Welcome to Part 2 of our Nashcon coverage with lots of pretty pretty pictures courtesy of Prior Studios. I was so happy to have Kim, my partner in crime, back with me at a con. And we all benefit from the photos she was able to take. I had to have a cold drink beside me to post this article, and it’s winter on the East Coast of the US…
So here we go with Part 2, starting with Sunday, J2 day! The boys looked fine fine fine at the morning gold panel in gray (Jared) and ivory over plaid (Jensen) and those long long legs.
They wasted no time in getting to the banter that we all enjoy so much.
Jared said that he had been excited to wear a scarf yesterday.
Jensen: You live in a bad place to have a scarf fetish…
They love to reminisce about their time on Supernatural and I am unspeakably grateful that they want to keep talking about it as much as I want to keep hearing about it.
Jensen: We were full on kleptomaniacs on Supernatural.
Jared: We got little gift packages from Props…
I don’t think we STILL know everything that they ended up with when the show wrapped – and good for them! Look how joyously unrepentant they are.
Jared: I stole…uh, that is, two things went missing from Bobby’s house. I have the Samulet, and an army man from the car.
Jensen: Jared and I snuck in and went full Sam and Dean…
I love it. Can you just imagine the two of them being all sneaking, channeling their inner Sam and Dean? Good for you, boys! I am so glad that Jared has the Samulet, that warms my heart.
They also were remembering the early episode Wendigo, when the actor who was playing Roy was all gung ho to be set on fire and then was suddenly screaming “Put me out!”
Jared and Jensen at the time: What have we gotten ourselves into?
Nashville is one of my favorite Supernatural conventions. It’s usually around the holidays, and it’s usually at the Gaylord Opryland, which is a ridiculous Disneyland of a hotel with a river running through it and a boat you can take from one side to the other and so much walking that it makes my still-messed-up knee hurt just thinking about it. But I kinda love it too – also it’s a con that a lot of my good friends go to, and that alone makes it special.
This year the con was in a different hotel (sans inside river and boat) and Alana didn’t make it, but Kim and I had a lovely room and I was thrilled to have her beside me taking photos – I’ve missed her photos but I’ve missed her being my partner in crime at cons even more! She didn’t make it to many panels but the ones she did make, whew, there are some pretty pretty pictures from them! So this con gets two posts, this one for all the Friday people fun and Saturday with the Saturday Night Special concert, and stay tuned for the Sunday festivities and the Radio Company debut concert wrap up – it was a busy and awesome few days!
I caught a little of Osric Chau and Adam Rose’s panel – when I walked in they were reminiscing about how they initially bonded over Osric’s Goku cosplay. I remember that! I loved the early days of the cons when Os would show up in some incredible cosplay and Gil or Misha or Jared or Jensen would have no clue what to say in response. Priceless!
The two got along famously, and were soon busy planning a joint birthday party – which would inevitably be amazing.
Adam has become internet famous for being the blue cardigan guy on TikTok. He said it’s always funny when someone knows him as that and then suddenly is like, wait, you’re on Supernatural??
A fan asked how he convinced Jensen to do the cardigan TikTok.
Adam: I said, wanna do a TikTok? And he said…okay…
Of course Adam was planning a new TikTok with Jensen – maybe an evil red cardigan? Or maybe one with Jared?
Osric: Do they make them in Jared size??
They were asked what Supernatural’s tag line would be, and pondered.
Osric: Bitch…jerk?
Seems legit.
Osric was asked about doing the first Supernatural HIllywood Show video and said he loved doing it.
Osric: How many casts are so down for doing a parody of their own show??
They talked about writing, which Osric is doing a lot of recently. He also wrote an insightful chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood about his experience playing Kevin on Supernatural, which I love. He said that he was so sad about his character dying that he snuck out after filming that scene without even saying goodbye, he was so emotional.
Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes also had a panel on Friday.
Kim got some questions about autism and had some great advice: if you want to know about autistic people, ask autistic people!
