Angel items were a highlight of the Dealers Room

Sparky (Prop Meister)

"Ok, Sparky, here's the deal!" Bright and early Saturday morning and slightly overhung from party festivities the night before Sparky began rounding out the weekend events in lieu of Mike Massa’s Matrix commitments by offering fans a unique look at some of the actual props and original gadgets used on Angel. The event boasted an impressive list of visiting Angel cast members but joining Dayne Johnson to represent the behind the scenes crew was key prop-guy Ed Servaites, better known as Sparky, who came bearing toy surprises. Bright and early Saturday morning and slightly overhung from party festivities the night before Sparky began rounding out the weekend events in lieu of Mike Massa's Matrix commitments by offering fans a unique look at some of the actual props and original gadgets used on Angel. The props department is responsible for all those little things you see characters holding, wielding or shooting in each episode but might never think twice about. Did you ever wonder who was responsible for those dazzling Las Vegas billboards starring Lorne? It was Sparky and his hard working team. He brought a wide selection of "cool stuff" actually used on the show to exhibit and demonstrate to the audience.

Ed Servaites, the King of Props with Gunn's crossbow

How could you put a Pylean Collar on this pretty neck?

One of the biggest responsibilities of the props department is the procurement and maintenance of the weapons used on the show, from Gunn's homemade wheel rim axe down to each individual stake and crossbow bolt, and there was an impressive range on display. How Sparky managed to make it through customs without being stopped will forever remain a mystery and an amusement to all, but with axes, rubber stakes and crossbows as hand if there, had been any need for slayage at End of Days, we knew who to run to.

Sparky informed us that a number of the weapons are custom made for Angel by specialist companies in Los Angeles. Some of the pieces used on the show are made of rubber for safety purposes but some of them are in fact the real deal. Liaising with Joss and the writers to come up with the basis for a design, the team will then set to work on making it a reality, either buying it, making it themselves or if necessary commissioning someone to do the work. They like some of the weapons to have a rudimentary appearance, as if the Angel Investigations team could have put them together themselves; Sparky showed off an impressive looking metal crossbow actually built around the handlebars of your average bicycle. The instantly recognizable and iconic wrist ratchet stakes were also on show, but life in the props department isn't all axes and swords. He showed us the deceptively innocuous glass bottle used to store Angel's soul in one of Season 4's most pivotal plot lines, and the 'Spin To Win' gambling chips used in the episode, The House Always Wins. Another prop that got a personal display model -- in the form of Julie Benz -- was the slave collar which Cordelia and Fred wore in Pylea. One highlight for fans was a demonstration in which Sparky, with the help of two audience members, recreated a scene from Angel. One lucky fan got to don the actual wrist stake used on the show while Sparky stood ‘off camera’ and by using the wire mechanism launched the stake on the unsuspecting demon. Sparky also explained how the Beast [Vladimir Kulich] was able to consume the solid black Orb during the Ra Tet ritual scene in the episode, “Long Days Journey”. Seems the prop team came up with an ingenious idea of cutting open a rubber racket ball casing, filled it with black Jell-o (food coloring offered that ability) and once it hardened, Vlad got to eat a tasty treat in one full gulp. And finally, for you Angel trivia fanatics, Sparky offered up one cool item which we don’t see very often but know it’s there: Angel’s license plate for his GTO convertible - now you know, his plate number is: California, NKO 714.


Dayne Johnson (Makeup Artist)

