Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Hey guys, I’m back from a Buffy convention in the Catskills called Moonlight Rising. And let me just say that it was AWESOME. It just KICKED ASS. After arriving at the hotel for about 20 minutes, I go to get food in the "dinning room" (the hotel was SUCH crap, lol) and I see Tony Head just standing there. I was like " OMG it’s Giles!" lol so I had to go over and say something. I just shook his hand and told him I was a big fan (I couldn’t think of what else to say, lol) and he just said "thanks" and stuff and then left. Later on Friday night was the Common Rotation concert. Those guys are awesome! I was front and center (I was standing and dancing so I was literally as close to the stage as you could be without being on the stage itself) and Adam dropped sweat on me, lol. So that concert was a bunch of fun. James Leary, Amber Benson, and Christopher Golden were watching the concert from a table over towards the side. After the concert, I went over to James Leary (Clem) and said, "I have to tell you that you just kick ass! You rock!" he laughed and shook my hand and said thanks and everything, I told him that even though he was in like four episodes, he is still one of the best characters ever, lol. So he was VERY cool, and he is HOT. He is realllllly hot, lol. So after saying hello to him I shyly went over to Amber. I said, "Amber, I love you so much. I just..I can’t think. I love you." she smiled and thanked me, and I asked her if I could get a picture with her and she kindly said yes (I will post all my pictures here as soon as I can get someone to resize and upload all of them, lol). I talked to her for like 5 minutes, asking her if she was okay after the accident (yeah, she got in a car accident on the way up, her car hit a deer but she was fine, although she was feeling sick and tired the whole con), telling her I had a present for her at the autograph signings, etc. She was very excited about the present, lol. First she said she hoped it was edible, lol, but when I told her it wasn’t she said she hoped I wrote it. So I responded, "Well, I did actually. Part of it." that excited her, lol. I was very tired after the concert and her security guards were tearing her away, lol, so she gave me a hug and we went our seperate ways. Amber is everything you always hear that she is. She is AMAZINGLY sweet and generous. I’ve never met a nicer person in my entire life, and let me tell you, I’ve met a lot of nice people, lol. She’s smaller than I expected, and a lot skinnier too. And Josh, Amber says hi. First thing on Saturday was Adam Busch’s Q&A session. Adam is freakin’ hilarious! He kept putting down Danny Strong, lol. Like he said if he could kill one character off the show it would be "whoever Danny Strong plays because when I shoot him he would have a shorter fall." LMAO. And he kept randomly bursting into "We are as GODS!" and 50 Cent, LOL. He was SO funny. He said a bunch of other hilarious stuff that I can’t remember at the moment. So after his talk, I went to get in line for my photo session with James Marsters. After waiting like an hour and a half, I was finally called in. All the air in my body just escaped at that moment. I saw him and I was just thinking, "Oh. My. God." James is HOT in real life. And I mean HOT. He is just GORGEOUSLY GORGEOUS. I went over and sat next to him, I introduced myself and told him it was such an honor to meet him. He said, "Stop or you’ll make my ego get huge!" so I said, "Yeah, but you’re gorgeous! I can’t help it!" and he just laughed and said, "What are you trying to do to me? My head’s gonna explode!" so then we took the picture with our arms around each other and our faces touching. He shook my hand and gave me a hug on the way out. And WOW, James is FIT. He has niiiice muscles, and his body is like rock solid. Woof. I get that picture back in a few weeks, so I can’t wait for that.

After the photo shoot I headed over to the Common Rotation signing. All the band members were really cool, but I was anxiously waiting to meet Adam. When I got to him, I said, "Hey Adam! Do you know Melanie Seinfeld?" and he goes, "Yeah!" and then looks at my badge (to see my name) and says, "Did you write a letter to my mom?" and I just nodded my head and told him yes, lol. He instantly got up and gave me a big hug, telling me that he loved my letter and that it was so sweet, etc. We then started talking about Shelby Woo for a bit, lol. Before leaving, I mentioned I had written another letter to his mom this past week with the Hollywood Reporter with our ad in it. He said he could not wait to see it (he seemed very excited about it all) and then mentioned that BTY.com hadn’t worked when he tried to go on it before ("someone" told him about it, I wonder who, lol) but he said he’d definitely try to go on it again so I wrote the address down for him. Adam was such a sweetie, lol. After the ComRo signing was Amber’s Q&A session. Amber is so damn perverted. They had this sign language interpreter there and Amber kept saying "spread beneath my willow tree" and "you make me come....plete" to make her do dirty sign language, lol. She taught us all how to say "come" in sign language, so Amber was constantly doing that throughout the talk. LMAO. She talked about pornography a lot as well, lol. I won’t go into great detail about that though. After Amber’s talk was James’ talk. James was awesome as well, and GET THIS: He’s a B/A shipper! Muahaha. He said he didn’t think Buffy really loved Spike, he liked Spike/Dru much better than Spike/Buffy, and he thought Buffy still loved Angel. James’ talk was great as well. He’s a funny guy and he’s SUCH eye candy, lol. He said some sad stuff about how he used to be married to a woman that didn’t love him so he was living a lie for years. Tony’s talk was cool as well. He’s very different from Giles. He wears leather jackets, earings, sunglasses, and likes to make sexual jokes and curse a lot, lol.

After the talks were the autographs. James Leary remembered me from the night before and asked how I was doing, etc. He signed my picture with "Got Kittens?" Next was James Marsters. I presented James with my gift for him, a compilation of messages from his thread over at Buffythankyou.com. He said, "oh wow! I’ll be sure to read this tonight!" then he signed my picture for me, but they weren’t allowing him to sign things and personalize them for whatever reason. So I said, "Oh, that’s okay, can I get a hug though?" he said "Hell yes!" and jumped up and gave me a great big hug. Next was Tony, who quickly flipped through his book (same thing as I got/made for James) before signing an 8x10 to me. Then was Amber. When I got to her, she said, "Hey Karen!" which made my heart melt, lol. I said, "Amber! When I met you llast night you said you were hoping my gift for you was edible. So.." I then pulled out a Snickers bar, lol. She started cracking up and then I gave her the real gift (same thing as for James and Tony). She got out of her seat to give me a huge hug and said she couldn’t wait to read it. She signed a picture of her and Aly for me, and when I told her thanks for being such an awesome role model and hero to me, she grabbed my hand and just held it, saying, "No, thank YOU." Lastly was Christopher Golden, who signed my Buffy Yearbook with "Have a nice summer." Sunday, they had a short talk by Christopher Golden and James Leary. Those two guys are SO funny together. They just feed off each other. They did this whole "Inside the Actor’s Studio" impression before beginning with the things that were to be auctioned. They were both saying a bunch of hilarious stuff (James made Chris cry at one point cause he was laughing so hard, lol). When they were selling this W/T "Wilderness" comic book signed by Amber, James kept screaming out, "Hot lesbian action! Hot lesbian action! In the ’wilderness’! I don’t know what images that brings to your head but it makes me quite happy!" LOL. So they auctioned off a bunch of cool things..but the best: Anthony Stewart Head’s ass. They were auctioning off a chance to grab his ass for 10 seconds. The winning bid? $4,000. I got some awesome pictures of these ladies grabbing his ass. I also got a nice picture with myself, James Leary, and Chris Golden. James gave me a great big hug after that picture. Then was Amber’s second Q&A. She was much more lively this time, and even funnier than the day before. She kept saying how she couldn’t think, so she goes "I don’t know where my mind’s gone! Has someone sucked it out?" LMAO. And she did this HILARIOUS impersonation of Oz and Tara from New Moon Rising. It was SO funny, she was so red, lmao. It was just freakin’ hilarious. Someone asked her what she thought of all the Kennedy/Willow scenes this season (turns out she hasn’t watched ANY of season 7, not even the finale!). She was like, "they have sex scenes?" so someone screams out, "yeah, with tongue rings!" so she says, "Really? That BITCH! She’s cheating on me!" She talked a lot about her breasts and more about pornography, LOL. She’s too funny. James’ talk was awesome again. Someone told him about the outfit that sold for $13,000+ on ebay and he was just speachless, lol. Then Tony came on, talking a LOT about his ass, lol. He sang 2 songs from his CD and then called Amber out to sing their duet from the musical. Both of them had totally forgotten the lyrics (even though they had the script book right in front of them), so they had to sing it a few times (not that anyone minded!) to get it just right, lol. Amber sounded awesome even though she was sick. I left and came home after Tony’s talk.

