The Rift - "That's What Fandom Is"
So after two weeks of insanity including 3 Barrowman concerts, a taping of I'd Do Anything and Sex, Wales and Anarchy last Sunday yesterday it was time for The Rift - the one day "Torchwood Gathering" organised by JM Live.
Whilst I had very mixed feelings about the event I did learn some very important things:
1. That Eve Myles is the sweetest, loveliest and most fan friendly actress I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. When I arrived at the event I didn't have any particular burning desire to meet her but by the end of the event I was completely in love. She's adorable.
2. That the character of Gwen is truly dismally written as none of Eve's wonderful personality manages to translate to the character.
3. That Kai Owen tells a mean joke, can really sing and it just absolutely awesome - especially when completely pissed.
4. That Gareth David Lloyd is almost unrecognisable as the mumbly nervous guy who first appeared at the Telford Expo. He can now work a crowd almost as well as Barrowman and he's very good at stepping up to the plate when he needs to to stop things going to hell.
5. That I would be extremely reluctant to pay for another Torchwood event organised by Steve Himber and the JM Live people again.
First the gripes. The organisation of the event was deeply unimpressive. The JM Live people have been organising events for a while but it would be fair to say that they are more used to organising high price Marsters centric events with only 1 or 2 other guests rather than a one day convention. And their lack of experience showed.
Firstly they kept us waiting outside for 40 minutes in the sweltering sunshine because "they weren't ready yet". Then when we got in there there there was one single queue (which practically went out the front door) which you had to wait in in order to get your photos, autographs, put your name down for the meet and greets etc. Marster's manager was in charge of the sales and his pace was painfully slow - to the point where I actually went to the front and pointed out that if things didn't speed up they were looking at an hour to clear the queue. He ignored me but had started to panic a tad by the time I did get to the front of the queue and he realised that there was still no end in sight. This meant that James Marsters was waiting for people to have their photo taken with him while they were still queuing to buy a ticket and most annoyingly from my point of view Gareth came on for the first Q&A while we were still stood in that bloody queue.
I had already sussed long before the event that there was no way they could get through all the actors panels, the writers panel, autographs and photos in a single day without things clashing but I was incredibly annoyed that effectively in order to get your autographs you had no choice but to miss large chunks of the various panels. The set up was also very disrespectful to the actors on stage as the noise from the back of the hall where people were getting their autographs was immense.
Also - whilst the writers autographs were included in your ticket they weren't set up anywhere where you could just go up to them and get autographs. Joseph Lidster confessed to me that the writers were a bit uncertain and so had been hiding in the green room until the organisers had told them to go out and mingle. Which meant you had to find them in whatever spot they happened to be standing and get their autographs which didn't make my poster a terrible practical thing to get signed!
So all in all I did leave feeling that I had paid an awful lot for not a great deal and that I actually missed out on quite a lot which was included which would make me very reluctant to support one of their events again.
But enough of the griping.
First up in the Q&A's was Gareth.
He had shaved off the goatee and was looking a lot neater and cuter than last week although I did rather like the scruff. He was also blessedly hat free. He promised that he wouldn't be reading from any vulgar books this week although his responses didn't stay clean for long!
Most of the questions were inevitably about the Jack/Ianto relationship and Gareth said that he was happy for it to progress in any way which enabled him to have more screen time and make more money and that if they wanted naked Jack/Ianto that was fine with him. Gareth mentioned quite a few times that he didn't have any work ("noone will employ me") and that he was spending most of his time working with his band Blue Gillespie.
Cyberamanda asked what drew him to read Jack/Ianto fanfiction and he replied that it was the "pure filth"
Someone asked about all the pre-publicity for the Jack/Captain John kiss and why the Jack/Ianto kisses didn't get the same degree of publicity and he replied that he was number 5 on the call sheet (John being Number 1) and that if two Number 1's (meaning John and James) kissed TPTB were bound to promote it more. Aw he's so self deprecating.
I asked him what he thought Ianto had done during the year that never was while Jack was on the Valiant (a simple question which was confused by him asking me whether I'd had a nice time at SWA and then mishearing "Valiant" as "Valium"). He didn't really answer (not in a creative story telling mood at this event) and decided to plump for my suggestion that Ianto had been leader of the free world.
