"Hallowhedon 6" Review

 
Guests met and discussed in this review :-

• Clare Kramer

• Mark Metcalf

• Troy Blendell

• Andy Umberger

Three quick notes before we get started...

1) If this is your first time on "Shangel's Reviews", I'm currently reviewing every single episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" in depth. A list of all the reviews I've written so far can be located here.

2) If you enjoy my reviews, please subscribe to the blog! Over on the right-hand side there's a little box that says "Follow Shangel's Reviews by Email!". If you put your Email address in there and click "Submit", then confirm your subscription, you will get each review sent straight to your inbox! No junk mail, no bullshit, just my reviews.

3) The photos you see from the talks were all taken by "Rockstar6662", so a big thank you to him! He wrote his own review of "Hallowhedon 6" too and that can be located here. Check it out.

With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, your friendly, neighbourhood Shangel is back from another weekend of fun, fantasy, fangs, and fangasms! Just five weeks removed from “Vampire Ball 5” (reviewed here), it was time for another weekend of meeting stars from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, and “Firefly”. For those of you sat there right now wondering what a ‘Hallowhedon’ is, allow me to explain. “Hallowhedon” is a three-day convention, usually over Halloween weekend, where the line-up consists of stars from any of Joss Whedon’s projects...hence the name. As my long time readers will remember, I attended last year’s “Hallowhedon” and had a terrific time (reviewed here). Coming into this event, I had low expectations. This isn’t a slight on the guests that were announced, but there were two major reasons for this. Firstly, there was no main cast member from any Joss Whedon show on the line-up. We had two ‘Big Bads’ from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, one long-time recurring character, and two other recurring characters. I’m not opposed to attending conventions with no headliner because often times I find that the ‘smaller’ guests are the most fun and interesting because they actually attend the parties and socialise with us more. However, as last year’s event had Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker (who had to pull out last minute), two bonafide headliners, this year felt a little weak considering I paid £210 for a gold ticket. Secondly, the communication from Massive Events leading up to this event was suspect to say the least. Danny Strong was announced for this event at last year’s “Hallowhedon”, and Mark Metcalf was announced soon after, but then there was nine months of silence from Massive Events. There was a pregnancy of distance and estrangedness...I may have made that word up. Three days before the event was scheduled to start, Danny Strong had to pull out, which makes perfect sense as he co-wrote the new “Hunger Games” movie that is released in a couple of weeks, so he’s busy with promoting. Sadly, Danny was arguably the biggest reason I was going, so this was a particularly large blow to the face, metaphorically speaking.

Now that the more negative aspects of the weekend are out of the way, let’s get on to the positives, shall we? Last year’s “Hallowhedon” and this year’s “Vampire Ball” took place in the Hilton Hotel in Birmingham, but this event was taking place at the Radisson Blu Edwardian in Heathrow, London. I’ve never attended a convention at this venue before and I was feeling a little trepidatious after the dirty, small, smelly room I stayed in at the Thistle Hotel a year previous. My fears were all for naught though, as the Radisson is gorgeous. It has a weird oriental hybrid theme in the lobby and up the main staircase, which somehow manages to successfully look spectacular. Not only that, but our executive double room was spacious and non-smelly, which is always a plus. The best part of all, however, is that all of the “Hallowhedon” activities (parties, drinks reception, talks, photos, autographs, merchandise room) were taking place over one floor of the hotel. It was basically two strips of rooms connected by a large central area with a bridge and flowing water. Pretty badass, right?

(...why, yes, that pretty pink suitcase is mine.)

 (Our room.)

With Danny Strong having to pull out at the last minute, this left us with four guests...Clare Kramer, Troy Blendell, Mark Metcalf, and Andy Umberger. Clare Kramer appears in “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” as the fifth season’s ‘Big Bad’, the Hell God, Glory, A.K.A. Glorificus. This was a beautiful parallel for me as I just finished writing my season five reviews a few days before this event, so I had Glory’s character arc imprinted in my head in vivid detail. Troy Blendell was a wonderful addition to Clare, as Troy played Jinx in the fifth season of the show, who was one of Glory’s minions. Mark Metcalf played the first season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s primary villain, The Master. No, it’s not the same Master that appears in “Doctor Who”. As I mentioned in my reviews of the first season last year, Mark Metcalf nor The Master get the credit they deserve for the success of the show. Obviously, the main cast of the show and the premise are the primary reasons for the success of the show, but if you take those elements and give the viewers a lame first villain, everything falls short. The Master was a classic vampire villain. Dark, mythic, and trapped, desperately trying to escape and ravage the world. What made The Master stand out is that he was quirky, witty, and oddly likable. This became a recurring theme with most of Joss’ major villains. Finally, there’s Andy Umberger. Andy is in a very limited group of actors that appeared in all of Joss’ first three television shows, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, and “Firefly”. He was D’Hoffryn on Buffy, Dr. Meltzer on Angel’s “I Fall To Pieces”, and the Dortmunder Captain in Firefly’s pilot episode, “Serenity”. There are six actors in total as far as I’m aware that appear in all three shows. That’s right, six, not five. This question was asked at “Hallowhedon” on the Saturday and everyone was saying five. Even Wikipedia and the Buffyverse Wikia says five, BUT IT’S SIX! Everyone always forgets about Michael Nagy, who was Jay-Don in “The Shroud Of Rahmon” (“Angel”), Alfonse in “Doppelgangland” (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer”), and Particularly Dressed Man in “Ariel” (“Firefly”). Amazingly, I’ve met one of these six actors numerous times and happen to be his agent for convention appearances (hi, Jeff Ricketts!), I met Jonathan Woodward at “Vampire Ball 5”, and I met Andy Umberger at this event. I’m coming for you, Michael Nagy, Carlos Jacott, and Bob Fimiani! That was the first of many major tangents you should expect in this review. I write how I talk...random, scattered, and a little bonkers.

While the line-up for this event left a little to be desired (until you met the guests at least), I was ecstatic to be going to a convention with my wonderful girlfriend, Robyn, again, as I hadn’t been able to do that since the previous year’s “Hallowhedon”. To be honest with you, the guest line-up is only half the reason I go to these weekend conventions anyway. The other half of the reason is the other attendees. I would estimate that there were around 200-225 people at this convention (I would venture that’s just above half the amount of last year), and I must have known at least half of them already from various other conventions I’ve attended over the years. A weekend convention is basically one giant, nerdy, family reunion. Everyone knows everyone, everyone is happy to see everyone, and if it’s your first convention and you don’t know anyone, you’ll very quickly get lost in a sea of new friends. Wanna know how much of a family convention attendees are? At last year’s “Hallowhedon”, a woman called Kim attended the event with her mother, but I don’t recall seeing her or speaking to her at the event. A few days after returning home, I bumped into her on Twitter and realised that we came from almost the same city (it’s a stone’s throw away). We followed each other on Twitter, became Facebook friends, and to cut a long story short, Kim and her lovely mother drove us to the event and back this year, which saved us a lot of extra money and hassle on transport.

I knew coming into this event that it wasn’t going to live up to “Vampire Ball 5” the month previous because Jeff Ricketts was at that event, so I had access to the green room and really got to spend a great deal of quality time with the stars away from their stage personas, getting to know their real personalities a little bit. Plus, I’m a “Starfury” guy in general. Sean Harry is my guy and I tend to find that Starfury Events have a nicer schedule. Plus, from a line-up perspective, they blew Massive Events out of the water this year with two of the biggest stars from the Buffyverse (James Marsters and Emma Caulfield), a ‘Big Bad’, two trifecta actors (Jeff Ricketts and Jonathan Woodward), and the head of makeup from “Angel”, Dayne Johnson.

Myself and Robyn left Gloucestershire with Kim and her mother at 1:30pm on Halloween. We hit a bit of traffic going into London, but other than that it was a very pleasant, relaxing, smooth journey, where we listened to the “Once More With Feeling” soundtrack, and Buffy/Angel tunes throughout. This really helped to get me in the mood for the convention! We got to the Radisson at 4pm, got our room card, dumped our bags off, and went to register. As gold pass holders, we’re entitled to a little goody bag of merchandise. Here are the highlights from this year’s haul...

