Time To “Fucus”: Salute To Supernatural Toronto Saturday Report

Toronto Con was my fourth Supernatural con this year.  There does seem to be a risk of the cons all blurring together, but that’s rarely the case.  There’s always something about each con that makes the experience unique and enjoyable.   In this case, I got to meet people that I’ve been dying to meet for ages but never had the opportunity.  One of those people was Karen, someone who’s been writing for me for three years!  I also got go to Canada, eh?  Canada within driving distance of my home anyway.   

Most of all, I got to take my daughter, aka the Winchester Family Business Unpaid Intern, to another one of these things, even though she was still riding her fan girl high from New Jersey con.  The main motive was to get her Misha Collins and Jared Padalecki photo ops from New Jersey signed, but she has the true intent of these cons down pat.  The object is to meet and bond with other fans, and she has become a pro in that regards.  She has her gimmick down pat now too – her trademark seal hat – which we bought from a street vendor in San Francisco during her very first Supernatural con early last year.  She always seems to get a lot of mileage with that hat, and it especially was a huge hit in Toronto. 

This ended up being a full family trip, which meant we couldn’t attend the con on Friday.  The kids had school, I had work, and we drove for 8 hours afterward.  Naturally, by the time we dragged ourselves into the hotel, Karaoke was not going to be a reality.  I heard it was fun!  Then again, when is it not?

The panels on Saturday were loads of fun.  That’s because Sebastian Roche, Mark Sheppard, Richard Speight Jr., Matt Cohen, and Misha Collins are top notch entertainers.  If anything, I might question that in setting tone for your con day, perhaps Sebastian is not the wise choice to go first.  He got the crowd rolling though, even if there was quite a bit of “colorful” language used to entertain.  The running theme in his panel, adding a tagline to comments made.  The one that ended up sticking, “As the actor (or actress) said to the bishop.”  I swear he paused for that a lot and I forgot the line every time!  Lynn from Fangasm, who was next to me, didn’t miss a beat though.   

What can you say about Sebastian’s panel?  The entire hour is a “you had to be there” moment.  I did grab a snippet of him answering our intern’s question about his characters always dying.  Luckily our intern attends high school now, so Sebastian’s user of four letter words to answer to her question was nothing shocking.  He also made fun of her hat.  Take what happens here in this clip and multiply it times ten, and you have a full Sebastian Roche panel. 

http://youtu.be/BZf4gg4DAP4

Throughout the panel Creation kept flashing on the screen “Focus”, and that lettering got larger and larger through the panel until “FO” was the only thing that was left.  Naturally, Sebastian twisted “Focus” into Fucus (say it to yourself, the u sounds like “uh”). 

My favorite question of the panel, a ramble that led into an interesting ponderance of what kind of underwear does Castiel wear.  Fruit of the Loom Briefs?  Boxers?  Tighty whities?  “But they’re not white anymore.  Because of that trenchcoat…”  As the actor said to the bishop.  Yep, I still can’t feel my sides.  The entire panel ended though with Sebastian strutting around the stage, doing a dead on cabaret of Frankenfurter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  I think we’ve finally found Sebastian’s calling.  I suspect that was a continuation from Karaoke the night before. 

Mark Sheppard is considerably more laid back that Sebastian.  He can actually sit still for a long period of time.  Mark, considering he’s still on the show and was in the most recent episode, had his own choice four letter words for having to film around a bunch of goats with seed in his pocket.  The first person in the Q&A line even gave him the creeps because she was wearning a helmet like Loki of The Avengers.  Mark thought it looked too much like goat horns.  Our unpaid intern didn’t help matters when she asked about the goats during her question.  Mark noticed her seal hat and asked, “Would you like a club?”  Yes, I had to explain to her afterward that was a  reference to clubbing baby seals.  Sebastian actually did a whole impersation of “clubbing with Seal” by singing his version of “Crazy” by Seal after seeing her hat.  Both references were lost on her. 