Gareth was asked about Fragments and whether the ending of that episode suggested that Ianto had slept with Jack prior to the events of Cyberwoman and he said that he thought that they probably had. The person then asked whether Ianto had told Lisa about it and he replied that he thought Lisa had enough problems although maybe Ianto had and that's why she went nuts and tried to kill everyone.
Other tidbits - he does indeed tie his own ties,was asked how exactly someone cheats at naked hide and seek and said that that was left up to your imaginations, he thinks the organic relationship between the actors and the Torchwood writers is incredibly important, confessed that the third series hadn't been "100% greenlit yet" and he was asked about the kiss referenced in the Barrowman biography but didn't really elaborate or suggest what episode it was cut from.
He was also heckled by Kai and Eve at one point who were chanting "Get them off" at him and he responded with a snooty "This is my time now" which was hilarious.
Then it was time for Eve.
She was so nervous but was utterly adorable. Very frank, very funny and she has the most infectious high pitched giggle I have ever heard! Everyone got greeted with "hello lovely" and she thanked everyone for asking "lovely questions".
She was asked who she thought Gwen really loved more Rhys or Jack and she replied that Gwen loves Rhys from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She completely loves him and feels very safe with him but she's very charmed by Jack but the Rhys is the one she loves.
She told a story about Something Borrowed and how she had found the pickle jar in a cupboard for that scene ("Thank god they were still in date") and thought that having Gwen eat a gherkin in that scene would be a good idea. Fifteen gherkins later.... She said she had to kiss Kai Owen after that and she kept having to apologise for her gherkin breath,
Eve was asked about the Jack/Ianto scene in Adrift and she giggled that during the first take she purposefully didn't interrupt them as quickly as she was meant too so that she could watch Barrowman and Gareth go at it! She said she wanted it "to go on and on".
She was asked about Barrowman's willingness to get out his penis at inopportune times and how he had said that Eve "gets the girls out". This question was greeted with about a gales of giggling from Eve who thought it was hilarious and admitted that whenever they were getting tired on set or whenever the pace was lagging John would whip his member out and that she would "never get tired of the Barrowman balls."
Eve confessed to having been "Buffy" mad and that when she realised that James Marsters was going to be in the show she got a bit star struck (mimes James being on the set and her just staring at him) and that when she realised that not only would he be kissing her but that also they'd be handcuffed together for a week she got a bit excited (mimes flailing and running off stage).
I asked her whether she thought Gwen had lost her innocence this year particularly with the events of Adrift and she replied that she did think Gwen had gotten a lot harder this year and that she had felt that it was very important that Gwen wasn't constantly going "Oh my god it's a blowfish" and that with Jack's departure and everything that had followed she wanted Gwen to have reached a point where she just took a matter of fact take charge approach to things and just saw it as another part of her job.
Eve also said that her favourite episode was Countrycide (I suspect more for the shenanigans they got up to filming it) and when I was off getting her autograph she mentioned to the person in front of me that she'd just finished filming a 13 part series in Paris which sounded like a fantasy series in which she plays an evil witch and that she gets to wear heavy prosthetics and kill lots of people. She also said that she'd watched a whole series of CSi in French!
I didn't really get to see much of Kai's talk because I was queuing for various things (photo with Gareth, photo with Eve who greeted everyone with a huge hug) but he seemed to be going down very well with the crowd. I also heard him say he would be doing Dick Whittington in panto in Cardiff again this year and based on his performance in the evening I'm definitely going.
Marsters was up next.
I'm not much of a JM girl but he does handle a crowd very well. However it does have to be said that the Q&A started off well and then became ever so slightly bizarre as it progressed.
He told stories about his new film Dragonball Z, said he would rather kiss Barrowman than any other actress he's met, that when he first met John he was very uncomfortable with how sexually out there he was but that by the end of the second day he was embarrassing Barrowman with his comments, that he's never had an erection while filming (honestly I can't take Cyberamanda anywhere), was initially concerned that Captain John was far too much like Spike but rationalised it on the grounds that Spike was more of a romantic who was only interested in one person at a time whereas Captain John is a time slut (not quite buying that as the character is very Spike-lite and in Exit Wounds the character was quite expressly all about Jack), felt that Captain John would definitely be up for giving Ianto a "good shagging", that he wanted to play Macbeth and didn't understand why "all the young actors wanted to prove themselves by by playing Hamlet as it's a play where nothing happens" (this was coupled with a slightly bizarre rant about Shakespeare and a odd comparison to his new movie Dragonball Z), completely failed to provide any sort of decent advice to a struggling actress and that he wants to remake Supergirl - only in his version Superman is old and dying, Supergirl lives in a trailer park and Gareth is the kick ass grandson on Stephen Hawking.