---

Well, here is my very long and hopefully not boring Moonlight-Rising report. First I have to say that since I worked as a volunteer, I did miss quite a few things, so you will have to get some of the facts from others. I will, however, tell you all my wonderful moments and there were lots of them. On Friday, I worked at the registration desk, so nothing really big to report there except I met a lot of really wonderful people who were attending this convention. Unfortunately, since I was running around so much on the volunteer thing I didn’t bring my camera so it would have been too easy to lose it so I had to depend on others taking pictures of me. Hopefully, I will get copies of them eventually.

Anthony Stewart Head: On Saturday, I didn’t get to hear Tony’s talk, but I did get to speak to him for a moment in the autograph line. Of course, as usual, foot in mouth time for me. I got up to him at the table and took out the picture I was having him autograph and without thinking I said "Crap, I got finger prints all over your body." I was wiping the fingerprints off the picture when I suddenly realized what I had said. I looked up at him and he was giving me this incredibly funny look. Of course, I had to say "that came out so wrong" and he laughed and said "somehow that line would never have sounded right." Later that night, I had a chance to talk to him again and someone took my picture with him. I said, now I get to leave real fingerprints on your body and he responded "I am looking forward to it." Later I went upstairs and put on my "wench" outfit and came back. Tony’s comment when I walked into the room was "Looking good." He grabbed me to dance for Lady Marmalade, but I couldn’t breathe in the corset and had to stop. He then started dirty dancing with some girl. This man can shake his booty!!! One thing that I thought was very kind of him was that I told him that when I first heard him sing on the show I was totally amazed because he had such a great voice. I also said that I had done theatre for quite a while but quit because I got tired of being told by directors that I stunk as an actress (even though they kept casting me). He said "you shouldn’t let them do that to you, if you want to do it, go back and try again. Lastly, in my opinion the man is much better looking in person.

Jim Leary: Jim Leary was once again very funny and kind. He had his wife with him and she was absolutely adorable and just as nice as he was. At the VIP dance I went and sat with them for a while until they started playing a slow dance and I told him to dance with his wife. He grinned at me and said I think I will." In the autograph line, when I got to him, I looked at him and said, "I don’t want your autograph, I already got that" to which he started laughing and then he signed my picture. Rumor had it that he kept giving his security people the slip and I had visions of him hiding behind trees watching these pure security guys try to find him and him laughing at them. On Sunday night, they showed a short film that he had made (about 20 minutes I think) and since it was a quite raunchy, I will only say that when he walked by me, he stopped and I said "You are an incredibly sick and depraved person, did you know that?" He responded "you got that right" and I said "I knew there was a reason I liked you." I just love this man.

Amber Benson: We were all very disappointed to hear on Friday that Amber had hit a deer on her way to the convention (she apparently drove in from LA) and would be arriving later then we thought. Luckily, she was okay and did arrive on Saturday (sore and very tired). What a sport she is. She always had a smile on her face even though I am sure she must have been feeling a little off color. She is very sweet and soft spoken - a very kind soul. One really embarrassing thing happened to me when I was working the autograph line. My job was to make sure that people left the room after they got their autographs so that we could clear the room to get ready for the showing of Chance. At one point, a woman came in and told me she wanted to go and talk to someone. I started asking her if I could get someone for her and she kind of walked off. I politely (thank God) told her that we were trying to clear the room. Someone at that point came up and told me she was Amber’s mother. Now I am truly mortified. I did get to talk to her that night and she was very nice. I asked her if there was a possibility that Chance would become available for people to purchase and she said that they were still working on options.

Funny moments I missed but heard about. At the auction, apparently Jim Leary and Chris Golden were the auctioneers and at one point they asked Tony (who was signing autographs) if they could auction off his "bum" to which he said "sure, why not." Therefore, the last item to be auctioned was a ten second grope of Tony Head’s butt!!! As the bidding went on, Jim Leary was falling down on the floor saying that the heated bidding was tiring him out. Finally it was a bidding war between two women—when it reached around $2,000, Tony agreed to let each of them have 10 seconds, so they raised around $4,000 for charity. He then went on the stage, flipped up his coat and leaned over. The first woman really got her money’s worth and when she was done he looked at her and said something like "good grope." The other woman was going to let a friend of hers take the grope, but Tony suggested they share and each take a cheek! I am really sorry I missed that, so I hope people got good pictures.

The showing of Chance was definitely a highlight of the weekend. Both James and Amber were wonderful. James was incredibly funny and it was fun to see him play a character that was so different from Spike. I really do hope that they are able to make it available for people to buy because it was absolutely incredible. James came in and sat on the side to watch the movie and one of his security people told me that he kept laughing and was bright red (especially in the scene where he was wearing the dress). It was apparently the first time he had seen the movie with a live audience and I think he was a little embarrassed.

James Marsters: Of course, I have to save the best for last. James was, as usual, very charming and kind with the fans. I am constantly amazed at how open he is about himself. In the autograph line I asked him to sign a picture I had printed of him. I had taken the shot where he was sitting on the wooden floor in the blue shirt and looks like a little boy and I added Eeyore to the bottom. The funny thing was that Eeyore was sitting in almost exactly the same position and was almost the same color as James’ shirt. He broke out laughing and said "Eeyore. I love it." I gave him a copy of the photo which he seemed really happy to get. Then I told him that I would probably end up giving that autograph to my niece who is a big fan of his and also loves the Pooh characters. I told him that I was a sucker for the big doe eyes and he said "I believe in Karma. If you do good things, then good things happen to you." I then said that since I didn’t have children of my own, my niece was kind of like my own and he nodded his head and said something about feeling the same way about his niece.

In his talk, some of the highlights for me were when he talked about the movie he is going to make with Sean Bean and Derek Jacobi. One funny moment was when someone told him that their daughter had a picture taken with him in the photo session and that she said he smelled wonderful. He responded by saying "good, that shower must have worked" and added that "I have a niece who says I smell like hot dogs." When he was asked whether Spike really meant want he said in the final episode about Buffy not loving him and after a few minutes of thought he said yes. He felt that Spike finally realizes that Buffy will not ever love him because she still loves Angel. She loves him as a friend. She says she loves him at the end because he is about to die and she sort of believes that she does, but he knows it isn’t true. He said something like Spike had finally become a real man and realizes that he is not sacrificing himself for her, but because it is the right thing to do. He also said that he had no idea what they were going to do with his character on Angel, but he hoped that Angel and Spike didn’t become friends because he thinks that would not ring true since Spike really hates Angel because Buffy loves Angel, as did Drusilla. He added that he hopes that Spike makes Angel’s life miserable. When asked whether he thought Spike would be human he said "Oh God, I hope not." When asked what he was passionate about, he said politics. He commented that his brother keeps asking him when he is going to run for office but I got the impression that he wasn’t really interested in doing that.