 

After registering, I always like to take 10 minutes or so to familiarise myself with the schedule and circle the activities that I want to attend. For Friday, this left us with the opening ceremony from 7:30-8pm, the drinks reception for gold pass holders/V.I.P.s from 8-9pm, and then the party from 9pm-whenever we want. The drinks reception is basically an hour to get some time with the guests and break the ice before the weekend of funsies begins. As there were four guests at this event, that meant 15 minutes with each guest, about 12 attendees to each group. Before that was the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony is very simple. Massive Events give out a few notices, each guest is introduced and says a few words, and everyone leaves feeling energised and ready. Ordinarily, it’s the first time where you get to see the guests. However, that wasn’t the case with 75% of the guests for “Hallowhedon 6”. Myself and Robyn walked past Andy Umberger and Troy Blendell while heading to our beautiful room on the 3^rd floor, and we shared an elevator with Mark Metcalf during our second trip to the 3^rd floor. Robyn was surprised that I said “hi Mark!” because in Austria they would say “sir” unless they’re friends with the person in question. I thought “sir” would be too formal for someone I was about to spend the weekend getting to know. Why were we in the elevator for a second time, you ask? The short answer is: Cathy. Just after getting to the hotel, myself and Robyn bumped into my friend Cathy, who was already drunk, having started drinking at 5:30am...she’s Irish. The end result was that Cathy couldn’t remember what room she was is, but she was in desperate need of a little sleep before the opening ceremony. A little earlier, Cathy told us she was in room 3014. We were in the elevator heading to 3014 when we bumped into Mark. I think a drunk Irish woman was a nice way to let Mark know what he was getting himself in for – a weekend of drunk nerds. Turns out, 3014 wasn’t Cathy’s room. After another trip to reception, it was actually 3017. Oops. On our travels, we did discover that one of the suite rooms was called “Sunningdale”, which was a pretty cool trivia fact. THESE ARE THE NUGGETS OF GLORIOUSNESS YOU WILL ONLY DISCOVER IN MY REVIEWS! 

Things of note from the opening ceremony :-

·       There is going to be a “Hallowhedon 7”, which was a shock to many of us. “Hallowhedon 7” will take place over Halloween weekend of 2015, in the same hotel as this year’s event, the Radisson Blu Edwardian.

·       Due to Danny Strong’s last minute cancellation, the following perks were offered...all attendees of any ticket type would get a free Amber Benson autographed 8” x 10”. Silver, gold, and V.I.P. pass holders would also get a free group photo with themselves and the four guests together. Finally, the gold and V.I.P. holders would get a second drinks reception with the guests on the Saturday evening too. This was a nice gesture on Massive Events’ part and helped to justify the £210 price tag that came with the gold tickets myself and Robyn purchased.

·       Mark Metcalf mentioned that Joss told him little about The Master, but did mention to him that The Master was going to kill Buffy at the end of the season...but he didn’t tell Mark that Buffy was going to be resurrected through CPR. Therefore, Mark asked Joss if the show’s title was going to change to “Master The Buffy Slayer” for season two if it was picked up.

·       Clare Kramer and Mark Metcalf had an ongoing feud throughout the weekend, as both of them were ‘Big Bads’ on Buffy. Mark said that The Master was the greatest villain on the show and that the first season was the best, which prompted Clare to come out and say that the fifth season was the best and that Glory would stomp The Master into the ground. By the end of the opening ceremony, Clare had challenged Mark to an arm-wrestling competition for later in the weekend. Sadly, this never transpired.

After the opening ceremony, it was time to head out to the wonderful bridge/flowing water/connecting lounge area place for the drinks reception. In my opinion, this was the perfect place for the drinks reception. Pretty lights, beautiful bridges, and gently flowing water (which made me really want to pee!), all helped the meet and greet feel relaxed. Most of the 12 people at mine and Robyn’s table weren’t convention virgins, so there was little in the way of nerves and deer-in-the-headlights moments. There were four tables for the meet and greet. Three were quite close to one another, so, of course, we headed to the fourth one that was across a bridge from the other three.

(Part of the water feature on the "Hallowhedon" floor.)

Andy Umberger: Andy was the first guest to come over to our table. It was Andy’s first convention in the UK, so he didn’t really know what to expect from the meet and greet. He was invited to an event in the UK 10 years previous, but the event fell through. Andy asked the classic go-to question from these drinks receptions...“where are you all from?”. Our table was varied. We had a lot of people from England, but Scotland, New Zealand, Austria (Robyn!), and Sweden were also represented. Andy told us that in his spare time he likes carpentry. He loves to make things. He’s also recently signed up to aerial classes, so look for Andy to be swinging from the ceiling on satin ropes in a venue near you soon. Andy mentioned how uncomfortable the makeup and prosthetics for D’Hoffryn could be and that while everything was being applied it could sometimes get a little challenging to breathe easily. Also, while Andy auditioned for the parts of D’Hoffryn and Dr. Meltzer, Joss approached Andy for the job of the Dortmunder Captain on “Firefly”. No audition needed. Andy joked that since Joss wrote and directed “The Avengers”, he doesn’t get calls from Joss anymore. Andy came across as a lovely guy. Very respectful, very friendly, very interesting...if not a little scared looking, having not done anything like this before.

Mark Metcalf: Mark asked for everyone’s name and where we were from. He mentioned that at the previous table, he got everyone to say “to be or not to be” so he could try to figure out their accent. He grabbed my friend Paige by the arm and told everyone that they were going to go dancing at the party that night. Hilariously, this actually happened on the Saturday night, and a drunk Paige may have, slightly, grinded against Mark. Awks. Mark’s currently reading “The Tempest” because he’s hoping to perform it on stage at some point next year. When he’s not working, Mark likes to go fly fishing. He mentioned that apparently fly fishing was created in England, but “of course we (Americans) like to take credit and pretend that we did”. Not long after finishing up on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, Mark got sick of the Hollywood way of life and moved to Montana, where he currently performs on stage frequently and single-handedly raises his twenty-year-old son. Mark mentioned that he’d like to do some more conventions in Europe and singled out France as a destination he’d love to go to. I told him I’d talk to the people at Xivents about potentially getting him on the line-up for “Hellmouth” at the beginning of 2016. Mark is currently producing an independent movie about two serial killers in a retirement home. After slowly figuring out who each other are, they start reminiscing and turning back to their old ways. The premise sounded pretty interesting! Mark left another great first impression. He’s quite sarcastic, very open with his opinions on things, and had a story for everything. My kind of guy! Oh, he also came across as a complete ladies’ man and gave everyone excellent eye-contact.

Troy Blendell: Myself and Troy were actually Facebook friends before the event. We had a mutual friend in common, so I added him in preparation for “Hallowhedon”. When Troy came over to our group, he recognised me, remembered my name (awesome!), shook my hand, and told everyone else that I’m their go-to guy if they need dirt on him. Troy is a big cycling enthusiast. He’s done a few cycling tours of Europe and was intending to hire a bike and cycle around London, until he discovered that we live in a country where it constantly rains. After signing up to “Hallowhedon”, Troy emailed Clare Kramer to ask her what to expect from a convention as he’d never been to one before. Not long after this exchange, Clare was announced for “Hallowhedon”, so Troy is taking credit for Clare getting on the guest list. Not long before “Hallowhedon”, Troy had just recorded an episode of “Stalker” and seemed to have had a wonderful time doing so. What I liked about Troy is how happy he seemed to be when talking about his career. He’s clearly a guy that loves his job and hasn’t been made jaded by the industry. Like Mark, Troy seemed to have a story for everything. Lots of eye-contact, lots of smiles, and a quirky personality to match. We’re 3 for 3, people!