As I said started well became truly bizarre.
James was pretty spacey by the time I went up to get his autograph -I complemented him on how strong his acting had been in Exit Wounds and he said that it was very easy on that set as his acting just flowed, he then repeated the story about JB hurting his leg and being more concerned about everyone else than his own health and that he "really loves this man" something he repeated - more than once!
Then there was a long wait while everyone had their meet and greet sessions and got autographs before Kai and Eve returned to do a joint Q&A.
(Eve being a Gelth!)
They were adorably giggly together. Kai going "What, What" about a question about Gwen having the affair with Owen and ret-conning Rhys was hilarious as was Eve constantly repeating "He doesn't know!" We also had Eve doing a spot of dialogue from Meat "We catch aliens." Unfortunately at that point the organiser of Showmasters had arrived and was busy distributing leaflets for The Hub (the Torchwood event in October) which displayed John Barrowman's handsome mug on them as he has been announced as a guest alongside Naoko Mori. At that point we all got a little distracted as we all fished out Blackberry's and attempted to book only to curse the poor Blackberry to the heavens when it refused to comply. Poor Kai and Eve rather got the short stick there.
Then it was time for the final Q&A of the day - James and Gareth.
And I have to say that as talks go it was more than a little odd! James and Gareth do make a great double act (lots of manly hugging) and there were lots of amusing back and forth between them. James said that Gareth was the best actor he's ever worked with in twenty years and if it was up to him Gareth would always be employed which lead to Gareth mock complaining that James had promised not to leave and instead he'd pissed off to make Dragonball Z leaving Gareth unemployed and having to put a band together just to keep himself occupied.
They were asked which of Captain John or Ianto would win in a fight over Jack and Gareth responded by saying that he thought Ianto would want "a two Captain sandwich with Ianto filling. Toasted" much to the delight of the audience.
Then things hit a bit of a downward spiral. Gareth was asked whether he was superstitious which he responded to with a long rant about the ugly nature of humanity which whilst interesting left me wondering if Gareth actually knows what "superstitious" means. James then went completely spacey talking about string theory and alternate dimensions whilst the audience blinked repeatedly at him. A question about the supernatural had Gareth telling a very upsetting (and very private!) story about how his aunt (who I believe virtually raised him) had died last Sunday and that she had promised that she would wait until after Gareth's concert (as she called it) to go and that she had died 5 minutes after the gig ended. Which was desperately desperately sad for Gareth but the story did rather pole ax the audience.
A question about who would direct the film of their lives (Gareth: David Lynch) left Marsters completely flailing and he couldn't answer who he would want to play him either (Gareth "James.....well you have to say me now!). At this point Gareth seemed to realise that James was really really struggling - I have no idea why - let's be charitable and say jet lag but something had definitely changed between the first and second Q&A and he was noticeably struggling for coherence and Gareth very much stepped up - lightening the tone and being super snarky not really allowing Marsters much of a chance to say anything. He took the mickey out of James Supergirl pitch saying that he was just giving away all his ideas and that people in the audience would steal them (he cracked jokes about wanting to read John/Jack/Ianto fic and Supergirl stories from the fanfic writers in the audience), called Marsters statement that he only really watched the news and documentaries pretentious before reeling off all the shows he likes (The Sopranos, Star Trek etc) and took him to task for completely failing to help the girl who had asked for advice earlier. Gareth is a lot quicker than people give him credit for but you almost felt that it was a bit of a relief for both of them when the session ended.
Then it was time for the evening - oh the evening! It was meant to be a Marsters gig but after a 2 hour wait a very clearly embarassed Steve Himber confessed that James was ill and wouldn't be able to perform. He held his hands up and offered anyone who wanted a £20 refund once but they had to go and claim it now. Quite a few people did but more than I would have thought stayed (and they weren't just the Torchwood fans either - a whole lot of JM fen remained). And they stayed to watch Kai Owen do stand up and sing!