This was Dayne’s first Starfury event appearance, having previously met UK fans at Nocturnal 3K and although CoA has interviewed him on several occasions and had the rare opportunity to watch him go to work creating his craft he is a man of few words (although ask him to sing and that’s a vampire of a different color), rather allowing his talent to speak for him. He is exceptionally gifted in his field with a background of experience which speaks volumes including such credits as the Schwarznegger classics: Batman and Robin, Eraser, and (most apropos) End of Days than earning an Emmy for Buffy in 1998 before moving on to Angel. Here, fans got a unique chance to see a handsome young man be transformed into a deadly creature of the night, feral eyes and all. As Dayne applied the various layers of makeup with perfected technique he explained the process that each actor goes through on a daily basis with humorous anecdotes tossed in for good measure and to the delight of the audience. When you attend an Angel event such as End of Days there is never a safe place to just stand around and relax -- remember, you’ve entered into a world of vampires, demons, and champions fighting the good fight. At any moment you could become the subject of a variety of circumstances which soon finds yourself sitting on stage before a large audience while a strange man you’ve never met before eyes your skin closely and calmly asks you to close your eyes and relax. “Say what?” Just such an incident happened to attendee Lee Pursey (from Essex, England) who was approached by Angel head makeup artist, Dayne Johnson during an autograph queue (for Andy, Dayne, Mark and Brody) to be his victim, uhm, subject to help demonstrate the application process and what it is like to be transformed into one of the undead. Luckily for Lee, no Slayers where present and the dusting was kept to a ‘not’.

Dayne begins with gluing on the latex brow piece

“When I was getting his autograph I was asked if I could hang around until the queue went through as Dayne wanted a chat with me,” Lee explains. “I didn't have a clue what he wanted at that time. Dayne explained that he was looking for someone to make up as a vampire in his talk on Sunday morning. He then asked me was I interested, of course the answer was, ‘YES!’” Dayne had been watching everyone who had come through the autograph queue all day looking for what he thought would be the right features for the vampire appearance. “When Dayne was putting on the vampire piece, it felt cold at first because of the glue that he had to use to apply it to my face, then the piece started to become quite stiff and felt like I had a dried mudpack on,” admitted Lee. “After a while it actually started to feel very comfortable. Before we started the session, Dayne was trying different pieces on my face to find the best fitting one. Dayne had David's actual mould, which he tried on me, but unfortunately it wasn't a good fit. Damm!” Lee joked.

Dayne explained that the process only takes around 45-minsutes, but due to questions from the audience it took nearly 1 1/2 hours, the longest he said it has taken him to makeup a vampire! The rest of the process was putting on the makeup and blending the colours to Lee’s face. Finishing off with the veins and then the contact lenses. “Dayne told me to go to the front of the stage with him for a better photo shot. When we did, what seemed to be hundreds of people flocked to the front of the stage to start taking photos of both of us.” He confessed, “This was a fantastic feeling as I felt famous and part of EOD. When we finally finished and left stage, Dayne asked me if I would like to keep the face on for a couple of hours and wander around. I obviously said yes to this, so Dayne asked me to come back every half an hour to have some drops in my eyes to stop the contacts drying out.” As soon as Lee exited from back stage he was surrounded by people that wanted pictures of him but also with him. “This was amazing! I wandered around for a couple of hours like this and I was just getting stopped all the time, having to answer questions on how it felt to be put on and if it was comfortable etc.. I even went and sat in the bar for a beer, the barmaid looked at me a bit funny!” he laughed, “Can’t blame her really!”

When Lee’s wife saw him close up she said that, “It freaked me out," si aid Jo, "it was the eyes more than anything. I didn't know where he was looking.” Lee confessed, “It felt like I was looking straight through her. My first reaction when looking in the mirror was, ‘WOW.’ I had been on stage for 1-hour 30-mins and the crowd saw me from start to finish, all I saw was the end result and what a result. I was so amazed with the transformation. I was a normal guy enjoying the weekend and then I was turned into a vampire straight out of the hit show Angel. This just topped off a fantastic EoD.”

Dayne Johnson and Lee Pursey vamp out!

Lee admitted the most important thing he learned from the experience was patience! “You have got to be very patient to have this process done in a professional way. I can't imagine how Andy Hallett must feel sitting there for as long as he does being transformed into Lorne. I think I could sit and have it done every day through filming a show. It wasn't uncomfortable and Dayne was such a nice person, talking to me whilst he was working, he made me feel so much more relaxed,” Lee enthused, “a big ‘thank you’ to Dayne who was just fantastic through the whole experience.”

