Tag: Gil McKinney

The SPNFamily Business… Article #2 on Salute to Supernatural in Denver, Colorado

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The Salute to Supernatural conventions are always entertaining, but there is another word that describes these events: Family. Although the venue for the convention in Denver was small, it felt right. The smallness created an atmosphere of closeness and of camaraderie. While each of the celebrity guests spoke passionately about a variety of causes, they also spoke about the bond, the sense of community and family that is our fandom.

Before I get into those details, I think it is important to recognize the non-cast people, the people directly connected to these conventions. The first group is all of the wonderful people from Creation Entertainment. Co-founders Gary Berman and Adam Malin spend countless hours planning and preparing these events, events that allow us the opportunity not only to meet the cast, but also to meet our fellow family members. Mr. Berman and Mr. Malin, along with their staff and their volunteers, continue to pour their heart and soul and passion into making these events something special, whether it is in Denver or Las Vegas or any other city on the circuit. They go to great lengths to make sure lines move quickly, to have water coolers filled and ready to go inside the theater, to answer our questions with enthusiasm and smiles – they really do want us to have a good time! They have also recently launched Creation Stands, allowing us the opportunity to buy merchandise through their website which supports the various charities near & dear to the hearts of our favorite cast members. Without the unwavering passion and commitment of Mr. Berman, Mr. Malin, and all of the Creation staff, these conventions simply would not exist.

 

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This. Is. Entertainment. Post #1. Salute to Supernatural – Denver

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I first met the authors of Fangasm, Lynn and Kathy, in Chicago. In the year since then, we have forged a friendship built on a mutual love for this show, but also one built upon respect for one another’s work, and I am quite sure they are sick of hearing me say thank you a gabjillion times. We had discussed the idea of me acting as their photographer at a few conventions (see their posts on Vegas) and when the Denver convention came up, and they would not be attending but I was attending, and oh my Chuck – here I am, writing this for them. I am forever grateful for this opportunity.

I have attended two Salute to Supernatural conventions prior to Denver, first in Chicago in 2014 and then in Las Vegas in 2015. Upon entering the hotel in Denver, I was immediately struck by the smallness of the location; I wondered how this would go, given the number of fans about to descend upon the site.

 

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Toronto Con 2015 With the Supernatural Family

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The Toronto Creation con is always a little bit more emotional than most, because everyone remembers that’s where Rob Benedict had the stroke that almost killed him. That was two years ago, and Rob is fine – as Richard says, better than ever and healthy as a horse! – but he almost wasn’t. The fact that it was his Supernatural family who saved his life is emblematic of the feeling many fans have that the show has saved their lives too – maybe not quite as literally (though maybe every bit as literally), but nevertheless Supernatural has changed many of us. Toronto con is about celebrating Rob’s life, and about celebrating the fact that we’re all SPN Family. Maybe that’s why all the guests were bursting with enthusiasm at this year’s Torcon, and why the Saturday Night Special erupted in an emotional rushing of the stage by the last few numbers.

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Roadtrip! SPNFamily goes to NJCon

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What a treat it was to DRIVE to a convention instead of fly! One of my university colleagues who also watches the Show came with me to Secaucus NJ (which the guests mostly called See-Cock-Us…) to help out in the vendor’s room to sell our Supernatural books. It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the convention center cons, but the vendor’s “room” was just a portion of the giant floor, so I got to meet lots of people who had read the books and stopped by to say they really related to them as a fan of the Show (or stopped by to say “What? Books on Supernatural fandom? Misha wrote a chapter?”)

It was wonderful to meet so many of you and to hear what you liked about ‘Fangasm’ and ‘Fan Phenomena Supernatural’!

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DallasCon Friday and Saturday – Favorite Moments In Pictures

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DallasCon, like every Supernatural con, was filled with funny, touching and fascinating moments. It’s impossible to live tweet and take photos simultaneously, so I didn’t catch all of them. But here are some of my favorites that I happened to have my camera or phone handy to snap a photo. Stay tuned for Sunday’s happenings soon.

It wouldn’t be a Supernatural con without a beautiful Impala parked outside.

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Gil McKinney singing. That will always be one of my favorite things at a con. And cosplaying as Indiana Jones at karaoke. With a whip, y’all. I didn’t get any decent photos but make sure you check out some of the ones out there. I never knew Gil would make such a perfect Indiana Jones.

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Jensen, Jared and Misha at Vancon!

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Vancon always feels a bit like coming home. Which is odd, since I’ve never lived in Vancouver. But several of the most pivotal and emotional chapters of our story in Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls took place in Vancouver. I met my first other SPN Family members in Vancouver – and, miraculously, six of us from that first group of a few dozen fans were back in Vancouver again last weekend! It was wonderful to reconnect, and amazing to know that so many of us are still fans, almost a decade later. Of course, Vancouver also feels like “home” because it’s home to the Show we were all there to celebrate. It’s a bit more laid back, since the boys don’t have to fly in and out. They’re more relaxed, and that means more time to chat with fans and be creative in photo ops (and oh yes, can fans ever be creative in photo ops!) It also gives the other actors, who aren’t there on Sunday and sometimes don’t get a chance to say hi to Jared and Jensen, the opportunity to reconnect too. I chatted with Gil McKinney recently and he said he hoped he would run into Jared and Jensen soon, since he kept having to fly out before they got to the con on Sunday. Watching Gil and Jensen singing together at the Saturday Night Special, I kept thinking how nice it was that they indeed got a chance to hang out again. And to harmonize!

