the picture was taken. After Robyn’s photo with James, he turned to her, looked her in the eye, and said, “you are beautiful”. Ordinarily, I might get grouchy about some guy calling my girlfriend “beautiful”, but James didn’t say it in a creepy, hitting-on-her way, it was said with complete class. Plus, it’s James Marsters, so I’ll allow it! Robyn probably forgot my name and the fact I existed around this time in the day...

At the “Buffy Fanmeet”, there were things known as “meeting rooms”. For my United Kingdom convention attendees, these are basically “guest encounters”. You and nine other people get 30 minutes in a room with one guest to chat about whatever you want and bond. To buy one of these at “Fanmeet” cost €120. Ouch. I don’t have that kind of money. However, a couple of places were being raffled off as well for €2 per raffle ticket. Myself and Robyn ended up buying a few with Eliza, just on the off chance that one of us would get in. I believe I bought five tickets and Robyn bought two. Guess what? I FRICKIN’ WON! As soon as I got out of my photoshoot with Eliza, I had to jump into the meeting room. Because everyone else entered the room five minutes before me, I was worried that I’d missed the start and it was going to be embarrassing as hell to enter and disrupt. My excited brain forgot to process that Eliza had only just left her photoshoot with James so probably wasn’t even in the room yet. Unlike the panels, I didn’t make notes during this meeting room, so I’m doing this section entirely from memory...

·       There was about ten of us in the room with Eliza. Four raffle winners (because I don’t think many people bought them for €120), plus six people who paid full price, by my estimations.

·       Eliza seemed so relaxed! She was sat on the chair with her legs crossed under her, hair flipped to one side, and couldn’t have been nicer or more chatty. She made sure everyone in the room asked at least one question and joined in too, which was another touching little moment because she was ensuring that everyone felt like they got their money’s worth.

·       I asked Eliza how she got involved with “Thrive Gulu” and it turns out that Mama Judy founded the organisation. The mission of “Thrive Gulu” is very simple, “To assist the communities of Northern Uganda heal from the traumatic events of war, sexual enslavement, extreme poverty and lost opportunities”. Eliza talked about how “Thrive Gulu” was created, how young men and women would be taken away to fight wars and would return home broken, they’d be sexually trafficked, or some other horrific thing. Eliza told me of her times visiting Africa and how she never feels more alive than when she’s working in Gulu. To Eliza, Africa is the most freeing place on Earth. There are wild animals living right next to you, there’s significantly less technology, beaming sunshine, and a more back-t0-basics approach to life. Eliza spent a good five minutes talking about “Thrive Gulu” and her experiences in Africa, which was nice as it was one of my questions. If you wish to donate to “Thrive Gulu”, please do so here. As little as $5 can really help change someone’s life for the better, so if you have a little free money, please consider donating to a wonderful cause.

·       Eliza talked about how “Dollhouse” was created. Eliza wanted to return to TV so Joss literally created “Dollhouse” for Eliza over a lunch they were sharing together. He went to the bathroom and by the time he returned he had the ‘programmable people’ idea formulated in his head. Over the next month, Joss went away to work on other projects and Eliza went elk hunting with her then-boyfriend in the woods. At the exact same moment as Eliza was emailing Joss about her time elk hunting, Joss was emailing Eliza with the layout for “Dollhouse” and what the pilot episode would consist of. When Joss read Eliza’s email, he simply responded with “episode two”. This actually transpired as episode two of “Dollhouse”, “The Target”, involves Echo being hunted through the woods by a man with a bow and arrow. How badass is that?!

·       Eliza talked about how cool it would be to work on “Agents Of SHIELD”, but mentioned that she lives in Boston now and is at college, while SHIELD shoots in Los Angeles, so she doubts it’ll transpire unless the show runs for a good many seasons. She also said that she’s worked with Joss on three big shows and he even created one for her, so she feels that she needs to allow other people to share Joss with her.

·       Eliza said that she grew to dislike living in Hollywood sometimes because of the way the city judges everyone based on their talents and appearance. She said that everyone is in great shape, which is good from a health standpoint, but everyone is ranked and compared to each other constantly to get parts in films and television shows. She said that it’s terrible for your self-esteem and emotional happiness.

·       Eliza talked about the Boston-New York rivalry and how New Yorkers often seem to have an attitude where they think they’re better than everyone else. She did emphasise that not all New Yorkers act this way, but quite a large percentage of them do. Eliza said that while the two cities do have a rivalry, they always come together in times of need and support each other. She used the examples of 9/11 and the Boston marathon bombings. One of the two perpetrators of the Boston bombings went to high school with Eliza! At the time of the attack, Eliza was at a convention in Australia. She returned to her hotel room, turned on the news, and the street where her mother lives was on the TV. Evidently, one of the perpetrators was running through gardens in Boston and Eliza said “knowing my mother she’d probably invite them in for tea or something” (not knowing who they were, of course).

·       Someone asked Eliza if she often gets recognised in Boston and treated differently. Eliza said that because she grew up in Boston, a lot of people know her, but they don’t treat her any differently. They’re protective of her because she’s Boston born and bred, but she rarely gets approached on the streets or anything in Boston. Someone in Eliza’s sociology class was writing her thesis on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, which was amusingly coincidental.

·       Eliza talked about her love of yoga. She used to be prejudiced against it just because of hearsay and what she thought she knew about it, but it’s actually helped her a lot and helps to clear her mind. A wonderful German gentleman expressed his prejudice as well and Eliza encouraged him to try a variation of yoga. She tried to convince him to partake in naked yoga as he couldn’t possibly be bored there! A little later on as she was leaving the room, she said “naked yoga, check it out” to him. It was awesome.

·       Eliza’s biggest hobby right now is travelling. She did admit that her hobbies are constantly changing, but travelling is a big passion of hers.