Clare Kramer: Once Danny pulled out of the convention, Clare was my primary focus. I’d wanted to meet Clare for many years and after the opening ceremony, Robyn instantly fell in love with her too. Clare is a mother of four children now, yet also finds the time to run her own business (GeekNation!) and appear in films. Yet, she hasn’t aged a day since “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, so it can’t be a lack of sleep that’s allowing this insane schedule. I’m guessing some kind of wizardry is involved. Clare asked everyone who was cosplaying over the weekend and mentioned what her own children would be wearing for Halloween. Two of Clare’s children wanted to cosplay as Elsa from “Frozen”, but Clare neglected to buy them the wigs. After they kicked up a fuss, Clare ordered them their wigs and headed to England. Just before the meet and greet, Clare’s husband sent her a picture of their children wearing their Halloween costumes. The girls didn’t like their wigs so refused to wear them, but Clare’s two-year-old son, who was dressed as Spider-Man, was wearing one over his Spider-Man costume. Hilarious. Clare mentioned that she’d noticed that the further east of California you go, the more people drink alcohol. New Yorkers seem to drink more than people from California, and people in the UK and Europe drink more than New Yorkers. Clare said that with four children she gets limited free time, so the weekend was like a holiday camp for her. After telling us in the opening ceremony that she would be cosplaying as a sober person for the weekend, she arrived at our table drinking a large glass of red wine. Clare had been at a convention in Belfast for Showmasters the weekend before “Hallowhedon”, so she’s basically been on a ten-day holiday. Clare said that to her “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” means friendship. She met almost all of her best friends through “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” (Julie Benz, Eliza Dushku, and more) and conventions allow her to see them and to interact with the fans of the show in an intimate setting. You could tell that Clare has done many conventions before because she was totally at ease. She knew just what to say, how to act, and showed lots of enthusiasm for everything that was said. When I told Clare that I was from Gloucester, she mentioned that she’d been there before. I forgot to ask her why she was there over the weekend! Stupid Shangel! All four guests came across as genuinely happy to be there and all left a great first impression. I’ve also got to mention that the drinks reception comes with free wine (which you can fill up at your leisure). Also, Massive Events’ drinks receptions are standing, whereas Starfury’s are sitting down around a table. I prefer the sitting personally. Seven years of wrestling and MMA means that my knees aren’t what they used to be.

The theme for Friday’s party night was ironically “Toy Story”, not Halloween. Halloween’s party night was Saturday the 1^st of November. Spock is raging somewhere. The “Toy Story” theme was a simple one. If you were cosplaying, you would dress as a character from one of your favourite childhood films or televisions shows. I cosplayed in my usual bandana and suit because why break tradition? Before heading to the party, myself and Robyn headed to Paige, Gabs, and Lauren’s room, where there was already triple vodka and rum in full flow. There’s not much to review on the party front, as I’m sure most people know what a party looks like by this point. It’s that thing with lights, music, and dancing in almost darkness, where everyone is sweaty and unhygienic. By the time we got to the party at 10:30pm, I was already four glasses of wine, two glasses of rum and coke, and a couple of rum shots down, so I was feeling rather merry. Yep, I’m gonna go with ‘merry’. Friday’s party consisted of a massive mechanical buckin’ bronco bull in a corner of the party room, which led to many, many drunk people falling off almost as soon as they got on. Clare and Troy were both down in the party room socialising with people, but I didn’t see either of them try the bull. There was a dude riding the bull in basically just his underwear though. There was almost a flash of one bull and two balls. The schedule for the weekend meant that all our photos were to take place on Saturday morning (excluding any additional photos I might want to buy), so we left the party just before midnight so we didn’t look uber rough in our photos the next day. V.I.P., gold, and silver pass holders at “Hallowhedon” get one photo with each guest included as part of their package (excluding any ‘sponsored guests’ that may come), which meant that both myself and Robyn had five photos coming up the next morning. One with each guest individually and the group shot that had been added to the gold package with Danny pulling out. I didn’t actually realise how much I’d had to drink before lying down on the bed. When my head hit the pillow, the room started spinning a little. I’m fairly certain I fell asleep while still in my suit (excluding jacket) too.

Due to just four guests (as opposed to last year’s seven), the photo shoots started at 10am instead of the usual 9am. This might seem like a pointless thing to mention, but that last hour in bed was greatly appreciated. Especially for those that were out until 3 or 4am, I’m sure. I’ve mentioned it in my reviews of other conventions, but in case any of you are new, allow me to explain the photo shoot process to you...you queue, you get to the front, you stand with the guest and smile (or do a specific pose if inspiration strikes), you leave, and with Massive Events your picture is developed in a matter of seconds so you can take it away with you. Simple. Photo shoot sessions are not the time where you have a conversation with a guest, that’s the autograph table, drinks reception, or a party if they’re awesome enough to attend. Photo shoots are a very fast-paced process in order to get through everybody as quickly as possible. For the entire “Hallowhedon” weekend, the responsibility of organising the queuing for photo shoots was given to Phil. Shangel’s Reviews’ diehard readers might remember Phil from my review of LFCC 2014, the man who was given the unfortunate task of organising Stan Lee’s photo shoot queues. Compared to that clusterfuck (which he handled masterfully), I’m sure organising a couple of hundred nerds over this weekend was a walk in the park. The scheduling for Saturday morning’s photo sessions was Troy Blendell at 10am, Mark Metcalf at 10:30am, Clare Kramer at 11:00am, Andy Umberger at 11:30am, and the group shot at midday. Everything went off smoothly without a hitch. There’s not much to review in regards to photo shoots, so I’m going to let some of the pictures tell the story for me...

(These are pictures of the pictures...hence the quality.)

After the photo shoots were over, myself and Robyn had an hour to kill before the talks, commentaries, and funsies were scheduled to begin in the main talk hall. We used this time to check out the dealer’s room (read: merchandise room). There were only three stalls at this year’s “Hallowhedon”. Firstly, there was Frank. Frank sells the incredible plastic cases that are used to store autographs and pictures. He’s basically at every convention I’ve ever been to. The other two stalls were rather wonderful too. One of them was selling 8” x 10”s, pens, coasters, frames, badges, and various other items, but they were able to custom-make anything you wanted. If you wanted a coaster with a specific picture, they could do it. They had a computer with them which contained thousands upon thousands of pictures to choose from. They could custom-make 8” x 10”s for just £3 too. If you wanted a specific Clare Kramer picture to get signed, they’d do it. Glorious! The final stall was Buffyverse-specific for the most part. Old Buffy and Angel magazines, Buffyverse action figures, Buffyverse jewellery, and a whole host of other Buffyverse goodness. While the selection of stalls was meagre, the ones that were there were stupendous. Plus, while in that room, I had a lovely conversation with the "Hallowhedon" Facebook group creator, Rhys.

1:45pm signalled the beginning of the main talk hall festivities, starting with an episode commentary by Mark Metcalf. Going into the event, we didn’t know who was going to be conducting the commentary, nor what episode they would be screening. Also, on the schedule for Sunday, the 3:45-4:45pm slot was labelled as “TBC” (read: “we dunno what we’re gonna do yet”), which turned out to be a further commentary by Clare Kramer and Troy Blendell...but more on that later. The episode that Mark would be commenting on was “Prophecy Girl”. Depressing? Yes. However, it’s the episode where The Master rose and it was his main episode, so it made sense. “The Wish” would have been cool too. Highlights! :-

·       Before the screening started, Mark asked if the episode could end 5 minutes early, with The Master killing Buffy and breaking free, as it was “a much happier ending”.

·       When Alyson appeared on screen, Mark enthusiastically mentioned that Alyson once sat on his lap while wearing leather. I’m assuming he meant “The Wish”, but it was never verified. Also, she doesn’t sit on his lap in “The Wish”, so it was either a deleted scene or Aly had an interesting love life before she met Alexis.

·       The Master’s prosthetics and makeup started off taking 5 hours to complete, but was eventually widdled down to just over three hours, as they started pre-painting the prosthetic pieces before Mark arrived.

·       When Mark was wearing The Master’s costume and makeup, part of the process was very long fake nails. This meant that going to the bathroom was extremely hard as he couldn’t undo his zipper. Therefore, a member of the crew had to unzip him and hold his, erm, ‘little vampire’ for him while he peed. Thankfully, he spared us the details of what would happen if he needed a poop.

·       The sunken church set that The Master was trapped in before “Prophecy Girl” used to contain actual dust and dirt during the first few episodes. After everyone started getting sick due to inhaling all that crap, it was quickly switched out for fake dirt.

·       When Jenny Calendar appeared on screen, Mark asked “who is she?”, which got a roar of laughter from the audience.

·       Mark mentioned that he’d love to work with ‘Tony Heed’ (that’s how he pronounced it) more because he didn’t work with him very much at all.

·       Giles spends most of “Prophecy Girl” in a panicked, anxious state. Mark quipped that he (The Master) should have killed Giles so that he could relax.

·       Mark said that Angel is very fickle. He doesn’t like Angel because Angel stole Darla away from “The Master” years before the events of Buffy season one (Angel’s “Darla”).

·       When Buffy asks Giles if he thinks that death will hurt, Mark said “don’t worry, honey, I’ll kill you real nice”, which, once again, invoked a lot of laughter.

