The Musings of Adam Lawton

Welcome to the Wrath of Con, Day 2 review. Before going further I would just like to add that the photos taken at the event have been uploaded to flickr.

The day started a little late for me, I got to the floor at around 11am I think. I went to another one of Richard Hatch’s QA Sessions, and it was pretty much a lot of what he said from the day before. He showed his trailers for Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming and The Great War of Magellan again, but on top of that he also had a gag reel from the new Battlestar Galactica’s Season 2. It would be really nice if they released those on the DVDs..

Jerry Doyle and Andrea Thompson were up next so I just stuck around. A lot of the beginning discussion was about politics, and although I hate politics I actually found it to be pretty interesting. He talked a lot about his radio show too which covers a lot of the kinds of topics he was discussing. He was then asked a question about what he thinks of Las Vegas, his current home. In his words, “it’s a very ugly city.” He told us a story of one night while he was outside a thief came up behind him and one of his friends at gunpoint and demanded Jerry give him his money. Jerry flat-out refused to do so, and the thief fired a shot right next to him. Jerry and his friend went to file a report to the police, who said that they didn’t have any proof of this happening. “You’ve got tapes, this is vegas. You’ve got tapes of the guys watching the tapes.” When the police again declined, Jerry hired an attorney. Long story short, this stuff happens everyday in Vegas. If you’re a star, whether an A-lister or a small one Vegas likes to keep this sort of stuff under the lid. “Had this happened at a time the Mafia was running the city, it never would have happened.”

Richard’s acting class was bumped from 2pm to 4pm on account of everything running a little late, and I really wanted to get a picture with Gigi so I figured this was my chance. If I had one complaint about the Wrath of Con it would be that it’s enforced too strongly that any photos taken with an actor be done by the on-site professional Photographer. I’m sure there are good reasons for this, but I like pictures that are taken in the moment rather than a pretty backdrop.

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I also bought one of Gigi’s Blue Shift posters and she was sweet enough to sign it for me as well. I carefully carried it back to my room for safekeeping.

It was about time for Richard’s class, so I got back to the Saint Andrew’s Ballroom and was ready to give the performance of a lifetime. The class was very well done; informative and a lot of fun. We did the usual acting class stuff where you stand around in a circle and introduce yourself. If I had to guess I would say that there were probably 20 or so people in the class altogether. After the circle of doom Richard said to find somebody across from you that you didn’t know and partner up with them. This is when I officially met Zarina, who asked to get married (jokingly of course.. right…?). Turns out the skit that we were to do involved us being a married couple who found out that the other was cheating on them. I did a pretty bad job with it just cause I was laughing so much, but better luck next time.

We returned to our seats and did 4 or so improv sketches where we called out random scenarios. I volunteered for one, where another guy and myself were competing for a Chimney Sweep job in London.

Not too long later it was time for the VIP Banquet. More and more people were in their costumes at this point, so I got a few shots of some of those. Once the Saint Andrews VI Ballroom was opened for us I took a seat, wondering out of curiosity who the guest at our table was going to be. You know how they say that when you sneeze your heart stops beating for a moment? Well I didn’t sneeze, but that’s pretty much what happened. Before I knew it Gigi was sitting right next to me. I got to have freakin’ dinner with Gigi Edgley, how cool is that! It was definitely one of those times where you’re like “oh please don’t let this end so soon,” but of course it does. I’m not going to be forgetting that anytime soon though, that’s for darn sure!

Rick Albritton being the generous man he is had Froggy go around everyone’s table and have photos of us taken. Since Aaron Douglas and Tahmoh Penikett were unable to make it, Rick let each of us have a copy of our photo at no charge. That was so nice of him.

As far as the dinner went, and aside from probably having the dumbest looking smile on me sitting next to Gigi, the meal was very good. We had salad, bread, and our main course (that I chose anyway) was a sort of roasted chicken or something. Top that off with one of the most chocolaty German cakes you’ll ever have and it was a wonderful meal. The table directly behind us had Richard Hatch seated there, but unfortunately Virginia Hey was unable to make the event.

Once 8pm rolled around the hotel staff started opening the dividers that separated the ballrooms. The costume lineup was beginning to get underway along with the Wrath of Con afterparty. Everyone did a great job with their costumes and it was fun to watch them all line up.

Then came the music! Pretty much a lot of the popular stuff you hear on the radio - Timbaland, Nelly Furtado, Timberlake, Haddaway, etc. They played Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean, to which my brother started Moonwalking. Gigi and another girl saw this and were Moonwalking with him too which was pretty funny. Gigi gave me one of those pink glowsticks that you get at Disneyland (which of course I saved) and I got to dance with her a little bit too. Richard was cutting a rug, and since this was probably the only time I’d ever be at a dance with Richard I figured why not have a little fun, so I did one of those hip thrust moves behind him that all the cool kids do. He laughed but he probably wanted to deck me, haha.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t dance, but I was having a lot of fun doing so anyway. All of my moves were basically limited to random arm flailing and Dance Dance Revolution stomping. Realizing that I would soon lose my edge I decided to modify some kung-fu forms that I had learned, and surprisingly it actually looked pretty decent. Modified Fifth Form is going to “sweep” the nation, no pun intended.

 

People were starting to leave at around 11 or so, and I bumped into Zarina again who invited me over to the pool where some of us were going to swim. There were a few of us out there, including Gigi, and everyone was getting in their underwear and jumping right on in. Fortunately for me that day happened to be a boxers day, so I thought what the heck and jumped right on in myself. I was really cold though, so I was moving around a lot. After half an hour or so of swimming we went up to Jerry’s room for party numero deux, but unfortunately Jerry had a little too much to drink so we decided to let the poor guy rest. Some of the Wolfpack Elite gang down the hall decided to have their own room party, but Hotel Management ended up evicting them, although from what I hear they let them back in later.

I met Gadget from the Wolfpack Elite boards up in the hall where him and his friends were kicked out. He was extremely wasted so I helped the poor guy to the elevator and back to the con floor. The small handful of us went back to the original dance floor in Saint Andrew’s V. Gadget for some reason saw it necessary to have 2 bags of hot dog buns in his backpack and seconds passed when there were buns all over the floor. There were so few people at the party there and not to mention that I was getting pretty sleepy, so I decided to just call it a night. I ended up going to bed at 2am which is pretty early for me, albeit I was one happy camper.

Stick around tomorrow for the final Day 3 wrap-up, along with afterthoughts and all kind of other wacky goodness!