·       Eliza expressed her disappointment in “Tru Calling” being cancelled so suddenly because the show had so much potential. I think the general consensus in the room was that it was a travesty.

·       I’m sure I’ve missed at least five big points from this “meeting room”. I’ll add more to this list if they come to me, so it might be worth checking back here from time to time. If you were in that meeting room with me, help a brother out! Add some more in the comments section of this review!

·       As Eliza was leaving, she went around the circle and shook hands with everyone and thanked us for coming to the event. The guest encounter with Eliza was one of my favourite moments of the weekend, for sure.

Just before Eliza left the room one of the KLZ staff pulled Eliza to one side and whispered to her. I believe she was telling Eliza that the Eliza-Nicky panel that was scheduled for right after Nicky’s solo panel (that was currently happening at the same time as this) was cancelled for some reason. The reason was never given. Perhaps Nicky was sick, perhaps KLZ hadn’t thought about a lunch break when they created the schedule...either way, it wasn’t happening anymore. After leaving the meeting room, I headed back to the main hall for the end of Nicky’s solo panel. I think I saw about ten minutes of Nicky’s panel because of two photoshoots and a guest encounter. Some of these highlights I witnessed personally and some were written down for me by Robyn :-

·       Eliza and Nicky both talked about their recently deceased dogs as Eliza handed over to Nicky. Eliza’s dog, Max, was thirteen when he died a few months ago. Nicky’s dog, Steve, was a German Sheppard and Nicky sang Rick Astley’s “Together Forever” to him for four hours while waiting for the vet to put him down. Nicky breathed Steve’s last breath for him, nose-to-nose. Deep stuff.

·       Nicky has a twin brother, Kelly. Kelly is often mistaken for Nicky and signs autographs on Nicky’s behalf...until one incident. Some fans didn’t believe Kelly when he said he wasn’t Nicky and the fans started throwing fries at him, thinking he was lying and just trying to avoid signing autographs.

·       While filming the dodgeball scene in “The Pack”, Alyson Hannigan and Sarah Michelle Gellar pants’ed Nicky. Basically, they pulled his pants (that’s trousers for us English) down from behind. The only problem was that Nicky had no clean underwear that day, so he decided to skip wearing any at all. So, when Aly and Sarah pants’ed him, his penis and testicles were hanging out. He said that it was freezing cold in the hall too, so it looked like he had a vagina.

·       Nicky finds the Xander-Dawn relationship in the comics really weird because he’s “not a really big fan of incest”. However, he did later add that the reason for this is that he always remembers Michelle as a fifteen or sixteen year old. A few years ago he stumbled across her FHM photoshoot and realised that Michelle is a fully grown adult now, which made him slightly more forthcoming to the Xander-Dawn relationship.

·       As I mentioned before, Nicky and Xander are so close in personality that when someone insults Xander, Nicky feels it.

·       After “Grave” first aired on television, people kept wanting to buy Nicky coffee for “saving the world”. Even though the show is fictional, Xander still accepted the coffee and felt heroic.

·       Nicky prefers Xander and Anya as a couple to Xander and Cordelia because it was more substantial. He also completely forgot that Xander and Willow kissed and were briefly having a fling until a fan reminded him.

·       Nicky joked that Joss must have always planned the comic series because the eye-patch looks badass in comic book format.

·       Nicky’s favourite episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” is “Buffy vs. Dracula” because he adores the dialogue and the Xander-Dracula relationship.

·       While filming the scene in “The Pack” where Xander and the pack walk slowly across the Sunnydale High courtyard, Nicky was walking in slow-motion...until the director reminded Nicky that they would slow it down in post-production and he was supposed to be walking at a regular speed. Again, LOLs.

By this point in the day, with Nicky and Eliza’s joint panel cancelled, it was 1:30pm. The next scheduled event was the autograph signing at 3pm, so myself and Robyn headed to an Irish pub just down the road from Le Meridien for lunch. As someone who is a quarter Irish myself, I felt right at home. This pub became our base of operation over the weekend when the convention didn’t have any activities scheduled. I ordered a manly portion of beef nachos, exchanged smoochies with Robyn (you wanted all the details!), and headed back to the convention at 2:45pm. For Saturday, KLZ were just calling V.I.P. ticket holders and vampire passes 1-100. I was vampire pass #105, but I needed to see Eliza on Saturday! I had a present for her that I didn’t want her to open at the autograph table, which meant that if I wanted to hear her thoughts on it, I needed to give it to her on Saturday so she could tell me on Sunday. I asked KLZ if it would be okay to just go and get an Eliza autograph early and they said as long as there was time at the end I could. Luckily, there was time! I gave Eliza my present with Robyn by my side and Eliza was looking at it curiously, trying to decipher what it was (it was wrapped up). I had the idea to give Eliza an A4 art print of her and her recently deceased doggy, Max-Factor. The idea was mine, the picture chosen was my idea, but the artwork was all created by my friend Katy Hall. Katy drew it, put it in a beautiful black frame, and mailed it to me just in time for the convention. I paid for it, wrapped it up like a Christmas gift, and presented it to Eliza. She thanked me for the gift and card (I will not go into details of what I said in the card), I got my photo with her signed, she said the photo was amazing, I smiled, and we were on our merry way. I’m so pleased that I was able to give my gift to Eliza on Saturday! I’ve never given a celebrity or convention guest a present before, so I was particularly nervous about Eliza’s reaction the next day.

