Official European Kevin Sorbo Fanclub

Lindsey and Anne gave you such a lovely overview on all the wonderful things that happened in Ghent – so I will restrict myself to my moments with Kevin!

In the morning Anne (as the most courageous of the team) went to Kevin first to get his autograph and have her pictures taken with him, then Lindsey (many thanks, Sam, for your autograph that Lindsey later gave to me!), then it was my turn. Though I had met Kevin six times before, my knees were wobbly and I felt like a block of wood.
I gave Kevin a picture from ‚Paradox‘ that Anne had printed out for me – he and Christopher Judge, clothed like in the 1930th, holding pistols and looking rather grim. At this moment Christopher Judge appeared behind Kevin, and they had an animated talk, while I waited (am not sure whether Kevin called for Christopher because of the photo...). Kevin asked where I got the photo, and I told him Anne had printed it out for me from the internet. Kevin told me that they had finally finished this movie, but when I asked for Abelar and told him that his fans would love to see it, he said he himself wanted to see it, but that there was not much hope for it just now, and looked a little sad.
For the photo he went back to the wall and spread his arms high and wide for me! And then I made the first mistake of this day! I didn’t hug him tightly around his middle, like he might even have expected, but shyly snuggled somehow to his side. There seemed many cameras at work at this moment, and I, in the usual haze, couldn’t decide where to look, until Kevin steered me softly by the shoulders to face Anne’s camera. I didn’t notice how far he bent down to me until I felt his face touch mine, which was a lovely surprise. I love the smile he showed at this moment, though I saw it only later on photos. Finally I got an encouraging pat on the shoulder and a definite “See you again!“
A heartfelt thank you to Peter, Anne, Teresa, Sandra and Ralf, who thought it worth to photograph these moments and sent their photos to me, and thank for your video, Teresa! All of this will remind me that I decided on this day never ever to be shy again!

Photo Session
Which side of Kevin I wanted? I could only murmur: „Both sides feel good!“ It was over rather quickly, and the photos taken were very nice. But again I missed the opportunity to hug him as tightly as I would have liked to! It was great as always to watch Kevin interact with the fans. I loved the way Jenny jumped up and down impatiently in his arm when the photographer took a little longer, and the push Kevin gave her when she left the scene. And Jakub and Vaclav – I hope they will write for themselves!

Q&A
Second mistake: I had left all the varying groups of fans I had been walking about with, in search for something drinkable. Didn’t pay attention to an announcement in Dutch which must have said that Kevin’s panel had been advanced – which all other fans seem to have understood somehow! So I was late and could enjoy only the last ten minutes.

Some impressions:
.....“Acting is my life“, Kevin said very “touchingly. .... Someone asked: “Did you ever decline a part offered to you?“ “Yes“, Kevin answered, I was suppoesd to torture the face of a teenage girl – just couldn’t do it.“ ....
The only consolation for my being late is Ralf’s video on http://www.andromeda-space.de/Start/Kevin.html , which shows the whole Q&A session! Many, many thanks, Ralf! Your arms must have gone lame from holding the heavy camera all the time!
When I came back to the photographers to check if the photos were ready, Kevin was there, talking to a guy from FACTS, and Anne was there, taking very discreetly photos of Kevin. Then (or a little later?) I had opportunity to talk to one of the very kind photographers about the club and the possibility to put some of the extra photos they had made from Kevin on our homepage. Anne finished these negotations a little later, with success.

Later, while I waited in the queue for an autograph of Christopher Judge, I passed Kevin at a rare moment when he had nothing to do. So I asked whether he had any plans to come back to Europe in 2010? “Stockholm“, he said, “and maybe Dirk wants me (Dirk Bartholomä, manager of the FedCon and the RingCon in Bonn), but later in the year“. There was a third opportunity which he couldn’t remember, but he said he would send it to us.

Christopher Judge

When I came to him, he had a quick look at the picture Kevin had already signed and greeted me with “hello Heidi“. He said it “had been fun to shoot this movie with Kevin, and he was glad that it will finally be released. Opposite to Kevin’s ‘All my love‘ he wrote ‘ Heidi, the good looking one‘, which brought a broad (if incredolous) grin to my face. Then he completed his signature with a nice small heart. When he was done, his assistant asked me: “Where did you get the photo?“ From the internet“ , I answered, skipping Anne’s part in the deed. “So it’s illegal“ , the assistant said, and both he and Christopher stretched their hands out for my picture, grinning like ghouls (as it seemed to me), so I thought it wise to hide it very quickly behind my back, and we all had a good laugh. It was nice to observe Christopher’s easy smile, as I had seen him before mostly only as the never laughing, conscientious Teal’c in Stargate.

I had bought two photos with Christopher, and another friendly assistant took them with my camera. I had told him that I had often trouble with focussing it, so he showed me the last picture he had taken and asked if it was okay. Well, it seemed a little blurred on first view – so Christoppher kindly obliged and the assistant took another photo. At home I found out that all three pictures were perfectly alright – so, my apologies, guys, and thank you for three photos!

After Lindsey, Anne and I had our photo taken with Kevin and the birthday book and Kevin had signed the poster that hung on the wall behind him – (I was nearly strangled while Jenny tightened my lanyard, so that Kevin might get the spelling of the OEKSFC right), there wasn’t too much time left. We had been told that the gorgeous poster would be kindly given to the club by the end of the day, so several of us waited near Kevin’s table for this happy occasion – and for the chance to say good bye to Kevin.

The end of the con day was still 45 minutes away – so I decided to have a cigarette – the third and probably biggest of my mistakes this day (one who made me think in earnest about giving up smoking...), for when I returned, Kevin was gone already, and Lindsey told me that she had asked him for a last hug – which she had got, of course, as well as other fans! Lindsey, the two warm embraces you gave me to console me for not getting a hug from Kevin helped so much!

In spite of all mistakes it has been a wonderful day – thanks to all the other fans I met, and thanks to Kevin. I was deeply grateful that he had taken all these hardships upon himself to be there – and wish I had told him so!

Fingers crossed for 2010!

Heidi

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