At the VIP dance, James was NOT supposed to appear, but apparently when his manager said they could leave at any time, he said he didn’t want to leave ’cause he was having too much fun. There was a crowd of people standing around waiting to talk to him or have their picture taken with him so, once again, I didn’t really get to talk to him since I have a problem with pushing up front and keep letting others get in front of me (my problem and something I will have to work on - I will speak to this man for a few minutes one-on-one some day). What amazes me about him is that he is totally focused on whoever he is talking to and is completely oblivious to what is going on around him. I did listen to him talking to other people and once again was blown away by how intelligent and passionate the man really is.

Of course, my big moment was the presentation of the Charity Project book to him. I was supposed to do it on Saturday, but they forgot it in the craziness of the convention so unfortunately I had another 24 hours to worry about it and work myself into a frenzy of nerves. When they called me on stage on Sunday at the end of his Q&A I was totally and completely freaked and couldn’t stop shaking. I had lost my voice so I was upset about that and then I was so nervous, I couldn’t even look at the man so I have no idea what his reaction really was. At the end of it, I thought I was going to break out in tears so I kind of ran off stage like a crazy woman. I never heard what he said after that since ran out of the room to cry (seriously - how embarrassed am I anyway). I was told that he held the book up and said something like this is the best part of what I do. Being able to help people or inspire others to help people. People kept saying I would be fine since I had done theatre for so long, but since I was up there as myself (not a character) and because it was a very personal thing for me I guess that was why I was so nervous. Anyway, I think he was pleased. If anyone was there and saw his reaction, please let me know. I am hoping that the convention will let me have those few minutes of the video so I can post a link to it for people to see. If that happens, please ignore me completely.

I am sorry this was so long, but there were so many wonderful things that I just had to let you guys know how much fun I had. The best part was meeting all the fans. I have short term memory problems so I kept forgetting who people were. If you introduced yourself to me and I forgot who you were, please forgive me, it is not intentional, but I loved everyone I met. All of the fans were absolutely wonderful.

---

There’s just so much to tell. The hotel was atrocious and the con poorly organized. This was my first convention so I have nothing to compare it to, but every experienced con goer I talked to ranked it very poorly.

But the guests were wonderful, of course. James Leary is a very funny man, Common Rotation ROCKS, Amber is really a sweetheart and I was truly impressed with James Marsters willingness to speak his mind and voice opinions about Spike that he knows his fans don’t want to hear. My favorite was when he made the point that if a guy treats the world poorly, he will ultimately treat his girlfriend poorly as well. He made it clear he didn’t see Spike as redeemed before the soul at all.

But since we are here to talk about Tony, I’ll do just that. I really didn’t get many sightings of him outside of the official functions. The first time I saw him was at the picture taking on Saturday. People kept saying they could see glimpses of him through the door but those of us under the height of 5’4" just couldn’t see him. So it wasn’t until I actually got into the room that I saw him. He was wearing the same Lucky Brand shirt that he wore at FedCon. But he had on some ugly shell type necklace with it. I was sorely tempted to tell him I refused to have my picture taken with someone wearing that atrocity but I didn’t think that would make a good first impression. I was in line with a bunch of people from the TweedyBookGuy group and we were all having fun while each of us had our picture taken. The woman who was two people ahead of me had a lovely, black fan with her and when she sat down for her picture, she motioned to it and said: "I have this because I don’t know what to do with my hands." Tony cracked up laughing at that comment. When I sat down a few moments later, I just said "Hi" and found myself incapable of thinking of anything else. He put his arm around me (as he did with everyone) and then said "I wonder what she was planning to do with her hands." I responded, "You don’t want to know" and he giggled. The photographer snapped the picture, said "Lovely", and was ready to move on but Tony insisted that he’d blinked and asked for another one. I hope that my elation at another few seconds wasn’t too obvious. Another one was taken and that was it. I really can’t remember if I actually uttered another word during that time.

Didn’t see him again until his Q&A that afternoon. My assigned seat for the Q&As was right on the center aisle in the first row on the second level, so I had a perfect view of all of the guests. Unfortunately, the lighting was not good and I am a novice photographer so few of my pictures turned out. I’m working on a transcript of both Q&As but probably won’t have them ready until this weekend at the earliest.

Tony was great, of course, but I really got the impression from his body language that he was tired and not in the best of moods. Anyone who was there and saw the crappy hotel will understand why that may have been. My favorite moment on that day was when someone asked what motivates him to get up in the morning. He seemed to be trying to think of a serious answer for a moment, but then said "This morning it was a fly." The audience cracked up, because the flies were horrible at that place and we all knew what he was talking about.

Then came the autograph session. It was scheduled from 4:00 - 7:00 for people with badge numbers 1-400. I was number 296. Everyone was to wait in their chairs and we were called up to the line by row. By 5:00, only the first 50 or so people had gone up for their autographs. Julie Caitlin Brown (James Marsters’ agent) came up and told us we couldn’t spend a lot of time talking to the guests because it was holding up the line far too much. They also split up the guests, moving James Marsters and James Leary to a separate table. It was clear that Marsters and Head were the two big draws so they split them up so anyone who only wanted the autograph of one, but not the other, could get through more quickly, thus speeding up the line. At least that was the theory.

One funny thing did happen during this wait. A group of us were chatting about many things, including an exchange of horror stories about the hotel. One of the guys left for a break and when he came back, he said, "The weirdest thing just happened. I was at the urinal, not looking around, because guys just don’t do that. All of a sudden, I hear Anthony Stewart Head saying to me, ’God, this place is gloomy isn’t it? Something needs to be done to cheer things up.’" The two of them then had a chat in the men’s room about how bad the hotel was.

Anyway, it was nearly 6:30 before my row was called up to the line. I choose just to get autographs from Tony and Amber (who was at the same table) and not from James. I had wanted all three but I was tired and wanted to get the hell out of that room. I didn’t want Marsters’ enough to stand in yet another line after I’d gotten Tony’s. Besides, I figured I wouldn’t take up time and space from those who did really want to see Marsters and had also been waiting forever.

The woman just ahead of me in Tony’s line spoke to him at length, thanking his for being there. I couldn’t hear everything she was saying, but after a moment, he stood up, gave her a hug and said, "Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you are just an ordinary person. No one is just ordinary." She must have said something about him taking time for ordinary people like her. I thought that was very sweet of him.

Then it was my turn. I handed him the Sweet Transvestite CD I’d gotten off eBay and he said "Oooh, excellent". He didn’t say anything else after that and just started signing it. I found myself desperate for something to say and I ended up asking him if he had any plans to ever do Rocky Horror again (how original, sheesh). He told me that there had been talks last year about him doing some guest appearances on a tour (I knew that) but he couldn’t because of Buffy (again, I knew that). He then said something about being much older if he ever does it again and I think I said "That’s okay". He’d finished signing and then held up the CD to show it to the con person sitting next to him. He seemed quite pleased with it, but she didn’t even react. He handed it back, I said "Thank you" and went off.