The final activity of the day for myself and Robyn was the panel between James and Nicky. I knew going into it that this panel was going to be golden and I was right. James has a story for everything and Nicky works best when he has someone to bounce off of, especially someone who he knows so well and has attended many conventions with before. Their chemistry together on stage is undeniable. I think the only chemistry I’ve seen between two guests that was better than this was Jeff Ricketts and Jonathan Woodward, who are basically kindred spirits. Highlights! :-

·       It was Nicky’s idea for Xander and Spike to live together again in the season ten comics. Some of his favourite moments filming “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was when Spike and Xander lived together. This happened in season four, when Spike was living in Xander’s parents’ basement and then again in season seven, when Spike stayed in the spare room at Xander’s apartment.

·       James almost got fired from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” for complaining about Spike having to wear a Hawaiian shirt in “Doomed”. Joss got word of James kicking up a fuss and had stern words with him.

·       Someone asked James who should be with Buffy, Angel or Spike? James said Angel. He said that Spike has only been re-ensoulled for a year at the conclusion of the show and that he needs time to adjust and grow up before him and Buffy should be together. He did say that if the season ten comics are a few years in the future, then he’s perfectly happy for them to get together.

·       James said that he’s far more similar to Spike in personality than he often admits...outside of murdering and torture, of course. A lot of Spike’s worst character traits are what James is like in the morning before he’s had a coffee. James summed it up by saying that Spike is basically James, but with Joss’ jokes.

·       “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was known as “Buffy The Weekend Killer” in Hollywood. So much so that a lot of people didn’t audition for Buffy because they didn’t want to commit to such long working hours.

·       Gareth Davies, a producer on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, was labelled as the ‘fun police’ by Nicky because he hated it when the actors would laugh or mess around. Once, Joss bought Charisma Carpenter a birthday cake and they were all celebrating on set. Gareth arrived on set and told them all off and Charisma cried. James did go on to say that having a producer on set like that is a good thing because it means that everything is finished on time. He said that you need a strong hand who’s in control of the actors otherwise it’s chaos and the shooting days are longer.

·       James talked about the one-shot comic he wrote called “Spike: Into The Light”. It was set between “Grave” and “Lessons”, right after Spike was re-ensoulled. James didn’t want Spike to be broody in a mansion like Angel...“where did he get the money, anyway?! He doesn’t have a job!”...he wanted to see Spike lose everything. He wanted Spike to be homeless, starving, have no money, and have no hope. When he gets attached to a woman, the woman finds out he’s a vampire and ditches him as well. This entire story was concocted in James’ head. It just shows how much James loves Spike and the shows! Some of the actors barely remember their character’s arcs or lines, yet James seems to know the name of every episode and understands the character of Spike in a way that few people seem to with their character. I think it’s because he’s a method actor. He lived Spike for seven years.

·       Someone asked Nicky and James what came first, the chicken or the egg...random, I know. James said it was creationism vs. evolution. He talked for a minute or so about deep philosophical theories. What did Nicky say? That the chicken was crossing the road, almost got hit by a car, and shit out the egg. I told you, Nicky is Xander!

·       In “Lovers Walk”, when Spike wakes up with his hand on fire, that’s really James on fire! He didn’t want to use a stunt-double, so he did it himself. He left the fire burning for a few seconds longer than intended because he wanted it to look really cool and he ended up burning his hand and forearm badly. His hand and forearm began to blister and James had to hide it from the crew because if they knew he messed up the stunt, they’d be reluctant to let him do it again in the future. Luckily, James was only on one episode that season so he was able to hide it from everyone.

·       James’ favourite “Big Bad” was The Trio because it was about the human element of evil for the first time with a “Big Bad”. Nicky’s favourite was The Master because he remembered how excited everyone was during the first season before all the pressures increased.

·       Originally, Angelus was supposed to kill Spike in season two and date Drusilla, but Spike was so popular that Joss kept him alive. There was just one problem...Joss had made Spike cool. Joss never intended to have a main vampire character that was cool. He was building Spike up as cool and strong so that Angelus would be more hated and more powerful to the audience when he killed him. Keeping Spike around meant that Joss did something he didn’t want to do...create a likeable vampire character that was soulless.

·       When Nicky and James were talking about Anya, James turned to Nicky and said, “I had your girlfriend! Haha!”, in relation to Spike and Anya having a one-night stand.

·       When Nicky mentioned that Xander and Dawn are dating in the comics, Spike gasped. He was unaware that they were dating as he’s only concentrated on keeping up with Spike’s arc thus far. He looked horrified.

·       Nicky outed Andrew as gay in the season ten comics. It was heavily implied during the show that Andrew was gay, but Nicky officially brought Andrew out of the closet. Nicky said that he didn’t like Andrew being a main cast member during the 7^th season because Andrew got all of the funniest lines instead of Xander. He would read the scripts and crack up at Andrew’s lines and “brood in the corner” that Xander didn’t get to say them. He absolutely loves the character of Andrew. Nicky seems to love the funny characters like Xander, Andrew, and Anya the most.

·       Finishing “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was an emotional time for Nicky. He said that he still misses the show every single day and that he passes some of the sets they used all the time. In fact, for a couple of years after the show finished, Nicky would deliberately avoid driving past those places because it was too emotional for him. Aww!

·       James has an abnormally large head. They could only find one wig in Hollywood that would fit his gigantic cranium for the flashback scenes in “Fool For Love”. Nicky joked that he now has that wig in his house as a carpet.

·       Tony Head taught James everything he knows about television acting. James was a theatre actor for many years before starring on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and he had no idea how to act with a camera so close to his face, studying his every twitch or movement. When Tony was filming scenes without James in them, he would go down to set to study Tony because Tony was so flawless at everything he did. James credits Tony as teaching him everything he knows about acting on camera.

·       Nicky currently has a torn ACL and meniscus in his knee. I’ve torn my ACL before too, it fucking sucks.