·       Mark mentioned that it was nice to play with a girl (Buffy) because he spent most of his time on the show playing with a little boy (The Anointed One). Of course, we’re dirty-minded people, so we instantly starting giggling, which led to Mark telling us a story about The Master and The Anointed One. Evidently, The WB thought that The Master and The Anointed One’s relationship was too erotic.

·       When Willow discovered the dead bodies at the high school and was crying, Mark mentioned that she was much happier when she worked for him (“The Wish”).

·       Joss’ original vision for The Master was for him to have long black hair. Mark wanted The Master to look more like a vampire from classic lure, so he kept pestering Joss to make The Master bald.

·       Mark originally intended to learn Italian while sitting in a makeup chair for five hours a day, but part of The Master’s prosthetics involved fake ears, rendering this unfeasible. He would, however, listen to chants to get into character before some scenes.

·       Mark was often working 18-22 hour work days while on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”.

·       To conclude, this commentary was hilarious. It was the perfect blend of informative and factual, while also making the audience roar with laughter repeatedly. Mark hadn’t seen the episode since its original airing 17 years ago, I believe, so this was rather exciting for him to relive.

Straight after Mark’s commentary, it was time for a talk between Clare Kramer and Andy Umberger. These talks are basically a Q & A between the guests and the audience, but it often leads into quirky stories and random moments (such as Jeff Ricketts and Jonathan Woodward randomly bursting into song and dance at “Vampire Ball 5” or Alexis Denisof playing a video message from Amy Acker to us all on his phone at “Hallowhedon 5”). Highlights! :-

·       Clare’s favourite “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” villain is The Mayor. Andy’s are The Gentlemen from “Hush”.

·       Andy doesn’t have the greatest hearing in the world, so Clare was often translating the questions for him from the audience.

·       Andy said that one of his biggest highlights from his time on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, and “Firefly” was working with Joss Whedon. He said that Joss Whedon always has a clear vision of what he wants from every actor in every scene. However, once he’s done a take getting what he wants, he’ll give the actors another take or two, giving them the creative freedom to act the scene how they see fit, so he’ll have a few different ones to choose from. What makes Joss one of the greatest directors out there today is that he always knows exactly what he wants to capture from each scene. From the camera angle, to the zoom, to the direction, to the dialogue. It’s clear that Andy absolutely loved working with Joss.

·       Clare said that the nicest thing a fan has ever done for her is buy the dress she wore in “The Gift” on eBay and then post it to her because they felt she deserved to have the dress. It now sits on the wall at GeekNation H.Q.

·       Cecelia asked Clare and Andy a question that someone asked James Marsters and Emma Caulfield at “Vampire Ball 5”...“what would you rather do, keep all your current memories, but never be able to grow or gain new ones, or start over now as a blank slate with no memories?”...deep stuff, people, deep stuff. Clare chose to start afresh, while Andy wanted to keep his old memories.

·       Almost identically to Mark and The Master, D’Hoffryn’s makeup and prosthetics started off taking 5 hours to put together, but was reduced to just over three hours by the end of the show.

·       Clare would like to play Wonder Woman, but would rather play a more minor, unknown superhero. She asked for recommendations on who she should play and someone said Ms. Marvel. Good call. She also mentioned that there have been some highly questionable choices for Catwoman thus far.

·       Someone asked Clare which Buffyverse character she would play if she wasn’t Glory and Clare was undecided. She asked the question back to the audience and the general consensus was Cordelia, which Clare was very happy with.

·       Clare said that some of the actors and crew members used to joke that the show was called “Buffy The Weekend Slayer” because of the long working days. Clare said that she could understand Sarah’s decision to not make an 8^th season entirely because of this. The show was amazing to work on, but really took up a huge amount of Clare’s time to be a part of. She couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like for Sarah to keep up that schedule for seven years.

·       Playing Glory was one of Clare’s first roles in Hollywood. She said that the audition process was so easy and smooth that it deluded her into thinking that all audition processes would be that easy...she quickly realised that wasn’t the case.

·       When auditioning for Glory, Clare was in a room with a group of other young, blonde actresses. To try to make herself stand out, she played Glory as crazy and barely holding it together mentally. Joss loved this take on the character and gave her the part. Before getting the part, Joss brought Clare back to audition with Charlie Weber (Ben) to see how they looked together.

·       Clare wasn’t able to keep any of the clothes she wore as Glory, but she did often “forget” to take off the Glory underwear and would go home in it. Apparently it was too nice not to.

·       Someone asked Andy if the Dortmunder Captain from “Firefly” had a name. If he didn’t, what does Andy think he was called? Andy said that the Captain didn’t have a name, but he thought that he should be called ‘Francois’.

·       Andy was not aware of the magical, exclusive trifecta group be belonged to until one day it was brought to his attention. Clare asked how many actors appeared in all three shows and the audience all said five (which Clare agreed with). As I mentioned above, IT’S SIX!

·       One of Clare’s biggest highlights from the show was being able to work on the 100^th episode (“The Gift”). It was a huge moment for the show, a huge episode for Buffy’s character, and at that time they didn’t know if the show was coming back for a 6^th season, as it wasn’t returning to The WB.

·       For two people that are so different, Andy and Clare had  surprisingly good chemistry together and this talk/Q & A was certainly worthy of a “Hallowhedon”.

After a fifteen minute break that flew by, it was time for the “Game Show” section of the day. By this point in the day, my ass was killing me. Seven years of wrestling means that the bottom of my tailbone starts to really throb if I sit down on a chair for more than a few hours that isn’t well padded. To counteract this, I started shifting more to the right-hand side of my chair (even closer to dear Robyn) so that my tailbone was mostly hanging off the chair. Not a part of the convention activities, but you want the whole experience, don’t you?! The game show panel was almost identical to last year’s in its format. Two guests and one attendee from the audience make up a team, and there are two teams. This year, Mark Metcalf, Andy Umberger, and a guy called Brad from the audience made up ‘Team Master’s Bators’. This was slightly modified later to make it a little more P.G., but I’m keeping the original name in this review. The second team was Clare Kramer, Troy Blendell, and a girl from the audience called Mel, and the team was called ‘Team Glory’s Minions’. People on the left-hand side of the audience were on Team Master’s Bators, people on the right were on Team Glory’s Minions. Myself and Robyn were on Team Glory’s Minions, which worked well for me, as Clare and Troy were my favourite guests of the weekend (I loved Mark and Andy too though). Competition between Clare and Mark was rife and they were bantering through the entire game show. Eventually, they decided that the loser of the game show had to ride the mechanical bull at that night’s party. Sadly, the mechanical bull wasn’t there the second night, so this also didn’t transpire. 

NOTE: NO PHOTOS WERE ALLOWED TO BE TAKEN DURING THE GAME SHOW.

The game show was split into four rounds...1) General Whedonverse knowledge. This round had no audience participation and relied on the teams’ knowledge only. 2) Pictionary. Each member of both teams was given a Whedon-themed person or item and had to draw it on the massive notepad without using the name of the person/item. Their other team members and the audience could guess too. 3) Acting round. Two members of the team had to act out a scene from a Joss Whedon TV show for points, while the audience guessed which characters they were and what episode it was from. 4) Fastest Buzzer. Fairly straightforward: A question is asked, fastest buzzer gets to answer first. Highlights! :-

·       The quiz had some damn hard questions, such as “what rank and unit did Xander pretend he was with in ‘Innocence’”? I was keeping score of my own answers in my head and got 9.5/10. I didn’t remember the unit that Xander said he was in and I was disgusted with myself.

·       Pictionary consisted of Troy trying to draw things associated with Faith. The time ran out before anyone guessed correctly, but he drew a cross and two hands pressed together (which I thought was two hearts). Mark was given Badger from “Firefly” and proceeded to sketch what I can only describe as some form of roadkill, which was oddly guessed correctly. Mel was given a fruity oaty bar, which was random enough to begin with, but my friend Immy actually guessed correctly! Andy was given Glory. What did he do? Stroll up to the sketch pad like he owned the place and drew a simple arrow pointing towards Clare. It got the biggest cheer of the pictionary round. Genius man! Brad was given Hands of Blue, which created some controversy as it was listed as ‘Men With Blue Hands’ on the paperwork from Massive Events, so Clare was arguing that it wasn’t correct. As the characters are actually called Hands of Blue, sadly, it was correct. Finally, Clare was given Iron Man. She simply drew an iron and a stick man.