Arriving on stage, just a wee-bit worse for wear, after a full weekend of partying Dayne jokingly announced to the audience, “I have to tell somebody never put me on Sunday mornings any more. I think I might have to do Friday afternoons before I get really tired and [pause] hung over.” As the audience responded with laughter he covered one more base by offering the question he is most often asked as, ‘How long does Andy Hallett’s makeup take’, and Dayne responded with a tease towards Andy, “I think he’s got it up to about 4-hours now, it really doesn’t take the long. Well, he comes in in the morning and, talks . . . you know the rest of that story. It takes about 2-hours and 15-minutes but then if he’s late, which is [pause] everyday - if we rush it we can get it done in about 2-hours.” Asked if he could pick a favorite of all the characters he has made up over the previous seasons, Dayne replied, “I never really pick a favorite because they’re all so creative, it’s hard to pick a favorite. No, that’s really not necessarily true. One of my favorites was in Season 1, “The Ring”, the Crib [character] makeup. We got to really do reptile looking makeup on it, so beyond Andy that’s probably my favorite.” Not even Dayne is immune from being victim of his own makeup chair. He informed everyone that unsuspecting fans may discover they have a very unique photo of Dayne as he revealed that while he had three different photo cards for the fans at End of Days, the one from last year has him in full makeup as a demon (at the very bottom), in a long red wig which belonged to Landok, unbeknownst even to Brody.

Initiating new staff into CoA can be fun and we did so with our new UK staff writer Sarah, but unfortunately (although yes, funny) at the expense of Dayne when we sent Sarah up with a loaded question about Faith’s tattoo. When Eliza Dushku was in the shower scene of episode "Release" of Season 4, she was inadvertently missing the infamous tattoo on her right arm. “Oh?” Dayne asked with a raised eyebrow; then added sarcastically joking, “Thanks for noticing! Well, actually I didn’t catch it,” he admitted. “There was one shot where they needed to use her arms and there may have been a ‘reach in’ where it wasn’t Eliza, but during all the other times you saw her it was Eliza doing the whole thing. Everyone was like, ‘Oh she needs a body double,’ Eliza said, ‘No, I don’t want a body double, I want the scene to work so I want to do the scene. [The tattoo] should have been in there but it’s one of those mistakes that you forget when you’re pouring blood all over somebody.” Human errs aside, Dayne is the first to acknowledge the fans and he concluded his special presentation with his typical appreciation and flair. “I know this is a huge commitment and we’re very happy to be here. I know you guys have been waiting in line a lot - every time I walk out of the signing I’m like, ‘Ugh, how long have they been standing there?’ So representing myself and the cast and crew of Angel we really appreciate all the fans coming here and letting us come over -- so my opinion is, give yourselves a big hand. Thank you very much!”


Charity Auction ~ Going Once, Going twice . . .

There may have been “Slappers Stripping for Coinage” on stage Saturday night, to the delight of the female attendees and all for charity of course, but that was not the only money being raised as throughout the course of the weekend several auctions were conducted with both Buffy and Angel items being placed on the auction block for fans to go mad over. And they certainly did, money seemed to be no object when it came to one of kind items such as autographed scripts, makeup appliances: two face peices from the demon "Skip", one with armour and one without, and also the head piece of The Beast - complete with horns and autographed by Vladamir Kulich. There was a variety of CD’s, DVD’s signed by Joss, episode scripts and other rare collectables. A signed copy of the Angel script “Orpheus”, autographed by the entire cast including David Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter went for 600 pounds (that’s $900.00 to you and me here in the US). But that wasn’t the top bid for such an item, another script autographed by the full cast topped out at $1,200.00 by the end of the auction. Half the enjoyment of the auction was hearing the bidding go from mild enthusiasm to full-blown exhilaration, especially when the bids hit the higher numbers. The ahh’s and ohh’s from the crowd escalated as two bidders battled back and forth with the winner receiving not only the item up for bid but a huge round of applause from the fans, whether for the sheer insanity of the final bid or for a well formulated victory, the experience of witnessing the event brought new meaning to the word: Sold!