The Long Parade

This year's mega-California con arrived without Lucy or Renee, but with a boatload of other stars, three days of convention activities instead of the usual two, after- and before-con events, and a few thousand fans. It was packed. Three days was almost too much; even though I didn't attend all the convention hours, by the end of the third day I was beginning to develop a personal relationship with my assigned chair. As usual, the fellow fans at the convention made for the most fun; the nearby hotels and restaurants were packed to the gills at all hours with friendly people who couldn't wait to share a Xena joke with you. XenaGeek heaven.

I have reports from all the Xena folks I saw, but not everyone from the convention. My apologies to anyone whose favorite star I missed, but the schedule just wouldn't allow me to attend all of the convention, and time won't allow me to include the Hercules and Cleopatra 2525 stars in my report (although they were fun, too).

Howard Berger (KNB Effects)
(Sorry, no pictures!)

Danielle Cormack (Ephiny)


Robert Field (Editor)
(Picture-less again!)

Willa O'Neill (Lila)


Ebonie Smith (M'Lila)


Kevin Smith (Ares)


Alison Wall (Minya)


Final thoughts


Creation held two evening cabarets where the guest stars sang and danced and generally hammed it up. I didn't attend them, but I heard that the shows were fun. The first night was more heavy rock-and-roll, the second lots of show tunes and more variety-act-ish, from what I gathered.

I did attend the breakfast with the stars on Saturday morning. Four of the guest stars came to the breakfast: Kevin Smith (Ares) and Joel Tobeck (Strife), both of whom were showing some wear from all the cabaret partying the night before, and Alison Wall (Minya) and Willa O'Neill (Lila), both hitting the convention scene for the first time. All Kiwis. No Yank actor showed up for the early- morning gig; our country looked wussy. The breakfast went well and everyone seemed to get their chance to say hi and get a picture with the stars. This time, the Creation folks shuttled the actors around pretty quickly, which meant that we had less time for chatting, but on the upside, we were done MUCH earlier than the breakfast I attended in Cherry Hill. (And done in time to go eat a second breakfast with the fanfic bards, which was at least as much fun.)

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