I kinda wish I’d said more, but I am not by nature an outgoing person and it is extraordinarily rare for me to feel comfortable chatting with someone I’ve just met. Add the celebrity factor and I guess I actually did rather well by not making a fool of myself in any way. Besides, he was obviously very tired and, although he was being very friendly to everyone, his body language was just screaming that he wanted out of there. I felt rather bad for him because from everything I have heard about him, that is not typical and he must have been extremely miserable for it to be showing even a little.

He did stop signing at 7:00 even though there were still people waiting. It was arranged that he would finish signing for that group the next morning. This actually turned out to be a good thing because I don’t think the events of Sunday morning would have happened otherwise.

There was a VIP Dance Saturday night that Tony attended, but I didn’t purchase my ticket in time to get a VIP ticket. I heard he did dance for a while and spent a long time talking to a woman and her seriously ill son.

Sunday morning, there was a charity auction scheduled for 9:30 . I went to the main theater to find no auction was ready. I was going to leave but someone told me that Tony was going to be there that morning to sign more autographs. So I decided to stick around and a bunch of us hung out in the main lobby. Chris Golden was giving his scheduled Q&A in the theater and after awhile, we realized that he and James Leary had started auctioning off items. They were very funny together. The auction was to benefit Saint Jude’s Hospital and Leary and Golden were constantly saying it was "for the children". At some point, Golden mentioned that at a convention in England last year, they had auctioned off Tony Head’s ass.

(Time for a little history for those who have never heard of this before. At the Eclipse Convention last June, Danny Strong and George Hertzberg were doing a charity auction and somehow came up with the idea to auction off the right for someone to grab their bums. They then announced that Tony Head had agreed to auction off a fondle of his bum as well. It ended up going for £150 (I believe). Chris Golden was also at that convention and obviously remembered the intensive bidding that went on for this particular honor.)

So back to Moonlight Rising. I think Golden was just joking at first but soon realized from the audience reaction that some serious money could be raised. After mentioning it a few times, he said he would ask Tony to do it when he arrived at the theater. (Golden later admitted that he asked in public because he was sure the answer would have been ’No’ if he’d asked in private.) When Tony walked into the back of the room about 11 am , Golden yelled out his name. Tony yelled back, "What?" and Golden told him that they wanted to know if he would auction off his ass again. (BTW, I am actually using the word ass less often in my description than it was used at the actual event.) There was a long pause and finally a staff member yelled back, "He said yes." The room erupted with screams and applause. The room was actually only about ¼ full at the time, because this was not a planned event. I can’t help but wonder how things would have turned out if it had been a full house.

Leary and Golden returned to auctioning off other items. Leary had been scheduled for an 11:00 Q&A but it never took place due to the auction. Finally they ran out of items and announced that the time had arrived to auction off Tony Head’s ass. Bidding began at $50.00 but was up to several hundred dollars in just a few short minutes. I knew several of the people who were bidding and that it included the woman who’d won the similar auction at Eclipse. I was certain she was going to go as high as it took. In fact, I believe it was a comment that Chris Golden made to her when she bid on something earlier that prompted him to start the whole thing.

I wish I had thought to tape this event because Golden and Leary were so funny with their reactions to how high the bidding was going. They kept making comments about how they were auctioning off Tony’s ass "for the children." I just cannot do the hilarity justice by memory.

Tony was sitting at the back of the theater signing while the auction was taking place. When looking back there, I could see he was just cracking up with laughter the whole time. All of a sudden, he got up, came running down the aisle, jumped up on the stage, lifted up his shirt and wiggled his ass around a few times. He immediately jumped back down and ran back up the aisle to continue signing.

It soon became clear that there were two serious bidders. One was the woman mentioned earlier and the other was a woman sitting just two rows behind me. She had the most determined look on her face and didn’t hesitate to raise the bidding even once. As the bidding neared the $2000 mark, a maximum bid was obtained from each of them. The woman behind me gave a maximum bid of $2500. At that point, it was announced that both woman could have an ass grab for their maximum bids.

Tony came back up to the stage. The woman behind me went up first. He had a great time teasing her by trying to pick the perfect pose. She got in her 10 seconds worth of fondling Tony’s ass.

Then the other woman who’d won announced that since she’d already had the chance to feel Tony’s bum, she was going to let a friend have the honors this time. When Tony heard this, he said they could both do it at the same time. So both women went up and each grabbed a cheek.

I’d say somewhere between $5000 and $6000 total was raised by the celebrity auctions, $4000+ of which came from this particular auction. (I wonder if the con committee plans to tell Saint Jude’s Hospital that the majority of the donation came from auctioning off the right to feel a man’s ass for 10 seconds.)

I’m not sure if I should admit the following, but afterward, I went to talk to my winning friends and was excited because I got to touch their hands - the hands that had just touched Tony Head’s ass.

Then there was a break before the Q&As started again that afternoon. Someone had asked Tony the day before if he and Amber would sing their duet from Once More, With Feeling. He’d promised to ask her. This was brought up at her Q&A on Sunday and she seemed to be hesitant because her throat was bothering her. But when Tony came out for his Q&A, he announced he would sing a few songs including the duet with Amber.

He was far more energetic on Sunday than he’d been on Saturday. It confirmed to me my suspicions that he hadn’t been up to his usual self the day before. He was bouncing around and quite frankly made Tigger look calm. He mentioned that he’s not very good at carpentry but likes to do it anyway. This very quickly degenerated into frequent mentions of his wood. The best part was when he kept repeating it so the sign language interpreter had to make the sign for the alternate meaning of wood.

Then he sang. He sang two songs from Music For Elevators. First was Babies and he talked about writing it while in Denver for a con and being very down about missing his girls. He then sang Talk To You which is a love song for his partner Sarah. His emotion when singing both songs was obviously very deep and real.

Then the time arrived for the duet with Amber. The previous day, a woman had volunteered to play piano accompaniment. Tony left the stage at this point to organize getting the piano onstage. After a minute or so, he came back onstage, walked up the microphone and said, "Fuck me, it’s a grand piano." He promptly walked back off . This was my absolute favorite quote of his from the entire weekend.

Once the piano was finally pushed onstage, he and Amber tried to get organized. They had two OMWF song books but realized they needed another. There were several volunteers from the audience and someone grabbed one from the woman sitting next to me. As a thank you, since she’d already had it autographed, they let her go to the front and videotape the performance.

Amber started off strong but when the time came for them to be singing together, she didn’t join in. They stopped and decided to start over. At some point, Tony lost the page he was supposed to be on in the book and gave up trying to find it back, and started sharing Amber’s book. They were unprepared, obviously hadn’t sung it since filming and, objectively, it probably wasn’t a great performance. But who there was being objective? I sure wasn’t. Tony and Amber were singing together live right in front of me. It was magic.

Then Tony did some auctioning but immediately clarified that he was not auctioning his bum again. There was one item that I desperately wanted (a Kiss the Librarian mug signed by Tony and Juliet Landau - who had inscribed it with "I did kiss the librarian"). Unfortunately, they weren’t taking credit cards for this and one of the many complaints about the hotel was that the ATM was broken the entire weekend so I couldn’t get any cash. Tony even kissed the mug himself. Sigh. I did find out later that the woman who won that item was a librarian herself and probably wanted it even more than I did.