·       Another highlight from pictionary was Mark (while in his quest for power against Clare) asking Massive Events if he would get an easier thing to draw if he was a pretty blonde too.

·       The acting round is always the biggest highlight. The attendee has to appear in each scene, so basically you’re left with one scene between Andy and Brad, one with Mark and Brad, one with Clare and Mel, and one with Troy and Mel. Andy and Brad acted out Gunn and Cordy’s argument from Gunn’s car in “First Impressions”. Andy’s gangsta voice was hilarious. Brad and Mark acted out Glory and Spike’s argument from “Intervention”, where Spike tells Glory that Buffy is going to kick her ass. For that scene, Andy got on all fours and acted as a throne for Brad (who was Glory). Mel and Troy acted out Buffy and The Master from “Nightmares”, just before The Master buries Buffy alive. Finally, it was oddly another Mel/Troy scene (Clare didn’t do one), Jayne trying to give Mal ‘Vera’ in exchange for Mal’s new wife in “Our Mrs. Reynolds”.

·       When all four rounds were over, it was a tie! For the first time in “Hallowhedon” history, it was a tie! Therefore, it went to a sudden death round...fastest buzzer first...“who was responsible for Fred’s death?”...Team Master’s Bators won it. Those fuckers. They said Illyria and there was some debate as to whether or not Knox should take credit for it. Either way, Team Master’s Bators were victorious. Brad won a standard entry ticket to next year’s “Hallowhedon” as his primary prize. Clare asked Massive Events if Mel could have one too as the game show was technically a draw and it would take the sting out of the sudden death loss. Massive Events said she could have one too. Hilariously, I saw Clare and Mel take their photo shoot together on Sunday morning and they were holding up a sign saying “IT WAS A DRAW!”...or something to that affect.

Soon after the game show drew to a close, it was time for one final talk before the Whedonverse auction, which would be the last scheduled event of the day taking place in the talk hall. The final talk of the day belonged to Troy Blendell and Mark Metcalf, who also had surprisingly good chemistry together. Highlights! :-
 

·       I should mention that with the exception of Mark’s commentary for “Prophecy Girl”, all the notes from the talks and drinks receptions are being done from mine and Robyn’s memories. My brain is so crammed with “Hallowhedon” trivia facts and notes that I’ve probably forgotten half of my childhood memories to make room for them.

·       Mark made a point similar to Clare’s earlier in the day regarding Sarah Michelle Gellar. Mark said that when he worked with Sarah in season one, everything was new and exciting. They filmed the entire season before a single episode aired, so Sarah didn’t have many distractions outside of the filming itself. By the time he returned for “The Wish”, Sarah was being pulled in a hundred different directions at all times. When she wasn’t filming, she was being interviewed or having a photo shoot, or promoting something. Sarah had what Mark perceived to be zero time to relax.

·       Mark and Troy were asked which they preferred, TV or theatre. Both Mark and Troy said theatre. Mark mentioned that theatre allows a certain magical spark to happen between two actors or an actor and the audience while on stage in front of a live audience. It’s this spark moment that makes his job exciting. Troy agreed with Mark’s points and emphasised that the energy from a live audience can’t be reproduced and it’s so much more fulfilling performing in front of a live audience than it is performing to a camera.

·       I’ve got to mention just how dry Mark’s sense of humour is. He often said things that would make the audience and Troy crack up with laughter. These included him saying he was “close to dust” (meaning he was old) and also that he married a few too many women. The marriage comment had Troy laughing for a good 20 seconds afterwards. Mark’s dry personality coupled with Troy’s more scatty personality blended excellently together.

·       It was clear very quickly just how much respect Troy had for Mark. Mark has been around the acting industry for close to fifty years and has worked with basically every big star in Hollywood at some point. Whenever Mark would go off on a tangent about his time filming “Animal House” or something similar, Troy would get an excited look on his face. Troy later said “where else could you get this wealth of knowledge and history on this?”

·       One of the best “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” stories took place during this talk and it came from Mark. Mark talked about the prosthetics he used for The Master and that even his nostrils were covered by prosthetics. It’s really hot under the prosthetics so Mark would sweat, but the sweat from his nose wouldn’t have anywhere to escape to. Therefore, it would puddle at the bottom of his nostrils and slowly fill up, so every once in a while one member of the costume department would have to poke holes in his nostril-prosthetics and drain the sweat out of his nose by squeezing it. What a lovely image...milking Mark’s nose. Gross, but hilarious.

·       Mark said (and Troy agreed) that “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” has been remembered because of the connection between the characters more than anything else. It’s this connection between the characters and the similarities between the characters and its audience that has allowed the show to stand the test of time.

·       Troy told a story about how funny it would be in catering while working on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. Imagine a scabby, robed minion walking up to the counter and asking for potatoes. That visual by itself is enough to make me laugh. Apparently the catering area was rather clique-y and nobody wanted to sit with the scabby minions in full makeup (who would all eat together).

·       Troy mentioned a few of the projects that he’s been working on recently, including the second episode of “Stalker” and a film called “Night Eyes”.

·       Mark is about to start rehearsals for a theatre performance of “A Christmas Carol” in Montana, where he will be playing Mr. Scrooge.

·       Mark didn’t particularly enjoy his experience working on “Star Trek: Voyager”. When the show first introduced the Hirogen’s, they were all seven-foot-tall actors. However, by the time Mark arrived on the show, they were hiring 6’ 2” actors (which Mark is). Instead of getting new suits, they would pin and tuck the original suits, which would smell of sweat and dirt from the actor that had lived in the suit before Mark did. Yummy.

·       I slightly preferred this talk to Andy and Clare’s if I’m honest and I think the reason why is that it was less Q & A and more random funage (think I just made up another word).

·       The talk closed with a heartfelt thank you from Troy for being invited to the event in the first place. Troy seemed genuinely enthused to have been invited and the appreciation was etched all over his face. These sentiments were echoed by Mark. Mark has done a couple of conventions historically, but before he had, he always thought conventions would be filled with nerdy people “who wanted to ask me about my life because they didn’t have one of their own”. Since doing a few, however, he’s realised that they’re filled with passionate, caring fans. A great way to end an enjoyable panel.

(Troy took a picture of the audience too...)

 (Try and spot the Shangel...)

There was just the auction left before the 2^nd meet and greet drinks reception of the weekend (the bonus one for V.I.P. and gold ticket holders). The auction involved various Whedonverse items such as autographs, scripts, and a dinner date with the four guests for later that night. The prices for items this year was much more reasonable than I’ve seen at these events historically, which could be because there were fewer of us. The dinner date went to my friends Tanya and Clare (not Kramer) for £160. I’ve seen these dinners go for over £500 before, so £160 was a very fair price. Especially when you consider the meal itself would probably have cost £50 or so each. Interestingly, Troy’s chair sold for more money than Clare’s (the chair with their name on that they sit on all weekend for talks) and the huge “Agents Of SHIELD” banner sold for more money than the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, or “Firefly” ones. In fact, it sold for more than the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” ones combined. I later discovered that the “Agents Of SHIELD” one was bought by Kim and her mother. It cost £120! After the auction drew to a close, it was time to head back to the magical bridge of dreams for the second drinks reception. Amusingly, we went to the same table as the day before and it was almost exactly the same people with us as it was the previous day...

 (The magical bridge of dreams...)

Troy Blendell: I told Troy that his chair out-sold Clare’s at the auction and he was very happy about it. Troy told us all that he didn’t know what to expect from a convention, but he was surprised and pleased by just what an intimate setting it was. I explained to him the differences between weekend conventions like this and straight-up signing events and that the signing events aren’t intimate like weekend conventions at all. Troy told us a story from when he was five years old that showed us that he wanted to be an actor from a very young age. At school, they were about to start rehearsals for a performance of “Peter Cottontail” (Peter Rabbit). Troy was that child at the front of the class that would enthusiastically raise his hand and desperately try to get picked. He was so enthusiastic that this teacher quickly passed over him in favour of someone else. Five-year-old Troy was furious because he knew he could do a better job of it than this other hack. Fast-forward to the first performance day and the child who was chosen is sick and doesn’t go to school. Troy says it was because the child caved under the pressure of performing. Ultimately, Troy got to perform the lead part instead and guess what? “I NAILED IT!”. I have my suspicions that the hyperactive five-year-old Troy poisoned the original lead.