They both talked about how much they loved working on supernatural, with how collaborative and respectful an environment it was for an actor.
Briana: It’s wonderful to work on a show that makes you feel like an artist.
The Supernatural Phoenix con was special this year – a lot of my friends were there, which always makes it extra wonderful. A bunch of us talked one of our friends into coming to this con, and then surprised her with friends coming in from all over since this would be her last con – yes, she’s over 80, but honestly she’s 80 plus years young! It was so wonderful to see how surprised she (and half of our other group of friends) was to see the other half, and to make sure that the guest of honor enjoyed every second of what will probably be her last SPN con (not that she’s going anywhere, but this is the local one for her!) It got me thinking that someday I’ll have my own “last Supernatural convention” and that made me need tissues. But it was also so much of what cons and fandom are about, making friends from all over who support each other all year long.
In fact, there are only a few “Official Supernatural conventions” left, including this weekend’s Nashville one and the long-postponed San Francisco con in 2023. It feels weird that the rest of the 2023 cons are not called Supernatural conventions, even if we’ll have Jared, Jensen and Misha at all of them and many of the ‘regular’ guests that we know and love. Change is inevitable, I know, but I don’t have to like it – or at least I get to be ambivalent about it! I am excited to meet the casts of Walker and Windy and The Winchesters and The Boys and Big Sky of course, I just want everyone who I know and love to stick around too. Good thing I’m not in charge of conventions, they’d have about a million guests…
Friday was a short day for me because I spent most of it either flying or having lunch with my friends. The hotel had an outdoor patio with trees and water and cornhole and it was absolutely lovely, so we grabbed a big table out there and just caught up. I made it into the convention center in time to catch some of Adam Fergus’ panel and hear his story about being scared of everything as a kid, including the werewolf he was sure he saw at night that turned out to be a hat and coat on the bannister.
Adam talked about how on Supernatural, Jared was surprised to find out he was Irish. He also said that recently he had to do a Texas accent for a role and wanted it to be believable – so he called Jensen! (Actually that was a joke – he said he always has a voice coach when he has to do an American accent)
Someone asked about his favorite episodes and he said that one of the reasons that Supernatural was on for so long was the great writing and the way they took risks, like Baby and Scoobynatural. So agreed!
Speaking of writing, Adam wrote a chapter in There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done all about his time on Supernatural and his appreciation of fandom that’s really interesting, if you haven’t checked it out yet.
Jason Manns was busy as the Friday emcee, and it was nice to see his smiling face.
Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster also did a panel, which started out with Briana channeling her inner Stephen Norton… Shhhh, don’t tell him!
Kim and Briana always have something inspirational to say, and this panel was no exception.
Kim: I am fucking allowed to feel good about myself!
It’s been a busy couple of months! It’s almost Thanksgiving as I write this, and I’m finally trying to catch up on Supernatural convention posts – first up, Kansas City Con!
Three days after getting back from the Supernatural convention at Denver, I headed blearily to the airport again on Thursday night to fly to the next one in Kansas City. I’d never been there, and there had never been a convention there, so that was exciting – enough to keep me awake at least. My lovely roommates had a delicious burger and fries waiting for me, so that helped too. So did a good night’s sleep!
I am rarely able to be at a con on Friday morning, so it was a treat to get to see Gabe Tigerman’s panel. Gabe has a chapter in There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done, and he’s also part of our earliest books, both Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls and Fandom AtThe Crossroads, so it made me all kinds of happy to catch up with him. A fan asked what he would do if he had mind control like his character, Andy?
Gabe: I’d do the same thing he did – steal Baby!
Favorite line?
Gabe: I have an evil twin! Though I wish it was identical twins so it could be like me fighting me with a mustache.
Like so many guest actors on the show, Gabe said that Supernatural was his favorite job.
Gabe: As guest actors on that show, we really got to act – and then do these conventions!
