Conventions/Setvisits
London Expo 2005 - english
London Expo, 14. - 15.May 2005
English
My special moments with Kevin
at the London Expo:
I had 6 of them - 4 autograph signings and 2 photoshoots.
At the first signing I went to on Saturday quite a few of the people in front of me were asking for a photo with Kevin, which he was happy to oblige, but I didn't think I would have the nerve. Anyway, I chose a photo of Kevin as Dylan Hunt which he duly signed, then Peter (my husband) who was standing on the side, called to me and held up the camera so I asked "would I be allowed a photo?" Kevin said "yes" , leaned across the table and I had a photo with him right up close. Thank you Kevin - it was lovely.
Then at the photoshoot on Saturday he gave me a lovely smile, put his arm round me and hugged me close. That was very special. Later on when I took my official photo back to him to be autographed, Kevin signed it, looked at it, and said "its a nice shot". Yes, he was absolutely gorgeous.
On the Sunday I went up with my daughter Jayne. We arrived about 1ish and I decided I was going to go for everything as I didn't know when I would see Kevin again and I wanted to make the most of it. So I booked in for another photoshoot. I did not think he would recognise me from Saturday, but when it was my turn he gave me one of his quizzical looks and a smile and I got the feeling that he knew he had seen me before. I smiled back, he put one arm round me, said how are you, then put the other arm round me and held me really close. I was in heaven and I put both my arms round him - couldn't help it! That was very special for me - thank you Kevin. A little later I went to get another of his photos autographed. After signing it he smiled at me and said "nice to see you again". That was special. I didn't want to leave without having my photo with him signed and when he saw me for the third time that afternoon he said "you again, whats going on"!!
Then we had a conversation about the spelling of my name, how in America its spelt with an 'a' at the end instead of an 'e'. We had a little more conversation then I went home. Thank you heaps Kevin. They are all very special moments to me and I had a superb weekend. I saw Tracy B and said hallo, Claudia spotted me and gave me one of those beautiful lanyards and I said hallo to Heidi who was with Claudia. It was lovely to see you. Apart from that the rest of the weekend is a bit of a blur! I remember lots of queuing (esp. on Saturday) and Kevin, then Kevin and Monika having to compete at the question and answer session on Sat. with the noise of the wrestling, which I thought was a bit off. And for those of us who grew up with Dr Who and the Daleks, there were 2 daleks there on Sunday. When I was little (and probably not so little!) I was one of those who used to hide behind the settee.
Well , when Jayne and I left one of them was moving around and talking in that tinpot voice, we were both spooked, and we made a hasty exit before we were exterminated!
Missed seeing you and Karl there Hannelore, and I hope you are feeling much better now.
Lindsey
London Expo 2005, May 14th to May 15th
By Heidi Stolte
Though Kevin had been announced as star guest on the FedCon site in autumn 2004, nothing happened there for weeks to confirm this wonderful prospect. Then, one day, Iris and I read on this site that they had had to renounce Kevin because Brent Spiner had consented to come. Sighing heavily, Iris and I did our bookings for the London Expo (scheduled for one week after the FedCon in Bonn)- hotel, flight, tickets for the Expo and tickets for the Stansted Express that would take us from Stansted airport to the centre of London.
Having done all this and just leaning back, we read on the FedCon site that Kevin’s participation at the event in Bonn had now been confirmed...
As we wouldn’t get much of our money back, Iris and I decided after some mailing back and forth that we would allow ourselves a double dose of Kevin under these circumstances. Alas, this did not work out for Iris, because her husband got very sick a few days before the Expo, and she had to stay at home. As we had planned everything together, I felt very sorry for her. So I went to London alone. Only marginally I want to mention that my flight left two hours late, that the machine that was supposed to give me my prepaid ticket for the Stansted Express (situated in an extremely cold and draughty hall) refused utterly to do so, that I had to wait in that same hall for the better part of one hour at the ticket counter to get the ticket nevertheless (in the meantime the next train had left, of course), that at Liverpool Street Station I followed the taxi-signs and ended up in a very dark and deserted place with no signs of a taxi at all. It seemed like a small wonder to me that finally, after asking almost all of the few people I met, I found a cab, though it didn’t improve my mood that its doors closed automatically whenever it stopped, probably to prevent my escape. We reached my hotel one hour after midnight.
