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Continued
from previous page... Autographs With 2,500 attendees, the autograph queues were bound to be quite long but, as the numbers were called in groups, things seemed to move along quite well, and hats off to the stewards for keeping us all in line (pardon the pun!). Whilst some guests were going through the queues like a bat out of hell, namely Keith Szarabajka and Tamara Gorski, others took a little longer. At one point, in an attempt to fulfil the queue of patient conventioneers, J. August Richards walked down the line in rock star style signing for each person as he went. Holtz's protege, Vincent Kartheiser, at his first ever convention appearance, was very charming and took his time with the attendees offering a little conversation to each of them. Another Convention first timer was the delicious Alexis Denisof, suffice to say, everyone wanted a piece of him and really - can you blame them? Unfortunately, due to work commitments, Alexis was unable to stay for
There was a great moment on Sunday when Julie and Linda went through to the session with Andy Hallet, Mark Lutz, Brody Hutzler and Dayne Johnson. Andy, on fine form, was very excited when the conventioneer who had dressed as Lorne in the Fancy Dress competition last night, asked Andy to sign his Pink Jacket. Andy enthused about the coat and came around the table to try it on, asking Dayne what he thought of it and 'wouldn't it be great if I could have one made like this for the show'. He seemed reluctant to sign the coat, worrying about spoiling it but when reassured wrote, 'Great coat'. Suddenly he exclaimed, "Oh I should have written, 'How fabulous would I look in that coat?'" One of his self confessed favourite lines from the show, he then added, 'How fabulous would I look in it!' He also took Linda's photo of him (from Caritas last year) to show to Dayne as he decided that he liked his haircut in said photo and would like it cut that way again. In the meantime, Mark and Dayne were patiently waiting and laughing at Andy' antics! Brody, a first timer himself was very charming and kept the attendees amused as they waited their turn to see Andy. Of course for Andy the whole event was marred when a certain citizen on being asked to get him a coffee inadvertently served tea - well it is England! Finally from the obvious in-jokes with the girls through to the name-calling and madness of the boys the comfort and friendship between the cast and crew was evident at all of the signing sessions. It was a pleasure to see these relationships and definitely made any waiting worthwhile. A concerted effort was made by all the staff and stewards during the autographs and even though it was known before the convention that attendees could not expect to receive a full compliment of autographs, it seemed that everyone got autographs from a good number of their favourite actors. The guests were tireless as always, often going above and beyond and always with a warm greeting for the attendees. It was impossible to go away from the weekend without a smile on one's face. Photos Whilst there was a little confusion over the times at which to buy tickets for the various guest photos, the actual sessions themselves went off without a hitch. By calling the ticket numbers in batches again, the queues were run efficiently and quickly. The first sessions were on Friday with Julie Benz and Juliet Landau (together), Stephanie Romanov , Mark, Andy and Brody (together), J.August Richards and finally Clare Kramer with Nicole Bilderback. Sarah commented that she found standing between two women as beautiful as Julie and Juliet and then three men as funny and handsome as Mark, Andy and Brody was a little nerve racking but the guests had genuine smiles on their faces the whole time and seemed to really enjoy themselves.
The Sunday sessions also went well, with the only missing cast member being Daniel Dae Kim who did not make it to the weekend due to being cast in the new Starsky and Hutch film, and Angel stunt coordinator, Mike Massa, who was called back for re-shoots for the third installment of The Matrix. Although they were missed the other guests made up for their absence with willing smiles and friendly banter. Andy Hallett as "Lorne" A big treat for everyone at End of Days was the opportunity to have your picture taken with Andy Hallett made up as Lorne. Courtesy of Andy and the lovely Dayne Johnson, who graciously gave over three hours of their time to prepare Andy's make-up, the 'Ole Green Drag Queen' was present for a marathon photo session on Saturday evening. In an effort to beat James Marsters' record at the 2002 SFX event any and all photo hopefuls were rushed through at a rate of approximately 9 shot's per minute, despite working at least one camera into submission, this resulted in Andy and the crew smashing the record by getting through over 1000 photo's in a two hour period. Absolutely tireless, Andy generously offered to continue in to the night, what a star! He looked fantastic in all his green glory and seemed on quite a high from the record-breaking attempt, "I beat his bleached blond ass!", not to mention the many Lornettes and other costumed fans who made an appearance. Even our beloved Virginia Obeius (CoA creator) showed her true masterful colours in the last photos of the evening along with steward David Sexton, in their demon masks. Fund-Raising
The theme for Sunday night's party and the closing ceremony was a little poignant; just as senior prom is one of the last hurrahs of your high school years, so the night was our last night at End of Days. Tomorrow it would be back to reality, but for then it was a celebration of the fantastic time had by all over the weekend. The guests said their goodbyes in the same manner as they said their hellos, one by one, each taking a personal moment to thank all the wonderful fans they had met. Sadly we had already lost Alexis, Stephanie and Clare due to other commitments but that didn't stop the other guests from gathering up their microphones, banding together and joining to lead the room in that Angel karaoke classic 'Mandy.' If you thought Mr Boreanaz' version was a tear jerker (tears of laughter that is), then you would have melted at the sight of father and son, Holtz and Connor - Keith Szarabajka and Vincent Kartheiser - with their arms around each other's shoulders, belting the tune out together. A perfect end to an unbelievable three days. |