He wishes Andy didn’t have to die, because it made so much sense for Sam and Dean to just take Andy’s van and go hunting with him.
I was extra thrilled to hear him tell the infamous 5-legged steer story, about the time he and some buddies went to see the world’s largest groundhog and found it stuffed – and then were chased by a cow with a whole ass extra leg hanging off its side!
He also told the story of him fanboying Michael C Hall at a restaurant, and taking out his Invisalign at the exact moment that Hall walked by and said hello, so that Gabe looked up at him with a spit string attached to his Invisalign hahaha.
Gabe took an informal poll of how many times people in the audience had watched Supernatural start to finish – the winner was 35!!
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Julian Richings too – only in the Supernatural fandom does Death exuberantly take the stage like this!
Supernatural conventions resumed in September with a visit to one of my favorite states, Colorado. I grew up visiting my aunt and uncle who lived on the mesa in a generous-sized log cabin with a spectacular view and a grumpy alpaca named George who lived next door, so I have a special fondness for the state. The altitude, alas, does not have a special fondness for me – which means I missed some of the con while trying to get rid of a banging headache.
Luckily the altitude impact didn’t set in the first night, so I got to out to a local restaurant and sit outside on their deck to enjoy some delicious burgers and the beautiful night. Shout out to some of the crowded table gang for letting me hang out with you for the weekend!
I don’t think I got to Denver early enough to catch any panels on Friday, which was a disappointment, but I did catch some on Saturday in between doing my vendor thing with the books – including Rob Benedict doing a solo panel. He said he’s excited about the new prequel that starts next week, The Winchesters, and all the Easter eggs he expects will be in it.
Rob: And maybe God will be in it…pre Alex!
Rob also said that he’s learning a lot doing the Supernatural Then and Now podcast.
Rob: I didn’t know about Sam’s abilities or that John whispered in Dean’s ear he might have to kill him (before the podcast)
He’s having so much fun watching Supernatural from the start that he interrupted a fan to say “don’t spoil me!” (That’s a tall order considering Rob and Rich are currently watching Season 2…) Of course, he knows where some of the show will end up, or at least the actors.
Rob: It’s so cool to hear Dean say “the family business” and be like hey, one day you’ll have a brewery called that…
A fan asked what would have happened if Chuck prevailed at the end of the show instead of the Winchesters.
Rob: I think Chuck would’ve brought Sam and Dean back anyway because they’re his favorites and he’d miss them.
Rob talked about returning to the show in Season 11.
Rob: I came back in season 11 and came out of the closet as God – in more ways than one which was cool!
He did feel the responsibility of actually playing God.
Rob: The first time I actually spoke as God, I asked Bob Singer, was that okay? He said you’re not gonna be one of those actors are you? Which he said to Jensen in Season 1 too.
Having been on set to watch Bob Singer direct, I can testify to his ‘grumpy old man’ kinda thing, but also to how well he and all the actors worked together and understood each other.
Rob also enjoyed Chuck getting the upper hand though.
Rob: It was so fun doing the scene where I beat up Jared and Jensen – bam bam! It’s like a dance and those guys are so good at it. I rarely get cast as the guy who kicks ass!
He also shared something that RuPaul told a good friend of his, which stuck with me: What other people think of you is none of your business.
There was a panel of awesome ladies of Supernatural, including Samantha Smith, Briana Buckmaster, Ruth Connell and Samantha Ferris, who hasn’t been to a con in a while, so that was a treat! She told a hilarious story about the time she was filming something I won’t spoil (because she said not to lol) and they used a body double for a shot of her ass – and she still gets compliments on it! Shhhh.
Someone asked about Rowena and what she’s probably doing with hell now that she’s in charge.
Ruth: My tag line for what Rowena is doing with hell – make hell great again…
Me: lol
Fan: What would your characters and the guys be doing if they were all in a scene together?
Everyone on the panel: They’d be sitting around the table going what the hell is taking the guys so long?