Clare Kramer: When Clare arrived at our table, she mentioned that she didn’t want to stand on the bridge because she felt as if someone was looking up her dress because of the lights. She mentioned that the game show has been her favourite part of the weekend thus far and asked us all what our favourite part has been. Clare talked a little bit about GeekNation and we all marvelled (see what I did there?) at how socially acceptable it is to be a geek now, when just a decade or so previously we were bullied at school for liking the exact same things that are socially loved now. Clare again asked us about cosplaying costumes for that night and someone showed her a picture of them wearing a zombie Scully costume (“X-Files”), which Clare loved.

Andy Umberger: Andy told us that he didn’t get to act with Nathan Fillion on “Firefly”, but he did get to work with Nathan on “Castle” a few years back. He had a very pleasant, very long conversation with Nathan while on set and told us all that Nathan is an absolute gent. We all told Andy that we enjoyed his talk with Clare and Andy emphasised to us all what a great time he was having before asking us if we were enjoying ourselves and telling us more about his new aerial classes.

Mark Metcalf: Mark said that he preferred conventions in the UK to the USA because in the USA it’s more “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am”, whereas in the UK it’s relaxed, intimate, and you get to take the time to get to know everyone. Mark asked us all how many conventions we’d attended in 2014 and I easily won with six. The look of horror on everyone’s faces was priceless.

Sadly, due to 24 hours of wine, rum, and vodka, that’s all I can remember about the second drinks reception from the top of my head. It was much more chilled-out than the original, which was pretty relaxed in its own right. We were all talking more about “Hallowhedon” and what we’d enjoyed thus far than we were about the guest’s career for the most part.

Saturday night’s party theme was “Halloween”...the day after Halloween, but I digress. To be fair to Massive Events, they certainly tried very hard with the accessories that went with the party. At one end of the party room was a haunted house type tunnel of small ‘rooms’ with various crew members dressed up as witches/clowns/zombies/etc, trying their best to scare the shit out of the attendees. I believe that all four of the guests also went through the haunted house too. The Massive Events crew did a great job here and really went above and beyond the call of duty, especially when you consider that most of them are volunteers and aren’t getting paid for working the weekend. Troy and Clare were back down at the party for the second night in a row and this time they brought Andy and Mark along with them. Saturday night also brought the arrival of my ‘friend’ Winston. Winston was visiting a group of us who were attending “Hallowhedon” and he didn’t have a ticket for the event. Yet, somehow, he managed to get upstairs to the “Hallowhedon” floor as nobody was checking tickets at the top of the stairs or at doors to the party room. He was upstairs without a ticket, went into the party without a ticket, went through the haunted house, socialised upstairs for a few hours and event got selfies on his iPad with Clare Kramer, Mark Metcalf, and Andy Umberger at 11pm. Only after someone told a crew member for Massive Events that Winston didn’t have a ticket was he questioned. He pretended he left his ticket in his hotel room and disappeared into the night grinning at his victory. What a lad.

Saturday night was a more socialising night and Robyn and myself spent a few hours talking to various friends we’ve made over the past couple of years. It was terrific to see all four guests down at this particular party, interacting with the attendees and making sure that everyone was having a good time. Regular ticket holders don’t get the drinks reception(s), so if they don’t get a ‘guest encounter’ with someone, their intimate time with a guest is limited to the autograph table if the guests don’t come down to the parties. Therefore, it’s really important for the guests to at least make an appearance in my eyes. Until a few years ago, guests rarely came to the parties, but in recent years most seem to at least make an appearance. For example, at last year’s “Hallowhedon”, Alexis Denisof came down, took some selfies with people, did the ‘Wesley Dance’ (a .gif of which is on my review of the event), led a conga line, and really made everyone happy before he disappeared back upstairs. Saturday night is usually the biggest party night and the one that the guests are most likely to attend. Myself and Robyn headed to bed in the wee hours of Sunday morning, ready to face the autograph tables the next morning.

Bear with me, people. We’re on the last day now. I often get messages from people thanking me for writing such detailed reviews, so I like to include everything so people feel like they’re a part of the experience.

After waking up, showering, trying to look a little less rough, and heading down to breakfast, myself and my wonderful girlfriend headed to the autograph tables. As I mentioned before, this is the biggest opportunity of the weekend you have to get one-on-one time with the guests if they don’t attend the parties. Before heading to the autograph room, I bought a second photo shoot ticket with Clare Kramer because I wasn’t as happy with my first photo as I was with the other four I had taken the previous day. As Clare was the biggest draw for me after Danny pulled out, I wanted a photo that was worthy of the price tag. Additional photos/autographs cost £15 each for Clare and £10 each for Mark, Andy, and Troy. For the autograph session this time around, myself and Robyn talked more as a couple, so the conversations were mostly me, Robyn, and the guest in question. Before getting into the highlights, I've got to give Robyn a special mention here. At last year's "Hallowhedon", Robyn was pretty shy because it was her first convention. She talked to the guests and interacted, but this year she was on fire compared to last year! Highlights! :-

Andy Umberger: Andy said he’d be around the party on Sunday night, which is quite rare as the closing ceremony happens at 6-7pm and most guests don’t come down because they’re exhausted from the weekend and off the clock. At last year’s event, only Jeff Ricketts and Sarah Hagan came down, as the others were either exhausted or had to fly home Sunday night. Andy mentioned that he didn’t have any major projects in the pipeline right now, but he auditioned for a ton of shows before flying out to England. This was the last major contact we had with Andy over the “Hallowhedon” weekend, as the other scheduled activities after this were talks on stage.

Mark Metcalf: Mark told us more about what he hoped to do with “The Tempest” next year and told us about his theatre performance of “A Christmas Carol” that he’s due to start after returning home. He said that sadly he’s been learning his lines by reading them to a wall because he doesn’t have anyone in England to bounce them off of. He told Robyn that she’d make a good Miranda from “The Tempest” if she decided to get into acting. We mentioned to Mark that we enjoyed his dancing the previous night and Mark told us that he started to scare himself on the dance floor, so he quickly headed out into the hall to talk to people instead. He did buy some young ladies drinks at the party on Saturday night too. He said he doubted he’d be down to the party tonight because he had dinner plans and would be out until late. I told him I’d keep him updated about the conventions in Europe and he promised to give me his email address before he left so that I could send him contracts, etc., if any of the organisers are interested.

 (There's some black-on-black crime, right there.)

Clare Kramer: I asked Clare about how GeekNation got started and she joked that she wanted to do something where she was in control and was her own boss. She asked if I followed the website and I told her that I frequently listen to the “Game Of Thrones” podcasts and read the news headlines there. I told her that I submitted one of my “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” reviews to GeekNation a few days before “Hallowhedon” and she asked me to re-send it and mention her in the subject title and she’d make sure she reads it and gets back to me. So, here’s hoping that happens once I re-send it this weekend! Getting a few of them on GeekNation would be stupendous! Sadly, because myself and Clare were talking so much and geeking out, Robyn’s time with Clare was cut short, as Clare was still caught up in talking to me. I felt bad, so I went and bought Robyn a 2^nd autograph ticket with Clare so Robyn could get a decent conversation in too, especially as Clare had become something of an idol to Robyn over the weekend because of the way she carries herself and because of what a "successful, radiating woman she is". Robyn asked Clare if she had any advice for someone in following their dream and Clare asked what Robyn’s dream was. Robyn said she’d like to write professionally or something in that industry. Clare told Robyn to start small, perhaps submit some articles to smaller websites and work her way up. She also told Robyn that perhaps it would be beneficial to look into websites in German, as Robyn is fluent in English and German and could translate. Clare seemed to take a genuine interest in Robyn and really tried her best to help Robyn get started down her path of dreams and unicorns. Definitely worth the extra £15 as they spent a good few minutes talking and brainstorming. Clare also mentioned that the picture of her and Robyn (the 2^nd item Robyn got signed) was really cute.

Troy Blendell: My main man, Troy. Troy also said that the picture of him and Robyn was cute (“how cute is this?!”) and the lovely assistant next to him told Robyn that she looked gorgeous. Robyn and myself mentioned to Troy that Robyn’s father owns his own business in Austria, which runs cycling tours throughout northern Austria, Germany, and Europe as a whole. Troy was really excited about this and we told him that if he was ever interested, we’d be able to get him a decent discount too. We talked for a couple of minutes about what cycling tours Troy has done before and which ones he enjoyed the best. Troy said that he’d also be down to party with us tonight and that he was really enjoying this weekend thus far. He also mentioned that he’d love to cycle around the Cotswolds (my home area). UPDATE POST-WRITING: I’ve spoken to Troy since the event and it would appear that he may potentially be taking us up on this offer and doing the tour next summer.