That was it for the Q&As. While wandering around looking for anyone I knew, I spotted someone waiting outside the door where the guests would be going back into the theater to sign for guests with badges 400-800. She had the card for Tony that all of us there from the TweedyBookGuy group had signed. I decided to keep her company. After a few minutes, Julie Caitlin Brown came out muttering that "Tony needs to get his butt up here." She returned about a minute later with Tony in tow. My friend stopped Tony and offered him the card. He looked at me as if he expected me to say something as well, but I couldn’t think of a word. Besides, Julie Caitlin Brown scared me and I didn’t want to risk pissing her off by delaying him further. He said thanks to us and went into the theater.

On Sunday evening, they showed Ghosts of Albion, an animated, online feature written by Amber Benson and Chris Golden. Then they showed Amber’s movie Chance. She had starred, written, directed and produced this move. It also starred James Marsters, looking like Spike but not acting remotely like him. I highly recommend seeing it to anyone who has the chance. After the movie, a standing ovation was given for Amber. It took us a while but we finally figured out where she was sitting in the room, which was barely 10 feet from where I was at. I also realized that Tony was sitting in the same area. I spent the rest of the night trying to not be obvious with glancing over at him every 30 seconds or so.

Then they showed James Leary’s short film, a mockumentary called Stunt C*cks. As is obvious from the title, it is a ’mature’ film. It’s about two men (one played by Leary) who provide the service of extra - how shall I put this - ’material’ for the money shots in porn films. It was truly funny and I would love to see it again someday.

That was the end of the convention. All in all, I’m glad I went. It was wonderful seeing Tony in person. After reading so many reports from others that have meet him, I thought I had a good idea of what to expect. But the reality was so much more.

Question about plans to appear on Angel)

Um, yeah...I mean...Tim Minear sorta said "Yeah, we could get you...we could get you on the show now." Well, I’ve been saying I’ll do it... I mean, you know... But apparently now that Wesley is an action hero, (cheer from audience) they obviously need somebody to do the ... of the stories. Um...they said, yeah, now he’s very different and it would be quite good to get Giles on and they could clash again and bring Wesley back ... But I don’t know, I don’t know what their ideas are. Up until when I left, they still weren’t sure whether they were on, you know. The WB were being wanky buggers. (laughter from audience) As they’re wont to do. And...um...basically, you know, yeah we’ll talk about it. I’m gonna...they’re gonna go back and .... I hope so, I’d love to, I’d love to.

(Question about what advice he would give himself as a 20 year old)

If I were to go back and give my 20 year old self some advice what would I say? Um...grow up. (laughter from audience) Yeah...um...and take...you know, take it one stage at a time and...um...learn your lesson. Pretty much what? (Said in response to something said by audience member who repeated it. I couldn’t make it out though.) Um...I think so. I’ve made some really, really big mistakes but I’ve also had a fucking great time. (huge audience cheer. Then he reacts to the sign language interpreter repeating this.) ... Okay, yeah, I mean, everything that happens to you in life, happens because of the choices you make. If I’d made a different bunch of choices, then I wouldn’t have ..kind of... grown in the same way or learnt the lessons that I’ve learned. So I mean, it took a long time for me to actually wake up and realize that there were ... to learn and I actually had to do stuff before I pop this mortal coil. Um, but, it’s, it’s been really cool, yeah. What a deep question. ..

(To next questioner) Are you gonna be deep?

(Comment about the reaction to him showing up at the end of season six, which got a cheer from the audience.)

Thank you. I must say, it was cool, it was cool. I got to kick some ass, and I got to kick .... But it was nice, I mean basically, Joss had talked about how many times he was gonna use me in the...in season six, if you’ll excuse the expression, and - figuratively, of course - and he talked about maybe bringing me back for the wedding and then he said no actually, you know, I really want to play it up, I want Giles’ entrance, if you’ll excuse the expression (he cracked up giggling here) - to be very dynamic. So I have been told by a few people that it was a good moment. I must say when I saw it, it was, like whoa .... It was cool, it was cool.

Yes, strenuously holding your hand up over there.

(The next question was who he had more fun playing, Frank N Furter or Giles, and why.)

(He did not hear the question clearly) Or Giles as what? (The question was repeated.) Okay. Who did I have more fun playing, Frank N Furter or Giles and I thought you said Giles and something ... Well, I guess... (makes funny noises while he tries to think) Frank N Furter was...like...just, just the greatest part you could ever play. I mean I got to kick up every night and have simulated sex with extremely attractive people (giggle fit) Yes, I got to have simulated sex with very attractive people. (He repeated this so the sign language interpreter had to sign it again.) But I mean... yeah, it was the most powerful experience - it was the first time I really, really understood giving, if you’ll excuse the expression, giving yourself over to the role, and I completely kind of immersed myself in Frank. Hunh. It was, you know, once...the sort of...the kinda warm up to going on stage, I’ve got to put the costume on, put the makeup on and putting, you know... then finally the wig went on and then the clothes which was the ... Um, and the three and a half inch heels. He’d come up, it just be like, it just took kinda me over. There’s friends who actually came to see it who couldn’t actually talk to me afterwards (laughs) until I took my makeup off. They’d come round and say, "No, I’m sorry." (mimics actions of people refusing to talk) One very sweet woman, she’s a nurse, she’s very sort of level headed, just...you know. Um ...and she sorta...apparently, she sat next to my girlfriend and apparently when I walked onto stage, her jaw dropped to her chair and never actually came back together again. Even when she came round to the dressing room to talk, she was still (demonstrates the expression). Another very sweet woman, actually the woman who was teaching my kids to dance at the time, came to the show and sorta enjoyed me and at one point said, "When’s Tony coming on?" (mimics her shock at realizing he was already on) ...

But Giles has been, you know, the biggest trip. I mean, in my seven years of playing, playing - playing a character that grows as much as Giles has - playing that through like that is a gift to any actor and playing scripts that have, I don’t know, left me speechless at times, really, really excellent scripts, has been phenomenal. So, I have to say, I can’t compare them. The best thing about being an actor is that you just get chances to have a really good time and people pay you for it ... And I’m very glad I’ve chosen to be ...

(A comment about liking the father/daughter dynamic between Buffy and Giles)

Oh, you’re not talking about fanfiction. (laughter from audience) Don’t read it, bud, don’t read it.

(The same person went on to ask him about his opinion of the war and how he felt about standing in front of a French flag - the streamers in the background were in red, white and blue stripes - I assumed they were meant to be American, but it could have been construed as the French flag - I guess)

Stand in front of a French flag? When did I stand in front of a French flag? (the background was pointed out to him) Oh, it is too. Yeah, well, it’s red white and blue. It could be anything. If it was green, red and white then it would definitely be Italian, but nooo... I don’t know. Don’t get me started on Iraq . I must admit I found it strange that we were apparently, or everyone who was fighting for freedom of speech and whatever and people who’d spoken out against it ... were pilloried to a certain extent, which seems to be...(applause). I must admit, I am enjoying Tony Blair being blasted. When he was going on about it and saying we got to go to war, it was, he must know something we don’t because I can’t really see an awful lot of reason for going over there apart from, yes it’s a despot, but man there’s a lot of them around. If you start with the one, you’ve got to kinda continue. Um, Bill Mahr (?) actually did a great show early on during the lead up to it and he went on this guided tour around the world of despots - there’s a few of them out there - and they’re doing some fairly despicable things so he did point out, once you start, where do you stop. But Tony Blair was saying "There are definitely weapons of mass destruction and we’ve gotta get in and do something about them. He’s having a hard time now basically saying, "Well, there will be." I must admit, I thought there was gonna be a cert, you like those drug busts police do where they apparently drop a pound of stash in the corner and say "(gasps) Look what we found." (acts this out) I figured this was gonna be the same way but no, strangely.