·       Before becoming an actor, Nicky had numerous jobs. One of them was working as a vet’s assistant. He managed to survive one day before quitting. There was a dog there called ‘Deeks’ that had been eaten by two Rottweilers. They’d bitten most of Deeks’ stomach out and some organs too. Deeks wasn’t going to survive, but they had to help him anyway. When two horrid nurses started messing with Deeks and pushing fluids through his body, Nicky passed out and quit.

·       Someone asked Nicky and James if they read any Buffy fanfiction. They do not. Nicky said that a lot of fanfiction is too far out there and silly for him to try to read. For example, last week, someone asked Nicky if he read the fanfiction where the Scoobies are all turned into boats. James said that he hasn’t read any, but he loves that fans are so passionate that they create their own episodes. He said the purpose of the entertainment genre is to create something that gets people talking and thinking. Now, these people are still talking and thinking about the show’s messages and themes through their own writing, which is cool.

·       The WB announced that Spike was joining “Angel” season five before “Chosen” aired. Therefore, everyone knew that Spike wasn’t really dead at the conclusion of the episode. Joss was maaaaaaaaad.

·       There was rarely a working day on “Angel” that lasted over 12 hours because the budget was much smaller than Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s budget. If a show works over twelve straight hours, they have to pay the crew double and they could rarely afford to do that. Gone were the 20-hour days of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” when he joined “Angel”!

·       James doesn’t believe that Buffy meant it in “Chosen” when Buffy told Spike that she loved him...well, not in the “I love you” way. He sees it as Buffy loving him and appreciating him fully for the first time, but he doesn’t see it as her being in love with Spike. He also believes that Spike says “you don’t, but thanks” because Spike doesn’t believe he’s deserving of Buffy’s love yet.

·       To conclude, this panel rocked! It might have been my favourite panel of the weekend, but I’m not sure yet. There was so much humour and trivia, and back-and-forth between the two actors that you couldn’t help but get caught up in the magic.

And that was the end of day one. KLZ were running a one-hour “Hunter’s Party” between 8pm and 9pm, but it cost €60 and I couldn’t afford that. Some of my friends went to that party and said that it was disappointing for the price they paid. It was basically the same as a drink’s reception at “Vampire Ball” or “Hallowhedon”. By 6pm, Saturday was over for us. We went back to the Irish pub with Winston and Enza, and were later joined by Rebecca and Jeremy too. We all discussed the day’s activities, our favourite parts thus far, our favourite guest thus far, and generally fangasmed into the night. I will admit, I sorely missed the parties that would have been taking place at “Vampire Ball” or “Hallowhedon”. Both of those UK-based events have parties (for free) on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, which means that the weekend feels much longer and also offers you the potential opportunity to see more of the guests if they decide to come to the parties. Myself and Robyn headed back to the hotel room exhausted, snuggled up to “Game Of Thrones” season four, episode one, and drifted off to sleep. My first decent night’s sleep in four days. As the event was drawing to a close on Saturday, KLZ told us that the 10am-11am panel featuring all three guests was for V.I.P. ticket holders and people who paid full price for their entry ticket only. For months KLZ had a 50% off deal for entry tickets, so I can completely understand them doing this to appease the few people who paid twice as much as almost everyone else. The only problem was that the schedule didn’t mention this and because of the slight language barrier, it was hard to puzzle together what was being said. Luckily, this passed down the grapevine and we were aware of it before we left the Carlton hotel on the Sunday morning to head to the convention. If I had gotten to Le Meridien and been refused entry to the panel, I’d have been pissed. Sunday was a much calmer day for myself and Robyn than the Saturday was. Robyn had both of her photos taken on Saturday and I had four of my five taken on Saturday, leaving just my final Eliza photo. That meant that for the most part we had uninterrupted panels! Yet again, just like the day before, myself and Robyn bought raffle tickets for the “meeting room” with Eliza. And, yet again, I won. I never knew I was so lucky! This time, I gave my ticket to Robyn so that she could enjoy the intimate Eliza experience as well. Big brownie points, guys, big brownie points...

11am brought with it James’ second solo panel of the weekend. Once again, at the beginning of the panel he encouraged everyone to ask questions and challenged everyone to try to embarrass him. Highlights! :-

·       James narrates the audiobooks for a book series called “The Dresden Files”, which is a collection of detective novels. The author of the book series, Jim Butcher, asked for James personally to narrate the books. James didn’t realise just how hard it was going to be to narrate audiobooks and he later learned that many narrates go away for lunch and never return because the work is too strenuous. Every time you miss a syllable in a word or say something slightly wrong, you have to re-record it. I don’t think I could record audiobooks. I’d smash something in frustration.

·       James said that he’s seen almost every episode of the anime “Dragonball Z” because his son is a big fan of the show. James originally started watching it with his son because he thought it was too violent for his son to watch alone, but he quickly found himself caught up in the story and started watching it every week because he enjoyed it too.

·       There were no plans to bring Spike back after season two. Even after bringing him back for one episode of season three (“Lovers Walk”), that was only seen as a one time thing to close out what happened to Spike and Drusilla after leaving Sunnydale. It wasn’t until Cordelia moved to “Angel” and the show needed a comedic, sassy replacement character that James was asked to return to the show full-time. If “Angel” wasn’t picked up by The WB, Spike would never have become a main character on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”.

·       James thoroughly enjoyed working on the independent movie “Chance”, which was written and directed by Amber Benson. It was Amber’s first time writing a movie and James wanted to support his friend and fellow artist, so he co-starred in the movie with her, alongside Buffyverse alumnus Andy Hallett and Jeff Ricketts. The film was primarily recorded in Amber’s own apartment and James was impressed with the ways in which Amber was able to save money. For example, she painted all her walls bright colours so that they’d show up better on digital camera.