And he was bloody brilliant. Despite being in his own words "fucking pissed" he kept the audience entertained (and "for free" as he pointed out....repeatedly) with a healthy spot of JM blasting, a spot of karaoke, an Elvis number, a Welsh number and a hilarious song called "Land of our Fathers" and a couple of jokes. At some point during proceedings Gareth had appeared at the side of the stage and when Kai asked if anyone had any drugs Gareth rushed on. Kai responded that he didn't know why he was on stage when "Gareth Fucking David Lloyd" was there and Gareth said that he'd come "because the shit had hit the fan" and that he had been comfortably sprawled on his hotel room bed when the organisers had phoned him and told him what was going on. This resulted in the best line of the day "Kai Owen's doing stand up.....Oh Fuck." Gareth expressed surprise that anyone had stayed and said "That's what fandom is." Too true Gareth!
Gareth then completely massacred Summer Nights with a random girl from the audience (Gareth sang it in his usual bluesy style - neither of them knew the words and Gareth made a few changes "we stayed up till 10 O'Clock, she stayed up sucking my cock.") but at least it greatly amused his girlfriend who was in hysterics. He then ended the day with a brilliant a capella version of Bam Bam (complete with Steve Himber doing a very strange interpretative dance) before we all got kicked out.
Fun but at times very surreal day.
Here are the videos of Kai displaying his genius ad-libbing skills:
Land of Our Fathers
And I'll say that again because it's my favourite fucking line
Kai sings Elvis
Who the fuck is James Marsters?
Kai singing in Welsh
Absolutely no re-posting of the videos and pictures please
Oh and a super quick edit to say that I heard next to nothing of the writers panel (queuing for various things) and it seemed more like an interview with virtually no time for the attendees to ask questions but the most disappointing part of the day was learning that none of the writers knew who writes the Captain Jack blogs on BBC America. When I spoke to Joseph Lidster afterwards he said that he had been asked to do it but had turned it down because he was too busy but he thought a BBC America researcher probably wrote them - which means that the person writing all that wonderful Jack/Ianto stuff has nothing whatsoever to do with the writing team.
Whilst I had very mixed feelings about the event I did learn some very important things:
1. That Eve Myles is the sweetest, loveliest and most fan friendly actress I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. When I arrived at the event I didn't have any particular burning desire to meet her but by the end of the event I was completely in love. She's adorable.
2. That the character of Gwen is truly dismally written as none of Eve's wonderful personality manages to translate to the character.
3. That Kai Owen tells a mean joke, can really sing and it just absolutely awesome - especially when completely pissed.
4. That Gareth David Lloyd is almost unrecognisable as the mumbly nervous guy who first appeared at the Telford Expo. He can now work a crowd almost as well as Barrowman and he's very good at stepping up to the plate when he needs to to stop things going to hell.
5. That I would be extremely reluctant to pay for another Torchwood event organised by Steve Himber and the JM Live people again.
First the gripes. The organisation of the event was deeply unimpressive. The JM Live people have been organising events for a while but it would be fair to say that they are more used to organising high price Marsters centric events with only 1 or 2 other guests rather than a one day convention. And their lack of experience showed.
Firstly they kept us waiting outside for 40 minutes in the sweltering sunshine because "they weren't ready yet". Then when we got in there there there was one single queue (which practically went out the front door) which you had to wait in in order to get your photos, autographs, put your name down for the meet and greets etc. Marster's manager was in charge of the sales and his pace was painfully slow - to the point where I actually went to the front and pointed out that if things didn't speed up they were looking at an hour to clear the queue. He ignored me but had started to panic a tad by the time I did get to the front of the queue and he realised that there was still no end in sight. This meant that James Marsters was waiting for people to have their photo taken with him while they were still queuing to buy a ticket and most annoyingly from my point of view Gareth came on for the first Q&A while we were still stood in that bloody queue.
I had already sussed long before the event that there was no way they could get through all the actors panels, the writers panel, autographs and photos in a single day without things clashing but I was incredibly annoyed that effectively in order to get your autographs you had no choice but to miss large chunks of the various panels. The set up was also very disrespectful to the actors on stage as the noise from the back of the hall where people were getting their autographs was immense.