Hey yo (to someone in audience) Will there be ... No, no we’ve already covered that. And the Buffy thing as well.

(Question about what motivates him to get out of bed)

I beg your pardon? (question is repeated) What motivated me to get out of bed this morning? Or any morning? This morning it was my alarm... no, actually, it was a fly that landed on my head. (huge reaction from the audience. The flies at the hotel were horrible.) A little fucker that just wouldn’t give up. Um, I guess just to find out what the day brings. You know...we actually lead extremely intensive and exciting life, there’s just stuff happening every day and...um...I’m extremely richly rewarded. I love my life and, yeah getting up in the morning. Now, you know...I have the opportunity to be with my kids and my partner and...like, getting up to take them to school in the morning is a little trip, because for 7 and a half years - nearly eight years - eight and a half months of the year, I was in America, so I have a pretty good time now.

The next person told him that the day before had been Mara’s birthday and he sang Happy Birthday to her in a breathy voice ala Marilyn Monroe.

...

(The next question was about the documentary series that he and his partner Sarah Fisher have made called Talking to Animals.)

Yeah, what she’s talking about is... in fact we have a...about three, four years ago, we were looking...Sarah’s been looking for a place for a long time to have a center to her work which is something called TellingtonTouch which is a way of working with animals with behavioral problems and working in a non-traditional way that helps them look at whatever they’ve got ... And, um, there was an article in one of the English papers awhile back - dogs at Ground Zero were being worked on by some TTouch practitioners and somebody wrote an article about it and it found its way to England and, uh, they said what a shame it wasn’t available in England. It’s like, duh. It’s been here for a while now. So anyway, there was another article in The Observer (NOTE: the article is here) , which is a very, very posh paper, talking about Sarah’s work and you know, our involvement and Tilley Farm, which is our farm, and all of that and a docu - several documentary companies actually expressed an interest. But one stood out, Tigress Productions, who are responsible - I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those great shows about ... with various celebrities hanging out with the animals of their choice, like Julia Roberts and the orangutans ... various things like that. They’re responsible for those. They came and said they would like to do, initially six half hour shows and we went great, cool, ... and when are we going to start? "Well, next month actually." So we’ve been doing it, been shooting it for the past, oh, I don’t know, long time, but it starts in England ... it starts in England in a couple of weeks time, the 22nd of June, Sunday afternoons at teatime. I guess, I hope, that maybe Animal Planet or one of those, you know cable stations pick it up or maybe BBCAmerica. You never know. I beg your pardon? (to someone in audience) ... But yeah, we had a slight bit of hiatus in the middle of it when they came to show some of the rough cut and it had gone from being the work that Sarah’s done, you know, how it’s basically...it’s TellingtonTouch, it went to sort of a very efficient, little woman, look at how she’s cute with animals which wasn’t quite what we had in mind. But it’s better now. All better. And I’m doing the narration. (NOTE: more info on Talking to Animals is here.)

(Question about singing and Music For Elevators)

Thank you very much. (some clapping) They’re clapping and I can’t hear you now. (there was more to the question) Well, thank you, well...I’ve been, you know...rock n roll ... No, I used to have a little potential, I used to be in a band and all that stuff and I chose at a certain point in my life that acting was kind of were I was going and you know, not to sort of confuse things by way of being a rock n roll star as well. Somewhere done the line - I’ve never lost my love of music and I’ve never lost my love of singing. My opportunities were sort of more like musicals like Rocky Horror and Chess and god help me something called Around the World in Eighty Days. If you ever find a copy of, what was it? What was it called? (someone from the audience called out In The Depth Of Night) Thank you very much. ... There’s a particularly attractive picture of me on the front with a very large zit on my forehead. It’s like, thanks guys for the photo approval. And an ill-fitted top hat as well. Not a good idea. But anyway was one of those - I think...I seem to remember the motto of the show was - and I digress but I will get back to you sorry - the motto of the show was "Today Buxton", which was where we started, "Tomorrow, London" and then somehow it got "the future the rest of the world" or London and then the rest of the world, well we never got beyond Buxton basically. Thank god. But anyway, so when this strange little record company called CMH, two very sweet girls from CMH came to me and said would I be interested in making an album with George Sarah? And I didn’t know who George was and I listened to some of George’s stuff, met up with George and we found out we had some common interests. We hung out for an afternoon and we came up with sort of the basis for sort of three or four of the songs that ended up on the album. And I said yes. And also, I thought, you know, that if you work with a small, independent record company you get away from all that crap that goes with the rock n roll industry and all that goes with the record industry. No. I was wrong. I think my manager might be somewhere in the room and if you ask him, he’ll tell you too. Just that, the two girls, who are no longer with the company, I don’t know where they are, but they are idiots basically (there was some surprised reaction from people in the audience at this statement) What? It’s really not shocking. They ARE. I was at a German convention a couple of weeks ago and the fans are saying "We’d really like to get a hold of it, the album, but we have to get it as an import which is costing us like 30 or 40 bucks a pop." And it’s like, this is insane. And people have been writing and trying to get - dealers have been trying to get a hold of it to sell at retail and they can’t get it. Duh. And I also ... my share yet. I got a very, very small advance ... lived with it ... and they wouldn’t give it to me. Because I wouldn’t, they ... there were various people from the show and I ... the idea was that I wanted to do an album that was basically with everyone I’d ever met ... well not everybody because that would be ... But anyway, ... the record company are insisting that I get them to sign these release forms saying they have been paid nothing and they would expect nothing. I was going, no way. I mean, I’ve done a few free ... myself and no. You just sing and you say great and you get your copy of the album and you walk away, you don’t have to sign anything. ... they won’t give me the money. The best thing about it was we got a statement recently saying basically that they were not paying me money against this advance that I haven’t had. ... I digress. Bottom line is if somebody else asked me to do an album, yes, I’d do an album. And I love singing, so...But it’s not one of those deals at the moment. Life is so hectic, there’s so much going on, but I don’t know. There’s no time to sort of get in the studio to do it but I’d love to, you know, yeah. I’ve got to think of some more songs.

...

(Does he have a favorite Buffy episode?)