To keep the timeline of this morning accurate, we actually saw Andy, Mark, and Clare (the 1^st time), then I headed off to get my second photo with Clare (which I liked way more!), before we headed back to the autograph room to see Clare for a 2^nd time and see Troy. By this time, it was about midday and we had an hour or so to kill before the talks and commentary started. “Hallowhedon” offers you a ‘guest encounter’ with each guest individually on both Saturday and Sunday. Each guest does one ‘guest encounter’ both days. A guest encounter is basically a small, relaxed environment with you, eleven other people, and that particular guest. Two people win places through a raffle and the other ten get in by bidding. All the 10 winners pay the 10^th price. For example, if the top ten bids for someone were £50, £45, £42, £39, £39, £35, £30, £25, £20, £15, then everyone would pay £15, the last winning bid. At last year’s event, myself and Robyn spent 30 minutes with Alexis Denisof and 10 other people for £35 each. Not a bad price considering. This year, very spontaneously, we decided to put an £11 bid down on Clare (£10 is the minimum). We got in for £10 each in the end! BARGAIN! For some strange reason hardly anybody bid on the guest encounters this year. I don’t think a single one went for more than £15 all weekend! Due to there only being four guests this year, the guest encounters were 45 minutes long instead of the usual 30 minutes. Furthermore, four people no-showed the guest encounter, leaving just 8 of us alone with Clare and her crew member assistant for 45 minutes. Outside of one gentleman whom I didn’t know, everyone else in the guest encounter was already a friend of mine too! We had Cathy (the charmingly drunk Irish woman from Friday night), Elspeth, Iago, Chris, Tanya (who you might remember as the woman who took the photos of Jonathan Woodward proposing to a sleeping Claritsa in the bar at “Vampire Ball 5”), the gentleman I didn’t know, Robyn, and myself, plus Clare and her friendly assistant. This was, without a doubt, the most chilled, relaxed, easy guest encounter we’ve ever been a part of. Clare got everyone involved and treated everyone as an equal to her. In fact, we spent half of the guest encounter bonding over our various fangasms, such as “Dexter”, “Homeland”, “Game Of Thrones”, and “The Vampire Diaries” (not my thing, personally). When you run a business called ‘GeekNation’, you have to be something of a geek yourself and it’s easy to see that Clare really is. Highlights! :-

·       Clare sat next to me for this guest encounter. Certainly worth its own bullet-point.

·       We talked about “Game Of Thrones” and discussed the possibility of what could happen if the show catches up to George R. R. Martin before he finishes the last two books.

·       Clare asked us all why Buffy means so much to us personally and everyone seemed to give a different answer (those of us that did answer). To Chris and Iago, Buffy being the Slayer was a metaphor for being gay and coming out. They mentioned Joyce’s quote where she asked Buffy if she’d ever tried not being the Slayer as an example. I told Clare that you tend to find that people who watched the show in their teens or 20’s are the ones that really grow to love the show because they’re going through what the characters are at the same time. It’s not always the case, but it often is. Robyn told Clare that to her it was so special because of female empowerment. Robyn grew up emotionally through Buffy and it helped her to be strong and fight through adversity.

·       Clare talked about her time living in New York before moving to California and she asked us if we’d ever been. I haven’t, but Robyn and a few others have, so they talked about their times in New York and bonded over their shared experiences. Tanya mentioned that she and her fiancé intended to go, so Clare (and the other people that had been) started planning her trip for her and gave her advice on where to go, etc.

·       Clare had seen a few episodes of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” before auditioning, but had never sat down and watched a whole season. In fact, with the exception of season five, she still hasn’t seen a whole season all the way through, just various scattered episodes.

·       The “Angel” ending was brought up and it led to a friendly debate between me and Tanya vs. Iago and Chris. Iago and Chris didn’t like the ending because it was a cliffhanger and they wanted to know who lived and died. Myself and Tanya argued that the show was about redemption and never giving up fighting, so the end result wasn’t important. Whoever survived would keep fighting the next battle regardless. It wasn’t a show about a girl learning to accept her destiny and get rewarded with the choice of a normal life at the end of “Chosen” (unless you read the comics), it was about making amends and fighting forever.

·       Clare has a mild addiction to eBay bidding and her husband jokes that she’s going to make them go bankrupt by constantly buying things.

·       Clare said that she loves coming to England, but it’s way more expensive to buy things here than in the U.S.A., if you take the exchange rate into account.

·       Clare made a controversial move and asked us if we thought that “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” should have finished after season five because it was a full-circle for the story. I think the room was pretty divided about the issue, but it did lead to an interesting debate. It’s a wonderful parallel to my reviewing the show because I just wrote “The Gift” review before “Hallowhedon” and had this exact debate in my mind.

·       We talked about “Homeland”, “The Vampire Diaries” (and how it compares to “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and borrows ideas from it), “Dexter” peaking at the conclusion of season four with Rita’s death (Julie and Clare are good friends), and loads of other nerdy pop culture.

·       Clare mentioned that she did watch the beginning of season six of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” to see how the show would try to top a Hell God. I joked that it was with three little nerds and everybody laughed. Success!

·       Clare was awesome. So laidback, made everyone feel at ease, and there wasn’t the faintest hint of nerves or anyone being starstruck at all, which was a wonderful way to close out our time with Clare (excluding talks on stage).

Here's a funny trivia fact for you all. I sent this to Robyn to proof-read before I uploaded it. When she read the part here about "The Vampire Diaries", she left the following comment...

 (Nothing says 'true love' quite like "I have to bash you over the head!"...)

Due to Clare’s guest encounter, we missed Troy and Andy’s talk as it was happening at the same time. If any of you reading this were at “Hallowhedon 6” and were in the talk hall for that one, please give us some highlights in the comments section!

Next up in the talk hall (at 2:45pm) was Clare Kramer and Mark Metcalf. Highlights! :-

·       Mark complained that Clare lost the game show, but didn’t have to ride the mechanical bull (because it wasn’t there). Clare said that she did go through the haunted house though.

·       Mark and Clare both agreed that when you’re playing a villain, you have to play it as though the villain is in the right. The villain must believe that he/she is doing the right thing and that it’s the world that’s wrong.

·       Mark talked about his upcoming movie with the two old serial killers in a retirement home and Clare asked if she could have a part in the film. Mark said she could. Let’s see if that comes to fruition, shall we?

·       Clare and Mark were asked the same question that Mark and Troy were the previous day about which they preferred: TV or theatre. Mark stuck with his answer of theatre and Clare agreed with him.

·       One of Mark’s friends is about to start a ‘Kickstarter’ campaign for a movie project. I don’t recall the name of the film, but it’s something like “Give Me Liberty”. During this talk, Mark wanted to record a video of him telling people to support the project, then the camera would pan to the audience, we’d scream “GIVE ME LIBERTY!” (or something like that), and then Mark would tell the camera that they should too. Mark tried to record the video in selfie form, but it wasn’t working. Clare offered to be the director and do it for him, which was a good idea as Mark had his phone in picture mode, not video mode, when he was trying to do it. Oops.

·       Someone asked if they had any funny moments from their time on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. Mark reiterated his inability to undo his zipper and go to the bathroom, while Clare had two stories of her own. 1) While recording “Shadow”, where Buffy and Glory are fighting in the zoo set, there were many snakes in tanks in the room. After one take, someone noticed that the massive ten-foot cobra had somehow gotten out of its tank. Sarah and Clare freaked out and both stood on chairs while the crew were looking for the snake. Eventually, the snake was found hiding in a little gap between the set walls and it took ages to get the snake out of the gap and back into its cage. 2) During the fight in the hospital in “Blood Ties”, during one take, one of Clare’s dress straps snapped and her dress fell down to the floor, leaving her stood there in her underwear. Hilarious. The crew told her that they deleted the take, but Clare has her suspicions that they kept it.

·       Clare and Mark told us about a union law in Hollywood where there is a mandatory 12-hour turnaround between filming days. Basically, if you work 18 hours (or whatever) on one day, they can’t ask you to return to set to record more for at least 12 hours. Considering Mark was often working 18-22 hour days on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, I can imagine that he loved that rule.