Also - whilst the writers autographs were included in your ticket they weren't set up anywhere where you could just go up to them and get autographs. Joseph Lidster confessed to me that the writers were a bit uncertain and so had been hiding in the green room until the organisers had told them to go out and mingle. Which meant you had to find them in whatever spot they happened to be standing and get their autographs which didn't make my poster a terrible practical thing to get signed!
So all in all I did leave feeling that I had paid an awful lot for not a great deal and that I actually missed out on quite a lot which was included which would make me very reluctant to support one of their events again.
But enough of the griping.
First up in the Q&A's was Gareth.
He had shaved off the goatee and was looking a lot neater and cuter than last week although I did rather like the scruff. He was also blessedly hat free. He promised that he wouldn't be reading from any vulgar books this week although his responses didn't stay clean for long!
Most of the questions were inevitably about the Jack/Ianto relationship and Gareth said that he was happy for it to progress in any way which enabled him to have more screen time and make more money and that if they wanted naked Jack/Ianto that was fine with him. Gareth mentioned quite a few times that he didn't have any work ("noone will employ me") and that he was spending most of his time working with his band Blue Gillespie.
Cyberamanda asked what drew him to read Jack/Ianto fanfiction and he replied that it was the "pure filth"
Someone asked about all the pre-publicity for the Jack/Captain John kiss and why the Jack/Ianto kisses didn't get the same degree of publicity and he replied that he was number 5 on the call sheet (John being Number 1) and that if two Number 1's (meaning John and James) kissed TPTB were bound to promote it more. Aw he's so self deprecating.
I asked him what he thought Ianto had done during the year that never was while Jack was on the Valiant (a simple question which was confused by him asking me whether I'd had a nice time at SWA and then mishearing "Valiant" as "Valium"). He didn't really answer (not in a creative story telling mood at this event) and decided to plump for my suggestion that Ianto had been leader of the free world.
Gareth was asked about Fragments and whether the ending of that episode suggested that Ianto had slept with Jack prior to the events of Cyberwoman and he said that he thought that they probably had. The person then asked whether Ianto had told Lisa about it and he replied that he thought Lisa had enough problems although maybe Ianto had and that's why she went nuts and tried to kill everyone.
Other tidbits - he does indeed tie his own ties,was asked how exactly someone cheats at naked hide and seek and said that that was left up to your imaginations, he thinks the organic relationship between the actors and the Torchwood writers is incredibly important, confessed that the third series hadn't been "100% greenlit yet" and he was asked about the kiss referenced in the Barrowman biography but didn't really elaborate or suggest what episode it was cut from.
He was also heckled by Kai and Eve at one point who were chanting "Get them off" at him and he responded with a snooty "This is my time now" which was hilarious.
Then it was time for Eve.
She was so nervous but was utterly adorable. Very frank, very funny and she has the most infectious high pitched giggle I have ever heard! Everyone got greeted with "hello lovely" and she thanked everyone for asking "lovely questions".
She was asked who she thought Gwen really loved more Rhys or Jack and she replied that Gwen loves Rhys from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She completely loves him and feels very safe with him but she's very charmed by Jack but the Rhys is the one she loves.
She told a story about Something Borrowed and how she had found the pickle jar in a cupboard for that scene ("Thank god they were still in date") and thought that having Gwen eat a gherkin in that scene would be a good idea. Fifteen gherkins later.... She said she had to kiss Kai Owen after that and she kept having to apologise for her gherkin breath,
Eve was asked about the Jack/Ianto scene in Adrift and she giggled that during the first take she purposefully didn't interrupt them as quickly as she was meant too so that she could watch Barrowman and Gareth go at it! She said she wanted it "to go on and on".
She was asked about Barrowman's willingness to get out his penis at inopportune times and how he had said that Eve "gets the girls out". This question was greeted with about a gales of giggling from Eve who thought it was hilarious and admitted that whenever they were getting tired on set or whenever the pace was lagging John would whip his member out and that she would "never get tired of the Barrowman balls."
Eve confessed to having been "Buffy" mad and that when she realised that James Marsters was going to be in the show she got a bit star struck (mimes James being on the set and her just staring at him) and that when she realised that not only would he be kissing her but that also they'd be handcuffed together for a week she got a bit excited (mimes flailing and running off stage).