On Saturday morning, hours before the official entrance-time, the huge middle hall of the Excel Center was already crammed with people. Friendly Expo-helpers referred me to the Fast-Trackqueue, which seemed to be the longest queue despite ist name. A very nice lady waiting before me organised the important black plastic bag for me, which contained the programme, advertisements, Manga cards and more advertisements. A few hours later, with my feet already the worse for wear, I finally got a stamp on my hand and was let in to the Expo hall. Though the programme contained a hall plan, orientation seemed extremely difficult at first. Throngs of people were milling about everywhere, the luckier ones, who had found their aim, forming queues that meandered around each other and left me helpless as to what they were queueing for. Later on I found out that the hall of the Expo was not so very big at all, and navigation was possible, if you knew where to go. Other than at the Maritim in Bonn everything was restricted to one large hall that contained a stage in each of its four corners (main stage, where the actors gave their panels, a wrestling stage, an Anime presentation area and a small cinema), several signing areas and many, many tables with merchandise. It didn‘t take too much time to detect Kevin almost in the centre of the room, at a table he shared with Tia Carrere and several assistents. But how to get to this table?
To my great pleasure I met Tracy and Mariola just then, and together we worked out where to queue. An assistant distributed numbers on the way, which were necessary to get coupons for autographs. I bought one for Tia and two for Kevin because Iris had asked me to have a photo personalised which she had forgotten to do in Bonn. I came first to Tia and said to her: “Nice to see you sitting side by side with your former enemy! You tried to kill my favourite actor in Kull, the Conqueror!“ She laughed very nicely and said apologetically: “I had to! It was my job! I am really a good person, but it is so much more fun to play evil roles.“ I assured her that she had done this in great style, which seemed to please her very much. When I was still some steps away from Kevin, he showed with a friendly gesture of his hand that he recognized me. I explained Iris‘ situation and told him that she was very sad about not being able to come to London. He wrote “Best Wishes to Iris“ on her Hercules-picture and told his assistent that Iris had payed already for the autograph in Bonn, a noble gesture. So I had one coupon left over. Because Hercules looks so grim on Iris‘ picture, I asked Kevin if he had been thinking of Hera then, which brought me a really radiant smile. On the Hercules-picture I selected for his autograph he wrote “Follow your dreams!“ (which I had done already, or else I wouldn‘t have been standing there).
Kevin sat near the end of the long autograph table, and so I took the opportunity to take some photos of him. This turned out to be the very place where on both days you could be sure to meet his fans, drawn to him magnetically. While later on I always got chased away after a short time when I tried to take photos of other actors, this never happened near Kevin. When he saw me standing there I got another of his brilliant heart-warming smiles which surprised me so much that I couldn’t get it into my camera, but it seemed somehow to go directly into my heart.
Shortly afterwards I met Christine from Manchester and Jenny from Nottinghamshire, whom I had got to know at the Wolfevent in 2004. We greeted each other cordially and went together for a while with Jenny’s friend Suzanne. Later on, to my joy, I ran across Claudia. Her flight had been five hours late and she still hadn’t recovered fully from an infection she had caught at the FedCon in Bonn. I gladly gave her my black plastic bag as she had been asked to gather some items for Kevin. At 13.30 h the photo session with Kevin was scheduled, in a corner behind main stage. I recognized the mottled blue cloth in front of which the actors had stood in London 2004.
At that time the actors had been alone with their particular fan and the photographer, but now to my horror the whole waiting queue was watching Kevin pose with his fans. So it did take a lot of courage again to step up to him. Unlike me Kevin seemed quite relaxed. A little intimidated by his sheer height I said to him: “Next time I’ll bring a ladder“, to which he very kindly replied: “ A ladder? No, I’ll come down to you.“ Then he enclosed me firmly by putting an arm around my shoulders and I felt his cheek touching my head. The poor man must have knelt down to do this (I had seen him doing it before for a lady who was still smaller than me), but I couldn’t see what was going on behind me. Again I had to admire his ability to tune in to his new partners within seconds and his affability in doing so.
Soon it was time for Kevins first panel on main stage. Though he moved graciously and agile as ever, his face showed signs of tiredness sometimes, and he told us the reason: He had hardly slept last night. At first a couple next door to his hotel room had indulged in rather loud activities, then another couple had chosen the corridor in front of his room for a fierce quarrel, causing him to jump out in his boxer shorts ( a lady in the audience regretted openly that she hadn’t been there...). At last he had got a call from Los Angeles in the early hours of the morning.