·       The cancellation of “Angel” was hard to take because nobody was expecting the cancellation. “Angel” was almost cancelled after season four due to decreasing ratings, but The WB commissioned a fifth season because Joss said that he’d transfer Spike to “Angel” because “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” had just finished. The ratings increased by almost half a million viewers in the U.S.A. alone between seasons four and five, so Joss asked for an early renewal for a sixth season. He was told by The WB that they were about to start a new Dracula television show and that they were waiting on the ratings for that show before making a decision on “Angel”. Joss said that he needed an answer right then and there so that his writers and actors wouldn’t have to wait until the last minute to know if they had a job for the next television season. The WB didn’t want to commit to a sixth season that early so they cancelled the show.

·       Filming the final scene of “Not Fade Away” (the last “Angel” episode) in the alleyway was not pleasant because they were having cold water dumped on their head for twelve hours straight to mimic rain. Speaking of the last episode, before the “Angel” season six comics came into creation, Joss told James to “assume that every character died in that alley”! WHAT THE FIDDLESTICKS?! I’M SO GLAD THE COMICS WERE CREATED IN THAT CASE!

·       James was looking forward to the “Smile Time” script all year because he knew that Ben Edlund would nail it. When he finally received the script, he was disappointed to find that Spike only had one major scene. Ben reassured James that he’d created that scene in order for James to steal the show. James re-read the script and realised that Ben was correct. Just a little side note from me, Ben is now one of the main writers on “Supernatural”.

·       “Smile Time” was challenging to film because it was hard to control puppet-Angel without the puppeteers being in the camera shot. Speaking of puppeteers, James told us a story about the scene in “Forever” where Spike is trying to steal the egg from the weird dragony demony thingy. Due to the fake rain in the cave, the dragony demony suit weighed about four times as much as it did during rehearsals. Therefore, it was damn near impossible for the people inside the suit to move. When they opened the suit up, all the people inside of it were messed up because of the weight of the costume and the water leaking through, so they needed medical attention. Everyone was freaking out because the scene had to be finished that day and James came to the rescue by suggesting they record the scene with Spike trapped against the cave wall by the monster, while James secretly held the costume in place. Once the scene was edited, it actually worked!

·       James said that working in Hollywood is heartbreaking. For every role you receive, you get rejected for twenty or thirty. James used the phrase, “how do you find the heart to audition again when you know you’re going to get your heart broken?”. To try to retain some sense of control and sanity after an audition, James will throw the script in the trash. That way he broke up with the project, the project didn’t choose not to cast him. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to stay sane in Hollywood, apparently.

·       James said that Hollywood and writers love “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and he thinks that he and Charisma were cast on “Supernatural” together because the writers were fans of the show. He also said that the actors and crew on “Supernatural” are some of the friendliest in the business. When Jensen, Jared, and the rest of the cast are filming in a public place, they will often cross the street, go to the barriers keeping the fans back, and sign autographs and chat to the fans on their lunch break. How cool is that? Jensen and Jared also played a prank on James while they were filming a scene on “Supernatural”. I’ll let James explain it himself...

·        James hated the cheerleaders and jocks while he was at school. James was a rocker in a punk rock band and he would throw parties most weekends because his parents were away. James and his friends would encourage their hot female friends to hit on the football players, make them think that they were going to get lucky, and then reject them in the hopes that they’d lose their football game the next day. Harsh, yes, but also hilarious.

·       It was impossible to control the kittens while filming the poker scene in “Life Serial”. James said that it was anarchy. James also mentioned that James Leary (Clem) would get all the girls on set because he was the friendly, cuddly demon.

·       Two solo panels down and two huge successes. I swear, I could legitimately listen to James talk all day. He’s so full of stories and interesting anecdotes. As well as being a genuinely decent human being with a lot of life advice for anyone who’s willing to look for it. I cannot emphasise enough how much respect I have for James Marsters. He’s one of my favourite celebrities I’ve ever met, if not my very favourite. The guy is all class, completely humble, totally down to Earth, and treats everyone as an equal.

After James’ panel it was time for Eliza’s second solo panel of the weekend. However, just as it was supposed to start, it was cancelled. Yet again, we weren’t given a reason for this, but my guess is that it was because the event was running late. Everything was about 20 minutes behind schedule on the Sunday so perhaps KLZ decided to skip Eliza’s panel to get back on track again. That’s merely speculation on my part, though. With an extra hour of free time, myself, Robyn, and some of my Scoobies (Buffyverse friends I met through my Buffyverse fan page on Facebook) decided to take some group photos next to the Christmas tree in the talk hall. Rosie even photobombed one of them! While I was in the second half of James’ panel, Robyn was in her “meeting room” with Eliza. As I wasn’t there, I’m not going to give a detailed analysis of it, but I’m sure Robyn will in the comments section of this review at some point soon so keep your eye out for it.

 

Now it was time for the second to last panel of the weekend and my first time getting to see a full Nicky panel. Having missed out on more than three-quarters of the last one and having spent less time with Nicky than James and Eliza over the weekend already, I was more than excited to get a big ol’ dose of Nicky. Before the panel started, however, it was time for my last photoshoot of the weekend...my second Eliza shot! For this photo, myself and Eliza held wooden stakes that I borrowed from Melly at the last minute. Once again, Eliza was extremely friendly and extremely endearing. Highlights from Nicky's panel! :-

·       Nicky prefers intimate conventions like “Buffy Fanmeet” to huge conventions like San Diego Comic Con.

·       Nicky loves the pilot episode of the animated “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” series and was shocked it didn’t get picked up by a network. Ultimately, it came down to a money issue.

·       Nicky’s twin brother Kelly used to work in the art department on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. I never knew that.

·       Xander gave up skateboarding after the pilot episode, “Welcome To The Hellmouth”, because it was too dangerous. If Nicky had fallen and broken his arm or, you know, face, it would have caused major production problems.