I asked her whether she thought Gwen had lost her innocence this year particularly with the events of Adrift and she replied that she did think Gwen had gotten a lot harder this year and that she had felt that it was very important that Gwen wasn't constantly going "Oh my god it's a blowfish" and that with Jack's departure and everything that had followed she wanted Gwen to have reached a point where she just took a matter of fact take charge approach to things and just saw it as another part of her job.
Eve also said that her favourite episode was Countrycide (I suspect more for the shenanigans they got up to filming it) and when I was off getting her autograph she mentioned to the person in front of me that she'd just finished filming a 13 part series in Paris which sounded like a fantasy series in which she plays an evil witch and that she gets to wear heavy prosthetics and kill lots of people. She also said that she'd watched a whole series of CSi in French!
I didn't really get to see much of Kai's talk because I was queuing for various things (photo with Gareth, photo with Eve who greeted everyone with a huge hug) but he seemed to be going down very well with the crowd. I also heard him say he would be doing Dick Whittington in panto in Cardiff again this year and based on his performance in the evening I'm definitely going.
Marsters was up next.
I'm not much of a JM girl but he does handle a crowd very well. However it does have to be said that the Q&A started off well and then became ever so slightly bizarre as it progressed.
He told stories about his new film Dragonball Z, said he would rather kiss Barrowman than any other actress he's met, that when he first met John he was very uncomfortable with how sexually out there he was but that by the end of the second day he was embarrassing Barrowman with his comments, that he's never had an erection while filming (honestly I can't take Cyberamanda anywhere), was initially concerned that Captain John was far too much like Spike but rationalised it on the grounds that Spike was more of a romantic who was only interested in one person at a time whereas Captain John is a time slut (not quite buying that as the character is very Spike-lite and in Exit Wounds the character was quite expressly all about Jack), felt that Captain John would definitely be up for giving Ianto a "good shagging", that he wanted to play Macbeth and didn't understand why "all the young actors wanted to prove themselves by by playing Hamlet as it's a play where nothing happens" (this was coupled with a slightly bizarre rant about Shakespeare and a odd comparison to his new movie Dragonball Z), completely failed to provide any sort of decent advice to a struggling actress and that he wants to remake Supergirl - only in his version Superman is old and dying, Supergirl lives in a trailer park and Gareth is the kick ass grandson on Stephen Hawking.
As I said started well became truly bizarre.
James was pretty spacey by the time I went up to get his autograph -I complemented him on how strong his acting had been in Exit Wounds and he said that it was very easy on that set as his acting just flowed, he then repeated the story about JB hurting his leg and being more concerned about everyone else than his own health and that he "really loves this man" something he repeated - more than once!
Then there was a long wait while everyone had their meet and greet sessions and got autographs before Kai and Eve returned to do a joint Q&A.
(Eve being a Gelth!)
They were adorably giggly together. Kai going "What, What" about a question about Gwen having the affair with Owen and ret-conning Rhys was hilarious as was Eve constantly repeating "He doesn't know!" We also had Eve doing a spot of dialogue from Meat "We catch aliens." Unfortunately at that point the organiser of Showmasters had arrived and was busy distributing leaflets for The Hub (the Torchwood event in October) which displayed John Barrowman's handsome mug on them as he has been announced as a guest alongside Naoko Mori. At that point we all got a little distracted as we all fished out Blackberry's and attempted to book only to curse the poor Blackberry to the heavens when it refused to comply. Poor Kai and Eve rather got the short stick there.
Then it was time for the final Q&A of the day - James and Gareth.
And I have to say that as talks go it was more than a little odd! James and Gareth do make a great double act (lots of manly hugging) and there were lots of amusing back and forth between them. James said that Gareth was the best actor he's ever worked with in twenty years and if it was up to him Gareth would always be employed which lead to Gareth mock complaining that James had promised not to leave and instead he'd pissed off to make Dragonball Z leaving Gareth unemployed and having to put a band together just to keep himself occupied.
They were asked which of Captain John or Ianto would win in a fight over Jack and Gareth responded by saying that he thought Ianto would want "a two Captain sandwich with Ianto filling. Toasted" much to the delight of the audience.