I have a small video clip from that too, although forgive the bonehead move of filming that snippet with the camera upright.  Just turn the monitor around and enjoy.  Mark also rants about Blackpool, which is hilarious to me because my mother is British too and she always ripped on Blackpool as well.  I need to show this to her for sure.  As you can tell, the difference in Mark and Sebastian’s delivery is night and day. 

http://youtu.be/MtDQlptbaO4

I did find it interesting that Mark talked about being a musician for years and spending time on the road.  I didn’t know he was the drummer for School of Fish.  I remember that band fondly from my post college years – 3 Strange Days was an alternative radio staple.  Oops, I just aged Mark and myself!    

My favorite line of the panel.  Fan – “I love Crowley.”  Mark – “Of course you do.”  Mark actually fought for the part of Crowley after hearing that Ben Edlund was writing it.  As you might know, Mark knew Ben from Firefly.  Speaking of Firefly, I love how Mark explained that if that show was on now and got the ratings it did then, it would be a top ten show in TV.  Times have changed, and the show was ahead of its time. 

Spoiler alert from Mark!  Okay, not really.  “We can expect a lot of Crowley yelling.  I like it when he yells.”  I don’t see much of a difference than before.  Mark demonstrated a couple of times the new Crowley move from the season 8 opener.  He holds up his two fingers and slowly swipes them right, and someone’s neck is broken.  He thinks it’s pretty cool, as did all of us.  Ah, the simple things are always the most amusing. 

Mark’s panel ended up being a very casual and pleasant hour, again, the polar opposite of Sebastian’s. 

I would like to get one cranky ass old person rant out of the way if you don’t mind.  The one thing I absolutely hate about all these Creation cons is the restaurants and services in these hotels they hold the convention are the absolute worst.  There was no where in proximity anywhere to grab a quick sandwich, so we’re left with restaurants where the service is terrible and the prices are overinflated.  On a scale of one to ten, the Olio restaurant at the Sheraton Hotel Toronto Airport gets about a 1.  Terrible service, average food, horrible prices.  We waited over an hour for a bowl of soup, a sandwich, and a salad and the waiter didn’t come to us once that entire time.  I get they were busy, but they did know a big convention was being held at their hotel, right?  It all cost $35 too.  The gift shop was even more outrageous!  I bought a hockey puck for my son, a candy bar and a bag of candy and somehow that small amount of snack food ended up being more expensive than a $10 hockey puck.  That was the same problem in New Jersey, although New Jersey holds the title as absolute worst since the air conditioning wasn’t working and the toilets wouldn’t flush.  Come to think of it, this Sheraton Hotel had several toilet malfunctions come Sunday. 

Okay, rant over.  Back to fun!  Richard and Matt were next, and our very own Winchester Family Business Unpaid Intern got the ball rolling on something that not only affected one panel, but two!  She’s been dying to ask this question since last year and finally got her chance.  It was for Richard.  “Will you ever ride on a train again with Jared?”  He asked the room if anyone had heard the train story, and I’d say the responses were half and half.  So, even though he’s told this a few times now, he did yet another version of the train story.  I got to admit, this is the best one I’ve heard.  He’s got the embellishment and exaggeration down to a science and it keeps getting better!  He did admit that his story probably took longer than the actual train incident itself, but everyone in the crowd didn’t mind one bit.  It all ended with, “There was a train wreck, it was 6′ 4″ and had long flowing hair.”  As I mentioned in my Jared and Jensen report, Jared ended up giving his version the next day. 

In the “this is very disturbing” category, someone was dressed as a freakish clown all weekend (the eventual winner of the costume contest).  That clown was in every question line.  The clown had a question for Matt regarding his motivation for playing John Winchester as a Vietnam vet, so Matt took the clown head from her, put it on, and gave a long answer that he admitted when it was all done he made up.  I don’t even know what he said, because he was standing with this clown head on two feet in front of me and it was freaking me out!  I don’t think I slept well that night. I do believe that was the intent. 