Do I have a favorite Buffy episode? Several of them, unfortunately, I’m sorry, they did go on and on. It used to be...it used to be Passion (said in a breathless voice). I was at a convention early on when we were sort of all doing it together and we were at a ... and somebody asked that and I said Passion and I was sitting next to Joss and he said "That’s just because you were in it a lot". But it’s not. It was the first time...they... I mean - the first time they really crossed the line was when Flutie got eaten. But that was the first time they really, really crossed the line where someone that people really loved and cared about just got killed and you just didn’t expect it to happen. And it was just sort of (gasps). And everybody in it was just crackin’, I mean, everybody just across the board. There was one moment I’m very fond of... I had nothing to do but I did kinda. When I’m telling Buffy on the telephone and Michael Gershman, who was directing it, hooked up a land line between us and I was able to talk to her on the phone. A really powerful moment when she and Willow get the news and I could hear it on the phone, very emotional. Then came Hush (lots of applause) ... Joss was always...you know...enjoys...he liked to screw around with the medium ... And then of course, Once More, With Feeling. (more applause) From the first moment we met, Joss and I basically talked about when we were going to do a musical episode. And I’d be...every season "When are we gonna do it. When are we gonna do it?" (said in a fast, little kid way ) "No we can’t because it’ll look like we’ve run out of ideas." And then when he finally sent through the CD, one summer he’d been working on it all summer and he sent through a CD with him, at the piano, singing and Kai, his wife is singing and it was like (gasp), we’ve got a musical. And I put it on and played it and...we got it at breakfast and ... And I finally thought the nightmare...the dreamsepisode was cool, what was it? (audience shouts out Restless). Thank you. That was pretty cool too, that was pretty cool. When Joss said, "I’m sorry, I have to tell you, you’ve got the...your dream is the exposition again (makes a face) but you get to sing it." (applause and cheers) And he was originally going to have me sort of by a white piano but I was like "But Giles has got, like, this serious thang about rock n roll. It’s gotta be with a band." Then Four Star Mary got involved and I had to...and we hung out ... so that was very cool. So that was...

(Someone asked if he and Amber could sing their duet from Once More, With Feeling)

Huh, whoa. Well, I don’t know how we’d do that but we could maybe try and look at doing it tomorrow. I don’t know, we don’t have any - (interrupted by the applause) That means I’d have to remember the words... (an immediate offer is made of someone’s OMWF script book, to cheers from the audience) Huh, um... (laughing) To be honest, I would really love to sit down with her and go over it first just to be - you know- because it’s like ... Certainly not me. I have to tell you, I am the man that, you know - when I was doing Chess, every night there would be ... almost every night, there would be a moment when I ... I would see that the ... in charge of a 40 piece orchestra ... away going (mimes someone sleeping). Because he knew once you’ve lost your place, you’re screwed and it’s like, you know, you start a bit of the show and you’re halfway through and suddenly it’s like - (singing) da, da, dum... (trails off in the manner of someone who is forgetting) and he’s not helping because he’s (mimes sleeping again). Anyway, not my forte, okay? As Mara will attest, I did a little...little...nice little acoustic set in Bath , where we live, for a charity gig and sang one of the songs off my album on the guitar. I was singing away and...awww, I forgot me place. I had no idea where I was, right in the middle of it and it was a love song to Sarah too. (sympathetic awws from audience). I felt a complete jerk and then they said "Oh nevermind, just clap anyway" and I said "Nooo, not really" What can you do? So anyway, the thing is, I think Amber is here tomorrow, isn’t she? Yeah, we’ll work it out. The other thing is, it’s one thing, I don’t mind singing a cappella but I don’t know what Amber - (someone says that there is a piano) Oh, and you think I can play it? (giggles) You’ve got answers for everything. You’ve been working on this for months, haven’t you? Well, we’ll have a chat about it. We’ll see, we’ll see. I don’t have a huge, huge problem with it...but we’ll see about tomorrow...

(Someone said they had asked James Marsters about working with Tony and he was very complimentary.)

He was lying.

(I couldn’t make out the next few parts from the audience)

There are no better words.

(Yet more to question)

If he what?

(more)

(laughs) I guess you just had to be there.

(more)

Well, I don’t know, he’s like, you know, like me. He’s a part of me like Giles is a part of me. It’s like, there has to be you in it otherwise it really doesn’t ring true. Sorry, the question was, I kinda lost the way, but there was a bit about my bottom and James thinking about ... my bottom and a bit about me not needing a sock. What for? ... Then we had...then we had....(giggling through this part) Then we had the question which is kinda like where did James, the character I play - isn’t that weird now? His name’s James too. Um, where he comes from and basically, I’ve no idea. I always do some research and I met with this mad, fuckin’ dentist. Very sweet guy. (giggling fit) But he used to turn up for work on a motorbike and he had these leathers. He used to wear these leathers underneath his white coat. Weird ... And he was very much...he really wasn’t James because James was...kinda...I was playing this guy who was completely in awe of ...of Nigel Haver’s character but I have no idea where he came from. (something was said from audience) Thank you, thank you, it was fun. I must admit we laughed everyday, we really did. (another comment from audience) Thank you. Now I’ve got to get to the bottom of why James was embarrassed by ... I’ll find out later. Can’t wait. Anyway.

(What is your impression of the entire Buffy phenomenon? You were there from the beginning. You were there for the last episode. What is your impression of the entire seven seasons? - I could actually hear this one clearly)

What’s my impression of the Buffy phenomenon? Um, it’s...I mean, I can only sum it up by my saying that right from the beginning that Joss was, we were doing the presentation, which was the half hour version of the first episode and it wasn’t, it felt like it was going ... it wasn’t going brilliantly because he had the crew from hell, working on this. None of whom wanted to be there. All of whom were ... that hadn’t been picked up by other shows so they all had kind of a bit of an attitude. The first assistant, a very, very interesting, very nice sort of woman - no, she wasn’t very nice actually. But it was very strange, she was nursing her baby at the time...um...on set....while she was telling us what the schedule would be...... Not that I have anything against a woman nursing, I think it’s the most beautiful in the world. But no ... But I digress. And basically, I said to him, we were waiting, me and Sarah and him were waiting together to do the library scene when I first see Buffy and we were in the bizarre old courtroom set ... the library hadn’t been built. And it was a great library set, I mean, it had this spiral staircase that she did a handstand, a handspring off that was really cool. It was the one good bit of the first ... But I said, this feels to me, the script’s just phenomenal, is this going to go? I’d just done a show called VR.5, I really thought was crackin’, but it didn’t go. Fox dropped it like a hot...you know, hotcake...or banana or something. Hot banana, yeah. (makes a face, making fun of himself). So, basically, I though it was a definite goer and he said, "Yeah, it’s gonna go." He said it’s not gonna be because the TV companies get it...WB doesn’t get it...Fox definitely don’t get it. No, he said the fans will get it, it’s gonna be huge, it’s gonna be worldwide. It’s gonna slowly, slowly build. It’s not gonna be an overnight success. But he said the fans will pick it up and it will...word of mouth will just spread and spread and spread and he was right. I still get little chills, just because he is, I don’t know he’s just such an extraordinary man and has such ... I asked him - now I’m not spoiling anything because everyone has seen the last episode, apart from me - but I asked him...um ahhh...my last sequence actually which was the fight and no one was there but I fell off the stairs and really hurt my elbow (in a playing for sympathy voice - which he got of course). Stupid, I was - (acts out swinging a sword and then falling off stairs) But just before that happened, I asked "When did you get the idea to - when did you have the idea to sort of spread the Slayerness and he says "Oh, about a year and a half ago." and I said "So everything since then has been moving toward that?" "Oh, yeah. It’s all been planned" I don’t know. I take my hat off to him. He’s the most extraordinary, extraordinary man. And I for one am extremely pleased that there wasn’t an immediate follow-up to Buffy because...for two reasons. One, I thinks it wouldn’t have stood an unearthly because everyone would be watching to see if it was Buffy and it couldn’t be. I think there will be something, somewhere down the line, maybe a years’ time, there’ll be something...that will spin-off from it. I pitched him a brilliant idea (cheers from audience) ... It’s the first time he’s ever gone, "Yeah, that’s really good" and he told Tim Minear about it and he’s talked to a couple of people about it.. Um, the other thing is that he really, really, really needs to make movies. I think the world is starved of Joss Whedon’s abilities and I think we need to see some movies (applause)

How am I doing for time? ... Anybody in the back who’s feeling neglected because you can’t be seen because I’m blind as a bat. Yes, you’re not really in the back but you in the red.