Then things hit a bit of a downward spiral. Gareth was asked whether he was superstitious which he responded to with a long rant about the ugly nature of humanity which whilst interesting left me wondering if Gareth actually knows what "superstitious" means. James then went completely spacey talking about string theory and alternate dimensions whilst the audience blinked repeatedly at him. A question about the supernatural had Gareth telling a very upsetting (and very private!) story about how his aunt (who I believe virtually raised him) had died last Sunday and that she had promised that she would wait until after Gareth's concert (as she called it) to go and that she had died 5 minutes after the gig ended. Which was desperately desperately sad for Gareth but the story did rather pole ax the audience.
A question about who would direct the film of their lives (Gareth: David Lynch) left Marsters completely flailing and he couldn't answer who he would want to play him either (Gareth "James.....well you have to say me now!). At this point Gareth seemed to realise that James was really really struggling - I have no idea why - let's be charitable and say jet lag but something had definitely changed between the first and second Q&A and he was noticeably struggling for coherence and Gareth very much stepped up - lightening the tone and being super snarky not really allowing Marsters much of a chance to say anything. He took the mickey out of James Supergirl pitch saying that he was just giving away all his ideas and that people in the audience would steal them (he cracked jokes about wanting to read John/Jack/Ianto fic and Supergirl stories from the fanfic writers in the audience), called Marsters statement that he only really watched the news and documentaries pretentious before reeling off all the shows he likes (The Sopranos, Star Trek etc) and took him to task for completely failing to help the girl who had asked for advice earlier. Gareth is a lot quicker than people give him credit for but you almost felt that it was a bit of a relief for both of them when the session ended.
Then it was time for the evening - oh the evening! It was meant to be a Marsters gig but after a 2 hour wait a very clearly embarassed Steve Himber confessed that James was ill and wouldn't be able to perform. He held his hands up and offered anyone who wanted a £20 refund once but they had to go and claim it now. Quite a few people did but more than I would have thought stayed (and they weren't just the Torchwood fans either - a whole lot of JM fen remained). And they stayed to watch Kai Owen do stand up and sing!
And he was bloody brilliant. Despite being in his own words "fucking pissed" he kept the audience entertained (and "for free" as he pointed out....repeatedly) with a healthy spot of JM blasting, a spot of karaoke, an Elvis number, a Welsh number and a hilarious song called "Land of our Fathers" and a couple of jokes. At some point during proceedings Gareth had appeared at the side of the stage and when Kai asked if anyone had any drugs Gareth rushed on. Kai responded that he didn't know why he was on stage when "Gareth Fucking David Lloyd" was there and Gareth said that he'd come "because the shit had hit the fan" and that he had been comfortably sprawled on his hotel room bed when the organisers had phoned him and told him what was going on. This resulted in the best line of the day "Kai Owen's doing stand up.....Oh Fuck." Gareth expressed surprise that anyone had stayed and said "That's what fandom is." Too true Gareth!
Gareth then completely massacred Summer Nights with a random girl from the audience (Gareth sang it in his usual bluesy style - neither of them knew the words and Gareth made a few changes "we stayed up till 10 O'Clock, she stayed up sucking my cock.") but at least it greatly amused his girlfriend who was in hysterics. He then ended the day with a brilliant a capella version of Bam Bam (complete with Steve Himber doing a very strange interpretative dance) before we all got kicked out.
Fun but at times very surreal day.
Here are the videos of Kai displaying his genius ad-libbing skills:
Land of Our Fathers
And I'll say that again because it's my favourite fucking line
Click to viewKai sings Elvis
Who the fuck is James Marsters?
Kai singing in Welsh
Absolutely no re-posting of the videos and pictures please
Oh and a super quick edit to say that I heard next to nothing of the writers panel (queuing for various things) and it seemed more like an interview with virtually no time for the attendees to ask questions but the most disappointing part of the day was learning that none of the writers knew who writes the Captain Jack blogs on BBC America. When I spoke to Joseph Lidster afterwards he said that he had been asked to do it but had turned it down because he was too busy but he thought a BBC America researcher probably wrote them - which means that the person writing all that wonderful Jack/Ianto stuff has nothing whatsoever to do with the writing team.