Wistfully he talked about the late Kevin Smith who had been a good friend to him, and when Monika Schnarre joined him after a quarter of an hour we heard funny details about a love scene between them that had been filmed for Andromeda. Because only movable walls separated the room for the spectators from the busy main hall, it was very difficult to understand Kevin, the more so, as the Wrestling Competition in another
corner aspired to its culmination during Kevins panel. He loudly asked: “Do I have to compete with this?“ Perhaps he hoped that someone would give him a better microphone, but nothing happened. It was a small comfort that even the English ladies hardly understood a word, and we were very disappointed about the organisation.
Tia Carrere’s panel followed, then came the crew of the Spaceship Enterprise, all seemingly very nice people who were disappointed that the series had been cancelled abruptly. As the hearing problems got no less, I forwent John de Lancie, for whom I had been looking forward, too. In the evening a party should take place in the Crown Plaza Hotel.
Kevin had told Christine that he intended to come, so I braved the icy wind and walked about half a kilometre to the hotel in my new and rather uncomfortable shoes. Though I got there before the official entrance time, the room was already full of people. I would have turned back there and then, because I hate standing around at parties, but Christine and Jenny had very kindly reserved a seat for me, and I had the pleasure to be introduced to Jenny’s son, who is a very nice young man. Talking was difficult as the music got louder and louder. When by half past nine none of the promised star guests had appeared and my ears boomed, I fled to my hotel room.
Next morning Christine told me that only one or two of the star guests had made an appearance late at night, and no Kevin. He had told her during the autograph session that he had wanted to go to the party, but had fallen asleep at the table during his dinner in a Chinese restaurant and then had gone straightly to bed. On this day I allowed myself some glimpses on the other stars, for example Leonard Nimoy, Teryl Rothery, Erika Durance, Robia La Morte, Dominic Keating and many more. I bought an autograph from John de Lancie.
Then I went to Kevin’s table for the last time to get his signature for the picture that had been taken during the photo session (I like this very much). When Kevin noticed me, he said: “Heidi is back.“ Then he looked at John de Lancie’s picture in my hand and told me that John had played in Andromeda several times, which I knew. I didn’t dare to ask Kevin whether John is as arrogant in real life as he appears to be in most of his roles (and how he had affected me while he wrote his autographs). Then Kevin said with a nice smile: “I wore your pullover yesterday, it was so cold!“
Fast as lightning a picture formed in my mind – Kevin sleeping at the table, wearing my pullover... I hope the effect will not be repeated whenever he wears it. Kevin promised once more to send me a picture of him wearing the pullover, which made me very happy. I begged him to come back to Europe, and he very definitely said: “I will come back to Europe.“ A friendly bye, bye, and this was it.
I spent several hours walking around with Christine , admired the extra large Hercules-poster Suzanne had bought, talked to some ladies of the OAKSFC, saw Tracy and Mariola again and met Claudia with some English members of the OEKSFC. To Jenny I gave the Manga cards and half an army of the Clone Trooperfigurines that had meanwhile accumulated as complimentary gifts.
During the panels of Erika Durance and Robia La Morte (Buffy) I slowly advanced to the first row where the acoustics were a little better than yesterday. For the Fancy Dress Competition people had taken great pains, but the sole jugde (which appeared to be rather full of himself) seemed to prefer ladies in leather-gear. Then Kevin came on the stage. Somebody had purchased a force lance by auction. Kevin asked for it and told us about all the jokes that had been made around it. Among other things, which I don’t remember, he described a typical day during the shooting of Hercules – getting up between 4.30 and 5 a.m., training, driving to the scene in left-hand traffic, 12 to 14 hours shooting. Right after the Expo Kevin would fly to Washington D.C. for talking to the Congress about concerns of the AWFFK, as he had replaced Arnold Schwarzenegger as a spokesperson for the Afterschool Alliance. After a quarter of an hour Kevin was joined by Monika Schnarre again, and those two seemed to be a good team. When Kevin was asked to sing for us, he said: “Definitely not!“ He would do this only in Bonn, where the acoustics are better (how right he was!).
When I returned to main stage after a short break to hear John de Lancies panel, nothing seemed to happen there anymore. Meanwhile the trailers of Star Wars and other Sci-Fi-films that were shown all the time between panels got mightily on my nerves, and after a last long look at Kevin still writing untiringly autographs I left the Expo.