·       Someone asked Nicky what he would do if he got to swap bodies with a female for the day. Everybody started laughing before Nicky answered because we all knew (except the person asking I assume) what he was going to say. It’s the same thing any guy would do...“go feed the homeless”...of course, what did you think I meant? Of course, Nicky would just look at himself naked and play with himself all day. Let’s be honest, we all would. When Nicky asked the question back to the attendee, she very unbashfully said “have sex all day”. Nicky then said, “I don’t ever want a penis inside of me”, but he did say that he’d like to be on his period if he was a woman for the day because it would help him understand them better when they’re having their ‘time of the month’ and could empathise with their situation more.

·       Nicky talked about the Buffy reboot movie that was rumoured and quickly fell apart a year or two ago. Nicky said that it was us (the fans) that made that fall apart before it got started because we were all so vocal about refusing to watch anything Buffyverse related that didn’t involve the original cast. Nicky said that he’d love to take Fran and Kaz Kuzui to a convention to show them that the Buffyverse franchise is much more than just a monetary figure and that the show helps people get through their lives. For those of you unaware, Fran and Kaz own the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” name.

·       While filming the scene in the bleachers for “Inca Mummy Girl”, Nicky had to eat 24 whole Twinkies!

·       Nicky said that it used to bother him a lot that Xander never had anywhere near as much merchandise as the other characters in the show, even though he’s so universally loved and arguably the leading male character. For example, with the new “Vinyl Pop! Figures”, there is a Buffy, Angel, Spike, Oz, Willow, even a Gentlemen that appeared in just one episode, but there’s no Xander (Nicky said this, I have no idea if there is one or not). Nicky thinks this is because Xander is the ‘normal’ character and normal characters aren’t as cool as characters with superpowers. It also really bothered him that Xander only had one Buffy magazine cover to himself. However, he said it’s okay now because Xander gets lots of comic book covers to himself because the eye-patch looks cool.

·       Nicky was the runner-up to J. August Richards to play Deathlok on “Agents Of SHIELD”.

·       Nicky said that if he were to rampage a city like Godzilla, it would be Dusseldorf. Nicky said that when he went to Dusseldorf, every single person he spoke to was rude to him and unhelpful. Remind me not to put Dusseldorf on my list of places to visit...

·       Nicky didn’t know that Xander was going to lose an eye until he read the script for “Dirty Girls”. He wasn’t pre-warned at all. He said that he wished he was pre-warned because he’d grown attached to that eye.

·       Nicky has three angels tattooed on his upper-right arm. They represent Nicky, Kelly, and Christian (all three brothers). Another one of Nicky’s tattoos is on his right bicep and it’s of Jesus surfing. Nicky very spontaneously had the idea after imagining Jesus surfing on water instead of walking on it and he got the tattoo later that same day.

·       The ‘shawarma’ line at the end of “The Avengers” film stems from Nicky, who won the role of Xander by saying the word during his audition with Joss Whedon. He asked Joss and the rest of the casting directors if they wanted to go out for shawarma later. It’s the word that changed his life.

·       To conclude, Nicky is hilarious. ‘Nuff said. Love that guy!

After a one-hour lunch break, it was time for myself and Robyn to get our autographs! Before queuing up for our autographs, I headed to the bathroom of Le Meridien hotel. Who did I bump into in the bathroom? Nicholas Brendon. There’s nothing that reminds you that your childhood idols are merely human beings more than being in a cubicle next to one of them while he’s having a poop. Sweet, happy memories.

Nicky: After entering the autograph room, myself and Robyn headed to Nicky first. I did speak to Nicky a little as our photo was taken the day before and we’d exchanged a few words outside the hotel while he was having a cigarette, but this was my first major conversation with Nicholas Brendon, the actor behind arguably my favourite character from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. The first words out of his mouth after “hi”, you ask? Nicky very loudly exclaimed “didn’t we meet in the toilet earlier?”, to which everyone in the room started laughing. In typical Xander fashion, my first real conversation with Nicky opened with a joke. Perfection. I didn’t get to say too much to Nicky because, frankly, I was flustered. Not flustered because I was starstruck, but because within ten seconds of entering the room, while trying to sort out my paperwork and 8”x10” pictures, I was at the front of the queue and Nicky was saying “hi” to me and extending his hand. Robyn had a similar experience because she was also still trying to find her bearings, so Robyn ended up buying another autograph a little later to get a decent conversation out of Nicky, which we did! The second time around (after we’d already got our autographs from Eliza and James), we had a very pleasant, much longer conversation with Nicky. We told him that Xander was our favourite character from the Buffyverse and that he shouldn’t feel bad about the lack of Xander merchandise because Xander is the heart of the show and the relatable, emotional connection to the audience. We chatted to him for a couple more minutes before he looked up and said “you guys are my favourite too!”, before signing Robyn’s poster “you are my favourite!”...what a lad! I told Nicky that I’d see him again at “Wales Comic Con” in April and he said he couldn’t wait and that he had a great time at “Wales Comic Con 2013”. Even though we spent a little less time with Nicky than James and Eliza, Nicky couldn’t have been nicer. He’s clearly trying his best to get himself together personally at the moment and I wish him the best of luck with everything he’s going through. He certainly looks as though he’s trying his hardest. Such a cool guy!