Another major highlight of the Richard and Matt panel was a fan spotted Misha coming in back stage and said something.  Richard went backstage to check it out and said that there was a Misha imposter backstage.  He brought this so called “imposter” out, who amazingly looked and sounded like the real Misha.  It’s uncanny!  This “imposter” said his name was Damian.  Then, he wanted to meet “the real Castiel” in the back, aka a fan who had the whole outfit on.  “OMG, I’m shaking!” Damian declared as he got back there.  He even had that person take off his trenchcoat and he put it on.  Hmm, he really did look like the real Misha Collins playing Castiel in that coat.  I’m sure than fan will never wash that coat again!  “Damian” then received a nice parting gift, a Supernatural mug, before heading off. 

As you might have guessed from the last bit, the last panel of the day was the always amusing and entertaining Misha Collins.  Hmm, he’s wearing the same clothes as “Damian” (I’m sure you’ve sensed I’m playing along with the gag here).   Misha was a bit more subdued this time than others, but considering he’s been taping Supernatural after becoming a father for the second time a couple of weeks ago, his fatigue was understandable.   Still, it was a great panel as usual.  He started by mentioning the fact that he has a new baby girl, and she’s still nameless.  What’s even more disturbing is he and his wife aren’t having discussions about a name.  He also mentioned that his two year old is having a bit trouble adjusting to this new dynamic.  The kid was perfectly fine with the old one in which he got all of the attention.  Those of us in the room with more than one kid nodded our heads in complete understanding.  Let the sibling rivalry begin! 

Here’s some other highlights of the panel:

• Misha talked about how poor West fell and hit his head.  Both parents were a bit too tired to do anything about it, but Vicki insisted there was something wrong.  Misha thought West was fine, even though the kid was bleeding all over them and screaming.  Eventually, Misha caved and took him to a doctor, and the poor kid had to have six stitches. 
• Speaking of West, he has a name for his sister.  “Sockeye!”  Usually mention of that name also comes with manical laughter.  Sounds like a typical two year old.  Although how typical can the son of Misha Collins be?  

• Who would he want on his team to fight the zombie apocalypse?  Crowley and Young Mary.  Crowley can patrol the parameter, while young Mary keeps him company…Yes I said, “As the actor said to the bishop” in my head.
• A girl has been telling everyone how she drove 13 hours from Maine and saved up the whole summer to get a gold ticket to this con, and when she shared this with Misha he ran with it.  He first made fun of the way she said “Bangor” (he got married in Maine and claims he knows how to say it right) and then had her fetch her Dad and Grandmother, who drove her there and were staying at the hotel but not attending the con.  Eventually, when they arrived, he brought them up on the stage and started asking them questions.  He made sure they got a nice parting gift, a miniature die cast of the Impala.  Then someone also gave the girl a Misha photo op.  Misha was clearly having fun with this little “family” moment. 
• Someone asked about the web clips he filmed with The Ghostfacers.  It looked like there would be more.  Misha sadly acknowledged there wouldn’t be.  Phil Sgriccia filmed that in his house.  Phil is with Revolution now.  Misha even asked why the Ghostfacers don’t come to cons anymore.  Good question I thought.
• Misha talked in a round about way about how sometimes the fake alcohol on the set ends up being the real stuff.  Interesting since Jensen said the next day sometimes the real stuff ends up in his glass, and it’s usually put there by “someone.”  “Jared.”  Or there’s a certain actor (I’m kind of presuming Jared) who comes up to him when they start shooting for the day and says “I’m still drunk.”  Once in a while, an actor will be told to go back to his trailer and take a nap.  He backed away from that in a strange way after probably saying too much. (Please remember, when Misha says things, you don’t know what can be taken seriously).   
• The show always manages to surprise him.  As an example, he brought up Bobby.  He never ever thought they would kill Bobby.  “You can’t do that.  Assholes.”  Mr. Collins, you are preaching to the choir!
• Spoiler alert!  Castiel is getting a …  I put the details on the Spoiler Page.  Okay, it’s nothing big.  It’s actually quite fun.  Still, I got to be careful. 

 
And that was a Saturday.  We did autographs afterward, but no one was particularly chatty.  I think they were all pretty tired.  Even Sebastian was signing with little interaction.  That’s what happens when you put Sebastian on at 10:30 am. 

Here are all the pictures I took on Saturday.  If sharing, please give credit to The Winchester Family Business.  

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