It happens to be the birthday of one of our favorite people in the world – and not just in the Supernatural world – Richard Speight, Jr. Richard is one of the first people we interviewed for Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls. We’ve had some of our most insightful and intellectually stimulating talks with him, often at the end of a convention when we all want to process and relax with a beer. Richard wrote a chapter for our new book, Fan Phenomena: Supernatural, sharing his unique point of view on the Supernatural conventions which have become a big part of his life over the past eight years. He turned around karaoke to make it the awesome party it is now, and when he became the emcee for a con weekend, the energy level at cons went up – and stayed there.
[Richard Speight, Jr., in Fan Phenomena: Supernatural, on not being famous: “And yet for the past four years, somewhere between five and fifteen times a year, I make grown women shake and young girls squee (and maybe a couple of guys get sweaty palms). Why? Because I’m a regular guest at conventions for the CW show Supernatural. Am I one of the show’s stars? Nope. A strong supporting character? Not even close. I appeared in a measly four episodes, playing first The Trickster who (spoiler alert!) later revealed himself to be the Archangel Gabriel. Four, total. On a show that has clocked over a hundred episodes and counting. Yet according to the web, I’ve so far been a featured guest at thirty-three conventions. That’s an unbalanced ratio that leads to an obvious question – Why?”]
At the time Richard wrote that chapter, Gabriel had been gone from the Show for three years. That all changed in Season 9, when he (and Richard) returned to the Show for the episode “Meta Fiction.” What was it like, we wondered, to return to the Show after all this time?
Lynn: That was the first time you worked with Misha, right?
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