  

Eliza: I asked Eliza how her sociology degree was going and Eliza thought I said “how is your sexuality going?” and she started laughing. Nothing like opening with a hilarious miscommunication! After a minute or so talking about her studies, I asked Eliza if she’d had the opportunity to open my gift and she said she had, but she hadn’t had time to read the letter yet. She said that she loved the art sketch of her and Max and she must have said thank you at least five times. She showed me and Robyn her phone background, which was a lovely picture of Max-Factor. Eliza stood up, smiled, pulled me into a hug, and thanked me once again. It was the only non-photo hug I saw her give out all weekend. Yay! Eliza said that she opened the gift with Mama Judy and they both loved it. She then said that her and Mama Judy were figuring out the best way to get it back home with them on the plane. This was nice to hear as it reassured me that she was going to keep it. Obviously, celebrities get a lot of gifts so they only keep a small percentage of them...otherwise their house would be overrun with stuff! She was talking about trying to keep it nestled inside her jacket after she got through security so that it wouldn’t get damaged at all. I was so, so pleased that she liked the present! Even though I’ve never lost a dog, I have lost a best friend, which is basically the same thing in Eliza’s case. I understand the heartache and loss all too well and thought it would be nice to give something to Eliza that would touch her personally. I guess it worked! When Eliza got to Robyn, she turned to me and said, “She’s a keeper, this one! I love her! We had such a great talk in the meeting room. She’s my spirit sister!”. She then gave Robyn a fist-bump. I’m going to let Robyn talk about her autograph table experiences in the comments section herself instead of trying to accurately portray them for her, so, again, keep an eye out in the comments section! I’ve waited sixteen years to meet Eliza. Sixteen years of relating to Faith more than any other character on the show. Relating to Faith more than most characters I’ve ever watched or read about it my life. I can genuinely say that Eliza more than met my expectations. I wasn’t expecting her to be quite so humble, so generous, so caring, and so approachable. Eliza was my primary reason to attend this event and she was definitely worth the money! As myself and Robyn were leaving the autograph table, Eliza told us that she wants to see us married and having little Buffyverse children the next time we meet her.

 

James: James. What is there to say. A role model. An inspiration. A leader. Someone who makes you think, makes you question the world, and makes you want to be a better person. Someone who makes each and every person at a convention feel special and like they were the only person in the room. Someone who genuinely loves the Buffyverse and his fans. If I was American and he ran for President, I’d totally vote for him. Due to spending a lot of time with him in the green room at “Vampire Ball” (have I mentioned that yet?), I already feel like I know James pretty well. Therefore, when I got to his autograph table, it was like catching up with a mate at the pub. I wasn’t the least bit starstruck or nervous. We talked about the storms and rain in California because during “Vampire Ball” California was in the middle of a massive drought and James could barely shower. Just like two mates catching up, we talked about the weather and what he’d been up to since “Vampire Ball”. I told him that I’d see him in March at Cardiff Comic Con and he told me that he’d be coming to me next time as Cardiff is less than an hour from my house...much closer than frickin’ Germany! Again, I’ll let Robyn explain her experience with James to you herself, but I’ll just say that he told her the camera loves her (she got her photo of them signed) and after she told him what an inspiration he is to her, he held her hand for a good 20 seconds and seemed genuinely touched and appreciative of what she had to say. If I were to mould the perfect convention guest, it’d be James. He’s captivating on stage, approachable and personable at the autograph table, and goes above and beyond what is expected of him. Getting to meet one of my biggest idols once was a dream come true, getting to do it a second time was beyond amazing...and getting to do it a third time in March is sheer perfection.

 

With the autograph session at an end, there was just one panel left before the closing ceremony: James and Eliza together. This was also one of the best panels of the weekend and you could just feel the mutual respect and adoration between James and Eliza. They were always smiling at each other and looked as though they were having the time of their lives. Before the talk started, our friend Rebecca bought a few tickets for Nicky’s “meeting room”. She’s never won anything in her life so she had low expectations, but she got in! Xander is her favourite character so this was a huge deal for her. Robyn and I couldn’t have been happier for her! Highlights from James and Eliza’s panel! :-

·       One of James’ favourite Buffy experiences took place during an awards show. “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was up for ‘Best Drama’ against “The West Wing”, so James, Joss, and a few of the other writers attended. As the winner was being announced, everyone at the Buffy table, without looking up, all groaned “West Wing” while eating their chicken dinner. Yep, they were right.

·       One of Eliza’s favourite “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” moments took place during season three’s “Beauty And The Beasts”. When Faith is looking after werewolf Oz and listening to music with her headphones in, Buffy comes up behind her and touches her on the arm. Faith spins around and clocks Buffy in the mouth because she’s startled. Eliza accidentally, while wearing a ring, clocked Sarah in the mouth for realsies. Oops.

·       Eliza’s philosophy in life is “go big or go home and cry about it”. No, that is not a sexual metaphor. What it means is that you shouldn’t let fear control your life. You should challenge yourself, push yourself to the edge of your comfort zone and beyond it because you’re capable of a lot more than you think you are. James joked that his philosophy is “go home and cry about it”.

·       Someone asked James and Eliza what their best and worst qualities are as human beings...only it came with a twist, they had to answer for each other. To quote Monica Gellar, “THIS JUST GOT INTERESTING!”. James answered that Eliza is honest and charming, but she’s way too pretty. He said that pretty girls are usually bitches because they’ve been handed everything. Eliza isn’t like that so she’s way too pretty to be as cool and humble as she is. Good answer. Eliza said that James is intense, thought-provoking, interesting, and that they’ve got to know each other more through conventions than they did while filming “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. She said that his worst traits are that he doesn’t stay in contact enough and that he stays in his room too much at conventions. Another good answer.

·       In his youth, James was a nerd and used to go to Star Trek conventions. He’s one of us! “One of us! One of us! One of us!”

·       Someone asked James and Eliza if they had any desire to go into space. James played Buzz Aldrin in the television movie “Moonshot” and in doing his research for the film, he discovered that the moon smells. Like, really smells because of the lack of atmosphere. Therefore, he’d love to visit the moon, but he doesn’t want to colonise there. Plus, he adores Earth. Eliza said that she did want to go to the moon before James just told her that it stinks. Such great chemistry!...See what I did there? Nevermind...