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Supernatural Saturday Night Special – VegasCon Style!

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So where did we leave off with this year’s VegasCon fun? Oh, that’s right – it was almost Saturday night.

Kathy and I had dinner with fangirls, and then it was time for the aptly named “Saturday Night Special.” The Saturday night concert has become one of my favorite parts of the conventions, as I wrote in an article here few months ago. VegasCon was probably the most epic Saturday Night Special ever, with cast member after cast member taking the stage and absolutely owning it.

The stars of the show are the band that makes the Creation Supernatural cons the very best – Louden Swain. I’m not a musician, but it doesn’t take one to realize that it’s not every band that can pull off what they do. They not only play their own songs all weekend, but they compose a little song to introduce all the guests, and are never afraid to play some impromptu music to go along with a guest’s request. That’s talent, clearly. But it’s more than that. The band works harder than anyone at these cons – in Vegas, for four days in a row – and they never EVER lose their good humor or their infectious enthusiasm. Rob Benedict, Billy Moran, Mike Borja, and Stephen Norton are immensely talented musicians, but they’re also versatile enough to provide musical punchline emphasis and are sometimes part of an impromptu onstage joke.

Rob can belt out the hardest rock song and make you get up and dance. He can also break your heart with emotional ballads, many of them auto-biographical and all the more powerful for it. Rob is willing to make himself vulnerable because he says he feels safe performing in front of the SPN Family. In fact, the cast has all said that at one time or another. It’s a special thing for them, just as it is for us.

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What Happens In Vegas… Part 3 (Saturday Supernatural Shenanigans)

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Where did we leave off? Oh, right, with Tim Omundson being awesome, both onstage and at karaoke. And with him being able to pull off both the gravity of a role like Cain and the humor of a role like the king in Galavant.

At some point in the panel, he put on glasses, and then he was suddenly a version of brilliant (and bloody hot) professor. Who knows what other iterations of Tim Omundson we haven’t discovered yet?

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Saturday happened way too early (or possibly Friday ended way too late) but it turned out to be an amazing day. First up was Sebastian Roche, who really knows how to wake up a room full of bleary fangirls and fanboys. Sebastian rarely actually answers a question, but intrepid fans line up to ask him some anyway. Despite the lack of answering, Sebastian’s panels are always entertaining – mostly because he’s a great entertainer. He sings, he dances on chairs, he tosses around innuendo in response to just about anything, and he generally keeps you both laughing and incredulous (unless you’re dancing yourself and joining him in singing ‘Get Lucky’…)

Interestingly, Sebastian in ‘real life’ is one of the most intelligent and thoughtful actors out there. If you follow him on social media, you know how passionate he is about political and social change; more than once, I’ve learned about something important from his tweets. I rather like the way he can express both sides of himself, depending on the platform. Keep dancing, Sebastian!

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What Happens In Vegas… Part 2 (Jam-Packed Supernatural Friday)

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More beautiful photos from VegasCon, mostly taken by the talented and awesome @MamaPrior. With some help from RitaKF and a few by us. Enjoy.

Friday was a laid back day, kicking off with Curtis Armstrong, who is amazingly nice in real life for someone who plays a jerk like Metatron. (If you don’t believe me, check out our interview with him by clicking his name on the sidebar). Curtis fielded questions from his entire film and television history, with fans getting a chance to geek out over everything from Revenge of the Nerds all the way through to Supernatural. He says that Metatron is one of his top five roles ever, which is really saying something!

Curtis is a fanboy himself, and has been a Sherlock Holmes fan forever, which he proudly proclaimed onstage. He’s also funny as hell. Example:

The crowd groaned when Curtis mentioned Gary Busey.

Curtis: What, did he do something to the boys?

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Supernatural Convention Commentary: What’s So Special About Saturday Night?

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I sat down today to share some photos from HousCon and SFCon that didn’t make it into my other reports. When I realized that most of them were from the Saturday Night concert, I got to thinking. What is it about that event that makes it so special? (And inspires me to pull out my camera more than usual, even though I’m far from a photographer). This is the result. Call it ‘the evolution of the Saturday Night Special’ if you will.

Since we began our crazy road trip through Supernatural fandom eight years ago writing Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls, we’ve seen both the Show and the fandom evolve. The Show has had its ups and downs, but there has never been a time that I didn’t love it and have faith in the talented people making it. The fandom has had its ups and downs too, with countless examples of fans supporting each other and unfortunately some examples of the opposite, though I still think the former far outweighs the latter. The cast, too, has had its ups and downs. For eight years, many of the actors have done conventions together, travelling the world and sharing an experience few people get to have. Although many of them never even worked together on the Show, they have all become closer than cast members usually do as a result.

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