(This question was asked by the woman sitting next to me so I heard it quite clearly)

(How did you feel about Giles’ character in season seven because there was some discussion on some of the forums that I’ve been on that Giles seemed colder or that there was more of a strain between him and Buffy. And it wasn’t even just with the episode where Giles went along with Wood trying to kill Spike, I think it was kinda building to that -)

He deserved it. If I had a daughter figure and someone...she’s apparently in an abusive relationship, I’d fucking want to kill him too. ... But anyway, the colder thing, was kinda, I guess there was a bit. I had two or three episodes I think we were carrying the red herring of whether Giles was the First or not and it was really hard to do because, the thing...you can’t touch anything, you can’t touch anybody, you can’t - you can lean if you want (he acts out leaning). Um, you can’t pick up any props and they really enjoyed that because ... I figured the best way to play it was to play...um...can’t fathom...taken aback by what was coming. I knew what was coming and I knew my role in it and I knew how important it was bringing these, these Slayerettes over. So it was kinda...What I was playing was this slight distance, slight I’m not going to get involved, I’m not going to get emotionally a part of this because I can’t afford to. But I think it might have - and then straight on from there we got on to a point with Giles and Buffy kind of set up against each other so...... What can you do? Did anybody buy the fact that I was the First? (No’s from audience) Well, then, ... Bloody hell, you might have written in and told me. I could have stopped doing it. Never mind, Joss, I’m just going to pick up this teacup. (acts out doing just that)

(Question about how long it took him to learn to walk in heels for Rocky Horror)

When I was preparing for Rocky Horror, how long did it take to learn to walk around and have a go at the stairs? Well, I was given a pair of four inch heels and it’s difficult to just put them on and have a go, you know, you know what I mean? Looking for the moment. And there was a moment when Sarah walked into the bedroom and she said "What are you looking furtive about?" and I was hoovering...vacuuming the bedroom, and I stepped out from behind the bed...um, she was very disturbed. Fairly shortly after that, she also caught me wearing her cardigan. She said, "This has got to stop now!" But, one of the things I was proud of was that I was given the opportunity to reinvent Frank’s wardrobe. ...basically it was very tied to him. He was clomping about in big ole platforms and things ... it’s very difficult to move gracefully in platforms and um - thank you for pointing that out - so part of it was, I wore a very nice teddy ... My idea was that it’s actually sexier not to quite see everything, that you can’t know what’s going on. Because my whole thing is that Frank has to be attractive to both men and women ... I’ve seen a number of Franks have a bash at it and they were just like...they were either doing it too camp or they were doing it too butch which just didn’t quite work for me. And I think...Tim Curry was brilliant (applause) But I didn’t want to do Tim Curry. I’ve also seen a couple of people do that as well. No, I wanted to do my own thing. So the principle thing is I wanted to be really active around the set, it was a beautiful set with lots of levels and things and there was a staircase that went from stage level right up to the ... God knows how many treads that is but it was the size of ...it was a big theatre. And so I had this little ankle boots made, very nice, they were patent leather. They came up to...about halfway up the calf. (Someone asked if he still has them) I beg your pardon? (the question is repeated) Yes, of course I have them. ... VH-1, the karaoke thing, when I turned up, they said, "You better go see our designers". No, no, no, I brought my own costume. But, you know, I’ve - three and a half was basically the maximum I could go to have, sort of, maximum kind of mobility. I fairly legged it around the stage and it worked a treat. I used to take the staircase, three treads at a time. My bottom looked very good at that time. ... (someone from the audience shouted: "Still does.") Thank you very much (giggling)

Does anybody quite right at the back feeling - but you’re not quite right at the back you see, we might get back to you but is there anybody...I see you waving there...yes, go on then...

(Question about Ripper)

Ripper? Yeah, basically, about the same time...just before I fell off the stairs and fighting off baldies, Joss also said...he’d just come back from the tea table...craft services and he’d been trying to kind of work out a storyline for Ripper if he’s ever going to do it. (at this point, several audience members started to leave because they had to get to another activity) Was it something I said? ... made you crawl on the floor. ... So um, yeah, basically the last time we talked about it, Joss had said that he wanted to...if he’s ever going to do it...you know, I ain’t gonna hold him to it, I hope he does but he came up with a storyline that is beautiful. He wanted to do something which wasn’t another series like Angel where every week there’s a baddie that has to be...he didn’t want to get into that, he wanted to get into Giles’ persona, the man in a way that he hadn’t been allowed to really on the show (cheers and applause) The show was called Buffy and not Giles. And that’s actually the way he pitched it to me originally ... I was a bit spare, you know ... it is called Buffy and not Giles but how would you like to do a show called that. (demonstrates his astonished reaction) What!? But anyway, he came up with this beautiful idea. He’s talking about doing a two hour movie. So bottom line is if somebody picks it up and says, "Let’s make a series out of it," then maybe. But, it’s...the way I look at it anyway, I’d rather do something that is really quality and doesn’t stretch him, because there was a time in the last season when he was stretched in three directions and it’s difficult to see, you know, the guy, he puts his heart into it, heart and soul and so when you see him running around - and he just had a baby ... So anyway, yes, god knows when...there is a storyline which I think is beautiful, which kinda needs...a bit of an element missing, but he’s gonna come up with it, he’ll come up with it. I’m never going to say "What about the show you said you’d do." (in a mock whiny voice) But I think ..., I think, you know, bottom line is he needs to get out and do movies and ...

I guess we’ve got time for one or two more ... oh bugger ...

(question)

Is there any difference between me and Giles? No. That was quick. No, like I said, there’s always a part of you in everything you play. (laughs at something said by audience member) But no, bottom line is, bless his heart, he’s extremely repressed and I don’t think I am. (lots of audience agreement with that)

Okay, one more. Do we dare try to get one more from the back because I can’t hear anything or see anybody? Go on, you stood up just as I said that, you in the black. No, you’re not in black but you are in shadows. Whatever.

(What advice would he give to someone becoming an actor)

(He couldn’t hear the question asked by a young girl and a guy repeated it for her) Thank you, very well translated. You would have to ... bloody hell. Let’s go out on a high note, after the laughs and the jokes and everything. What advice would I give someone starting in the acting business? Well... (he strikes a thinking pose) Bottom line, if you’re doing it, you need to do it, just do it. Don’t let anybody tell you, you can’t do it. Don’t let anybody say that you’re bad or that you don’t have potential. If you feel the need and the drive to do it, just go for it. Because you will spend your entire career being told, no, no, no, then maybe you’ll get a yes. If you have any doubt, about yourself - actually that’s bollocks because we’re all insecure anyway or we wouldn’t do it. Where else do you get the chance to be someone else, all the time? I don’t like myself, I’ll be someone else. But, ummm, the one thing I would say is don’t be dilettante about it, don’t become half-assed about it because you won’t stand a chance. You’ve got to have the drive, you’ve got to have the need. So basically, "There’s nothing else I can do." You know, bottom line is, if there’s nothing else you can do, better do that.