·       James read a book written by the Dalai Lama, which teaches you how to try to live life without regret. Reading this book helped put his life into perspective and he realised that his career isn’t the thing he’ll remember most on his deathbed, his family and the human connections he’s made are.

·       James hopes that the Shanshu Prophecy is about Angel, not Spike, so that Angel will be mortal and die. Poor Angel.

·       Eliza talked about how working in Hollywood can lead some actors to getting a big head. For example, both James and Eliza have met day-actors that have arrived on set totally humble and in awe, only for them to grow egotistical by lunch time. James said that you find out what the person is really like after lunch because it’s usually too late to fire them and replace them by that point.

·       James said that he felt sorry for Marc Blucas because Marc was given no time to prepare for his topless scenes on the show. James knew by the end of season five that Buffy and Spike would be entering a physical relationship in season six and that he’d be topless a lot. Therefore, James had the entire summer to get into the best shape of his life. Part of his workout included rollerblading around Malibu every day for miles.

·       James would often accidentally cut himself during fight scenes while he was wearing his vampire teeth because they were so damn sharp. Eliza also mentioned that when she kissed David Boreanaz in “Enemies”, David’s vampire teeth pierced her tongue. To this day Joss makes fun of her for slipping some tongue action into the kissing scene.

·       James’ favourite musician is Miles Davis. Eliza loves Bob Marley and Beyonce. Again, where else could you find these hard-hitting trivia facts?

·       Someone mentioned to Eliza that when they met Tahmoh Penikett, he said that Eliza was clumsy on set. Eliza denied these outrageous rumours and bit back with “says the man who couldn’t talk during his first day of shooting!”. Apparently, during his first time shooting the pilot episode, Tahmoh said “the wallhouse is real” instead of “the Dollhouse is real”. It was clear that Eliza and Tahmoh are good friends.

·       While filming “Epitaph Two”, the last ever “Dollhouse” episode, Eliza had an accidental injury. When she jumped out of the van, ready to fight through the apocalyptic wasteland, she fell on her ass. Hard. So hard that she fired her gun on impact and broke her elbow. Ouchy!

·       James said that Joss was always running away from him. Just as he became a main character on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, Joss was over on “Angel” season one. When James jumped to “Angel” season five, Joss was off on “Firefly”.

·       Eliza said that she wouldn’t have continued acting without “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. Everyone in Boston was encouraging her to get a ‘real job’ where she could make a difference to the world. After joining Buffy and meeting some of the fans, Eliza realised that she was making a difference! It wasn’t just superficial, she was helping people.

·       The “faded, droopy Spike t-shirt” in season two of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was actually James’. James was so poor before joining the show that he couldn’t afford new clothes. The show couldn’t find a shirt that looked as old and wrinkled as that so they asked James if they could use it on the show. After the show finished, the only thing that James kept was his old t-shirt. He was offered one of Spike’s leather jackets, but being a stage actor, James refused. A little while later he saw it sell for $250,000 and he’s been kicking himself ever since. “My pride cost me a quarter of a million!”.

·       Eliza managed to keep one of Faith’s brown leather jackets that she wore on “Angel”.

·       Eliza’s guilty pleasure television show is “The Bachelor” because she’s a romantic at heart. James was horrified. What a great way to end a truly unforgettable panel.

Right after that, Nicky joined James and Eliza on stage to say goodbye to everyone and thank us for attending the “Buffy Fanmeet”. What non-weekend convention attendees don’t realise is that a convention audience is basically like a family. You meet a lot of people who share the same passions as you and have had many of the same experiences. You bond and become friends for far longer than the convention weekend. Some of my best friends in the world I’ve met through conventions or the Buffyverse. Hell, I met the love of my life through the Buffyverse too. I think James summed up the weekend and the Buffyverse fandom as a whole perfectly to close out the weekend...“Behind ever piece of art is the same message, which is that we are not alone. And when we come together like this we are dramatically not alone. And if you guys wanna do yourselves a favour and you met somebody this weekend that you enjoy talking to, exchange emails and make friendships. There’s a lot of good people in this room”.

If you’re still with me 25 A4-pages in (excluding pictures and videos!), I commend you. I’m going to wrap this review up with a few brief notes. Outside of a few scheduling issues and a little more communication needed, this event was terrific. It was a truly memorable, wonderful weekend. With a few tweaks here and there...a little episode commentary or something else, not having photos and talks at the same time...this event could be truly special. Not that it isn’t special already, but there’s always room for improvement, is there not? As I’ve said, conventions are a family reunion for me. Even outside of the United Kingdom, I still knew about 15 people that were attending this convention and all of them I hadn’t seen in at least a few months. Conventions are a time to catch up, to celebrate our mutual passions, and to build friendships and memories. I’ve also got to give a special shout-out to Robyn for being my partner in crime and my partner in life for the weekend. After the convention drew to a close, Robyn and myself had the most wonderful, fascinating 2.5-hour conversation in the Irish pub and it was the perfect ending to an amazing weekend.

If you were at “Buffy Fanmeet” and want to share your experiences, please, please do so in the comments section! I love reading them! If you weren’t there, but you’ve met James, Eliza, or Nicky before and want to share your experiences, please do so in the comments section! If you’ve met nobody before and just want to comment...do so! Finally, it would be the absolute world to me if you’d share this review and let your Buffyverse and convention friends know about the blog. I pour my life, soul, and about twenty hours a week into this little-engine-that-could and anything you can do to help these reviews reach more people is beyond appreciated.

Last, but not least, a huge thank you to my friends Enza and Melly for allowing me to use some of their pictures and videos in this review. All those videos and pictures from the panels came from these guys. It’s greatly appreciated.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10