·       When Joss asked Clare to return to “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” for the season seven opener, “Lessons”, Clare was ecstatic, but she’d forgotten how to play Glory. Therefore, she would walk around her house trying to act like Glory and get herself back into character. She arrived on set to discover that she only had a couple of lines and all of that work was basically for nothing. There were talks about The First Evil appearing as Glory later in the season, but they didn’t come to fruition.

·       Someone asked how The Master and Glory would have gotten along and Clare said they’d have gotten along fine so long as The Master respected Glory’s dominance. The Mark/Clare feud ensued. Mark said that Glory would have to respect “the seed of it all”, which tells me that he’s either read the comics or someone has explained to him that The Master makes an appearance and was protecting the seed down in the Hellmouth. Either way, it was pretty cool.

·       Clare has had many collections over the years. These include old chairs, old desks, and old books. Her husband has made her give up all of these over the years because they take up too much space. Perhaps she should look into stamp collecting?

·       This talk was awesome. The banter between Mark and Clare here (and all weekend) was one of the biggest highlights of the whole weekend. Having two ‘Big Bads’ in one place is clearly a recipe for chaos and competition.

Straight after Mark and Clare’s talk, it was time for the “TBC” part of the schedule. The “TBC” turned out to be an episode commentary by Clare and Troy. The episode chosen?  “Tough Love”. Why, I’ll never know. “Intervention” is way funnier and a much better choice for an event like this. “Tough Love” is a terrific episode, but it’s depressing as fuck. Everyone is miserable and crying throughout the episode. I digress...highlights! :-

·       Both episode commentaries this year were more fun and jokey than analytical and filled with trivia facts. Last year, we had Jane Espenson and K. Todd Freeman commenting on “Band Candy”. Having Jane there was genius because she was filled with trivia from the original script and the two original premises for the episode that Joss rejected. She could tell us lines that were cut from the episode and a whole host of other exciting titbits that you couldn’t find anywhere else. Both analytical reviews and fun, jokey commentaries are great, so I don’t have a preference, it was just interesting that this year’s commentaries and last year’s commentary were at totally opposite ends of the spectrum.

·       During the scene where Glory is in the bath, she was wearing bikini bottoms and a wrap-around tube for her chest. Sorry to disappoint you all, but she wasn’t actually naked under there. She did say that she was in the bath for a couple of hours and the water was freezing.

·       At the brief Q & A after the commentary, someone asked Troy if he kept deliberately sabotaging his lines so that he could see Clare in the bath for longer. Troy said no, but then joked that Clare kept trying to look up his robe while she was in the bath.

·       Troy had to teach Charlie Weber (Ben) what Jawas were. Charlie should have been fired for this alone.

·       Clare said that “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” has the greatest opening credits ever.

·       Just after Anya’s capitalism speech, Troy said that she’s “clearly been watching too much Fox News”.

·       During the scene where Willow, Anya, and Xander are lying on the floor pretending to be triangles for Dawn, Troy mentioned that he was more curious as to why a fifteen-year-old didn’t know the different types of triangle. Clearly, those monks that turned Dawn human forgot to drop in mathematics skills.

·       Troy said the Willow/Tara argument scene wasn’t realistic as neither of them was throwing anything or yelling “I DIDN’T SAY THAT!”

·       When Willow mentioned that Tara was worried about Willow turning straight again and that college was just an experimental phase, Troy joked that “it does happen”. He also said that “Lesbo Street Cred” was his nickname in college.

·       During the scene where Buffy and Dawn are talking about Dawn being taken away from Buffy if she doesn’t go to school, my friend Tammy, who was sat behind me and Robyn, muttered to her friend Clare, “that’s a lot of tea towels”. Those of us within earshot starting laughing and Clare asked what was funny. Tammy said it louder and the hall rang with laughter. Clare added “who has time to fold towels these days, anyway?”

·       When Dawn asked Buffy “what do you mean?” (about her being taken away), Troy said “sell you to Gypsies”, which arguably got the biggest laugh of the commentary.

·       Troy mentioned that him and Todd Duffey (Murk), who were peering in through the window at Buffy and Dawn’s conversation, kept laughing and muttering to each other. Also, there was loads of noise coming from just off-set and Sarah was getting really annoyed about it.

·       The actor playing Slook (Alan Heitz) was fired after just a day or two due to remembering almost none of his lines in the scene where Giles is interrogating him in The Magic Box. This is why most of Slook’s lines take place off-screen, with the camera showing Giles, Anya, or Willow, not Slook.

·       The blood that Glory licks off of Tara’s hand is actually a combination of red food colouring and corn syrup. Just a little FYI from me, all the blood on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” (and most of Hollywood) is red food colouring and corn syrup.

·       When Glory tells Tara what being brain-sucked feels like, Troy had a winning comment. Glory says it’s like being in a  “little dark room, naked and ashamed”...Troy said that sums up his life.

·       Both Clare and Troy noted that this episode is far too depressing and sad to do an episode commentary on.

·       The scene where Glory is happy and buzzed after brain-sucking Tara, both Troy and Todd Duffey improved their gleeful reactions. Go watch them, they’re hilarious.

·       Dark Willow causes an earthquake just before she attacks Glory, and Troy said that nobody would bat an eye at this in real life because it’s California.

·       When Glory ripped her torn dress off, Troy yelled “ohh, shit!” because Glory was mad and was about to throw down.

·       Clare thoroughly enjoyed reliving the fight scene of Glory vs. Dark Willow/Buffy, as she hasn’t seen it in years. Apparently, she did almost all of the stunts herself here, except when Buffy gets hit from off-screen (that’s a stunt woman).

·       Troy asked why Glory didn’t follow Buffy and Willow and everyone said that Willow used the “thicken” spell. Troy said “of course, I use that all the time”. He said he’s going to use it on the subway if someone gets too close to him.

·       Two commentaries down for the weekend and they were both awesome.

Also, to be fair to Tammy, that is a LOT of tea towels...

There was just one talk left now before the weekend drew to a close. It was one final talk with all four guests that would then lead into the closing ceremony, which is basically all four guests just taking a minute to say goodbye. Highlights from the final talk and the closing ceremony! :-

·       Mark mentioned that he has his own website. I believe it was www.aloneinthedark.com, however, I went to that site and it was for sale, so perhaps I was wrong. Mark is also in the process of writing a book about his younger brother’s suicide, as well as his usual theatre work and film projects that I’ve mentioned earlier in the review.

·       All four guests were asked which animal they would be if they could. Mark and Andy both chose a bird of prey. Clare chose a unicorn. Before Troy could answer, Clare said that he should be a sloth because he looks like a cute little three-toed sloth. Troy then proceeded to pull a face like a sloth and I must admit it was uncanny.

·       Troy said that actors should always make friends with the makeup and costume departments because they always have all the gossip and if they don’t like you, you usually don’t last long.

·       While filming “Something Blue”, Andy’s fake teeth for D’Hoffryn kept coming unglued and having to be re-pressed. One time this happened, Andy accidentally bit the lady’s finger! Mark then quipped that the lady that had to hold his penis for him when he couldn’t unzip his pants as The Master happened to have a bite mark on her thumb. LOLs. If only The Master didn’t come before D’Hoffryn...I’d have made that story head-canon.

·       Someone asked the guests what charities they support and endorse. Clare and a friend of hers have created their own charity for children. I believe it was called ‘Toys For Tots’, but I may be wrong. Mark and Andy also support various charities and Mark is on the board of directors for the National History Trust of Montana. Troy doesn’t support any charities on a consistent basis. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t do charitable work or donate, he just doesn’t have one particular one that he frequently endorses. Mark joked that Troy was in the green room holding out a tin with the initials ‘M.S.’ and asking for money. Mark said that when he asked Troy if it stood for ‘Multiple Sclerosis’, Troy said, “no, it stands for ‘my savings’”.

·       Someone asked the guests if they were in the musical episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” (“Once More With Feeling”), what would their character sing about? Clare said that Glory would sing about the gloriousness of herself. Troy said that he’d clearly have to sing about Glory too, which led to Mark saying that The Master would sing about Jinx, and Andy saying that D’Hoffryn would sing about The Master. Such chaos.

·       Mark told a story about how his former acting coach once told him “you’re an actor, act like a good one!”

·       Clare said that Melissa Joan Hart is a sweetheart and she often bumps into her because they have children that are the same age.

·       Clare reiterated to us all that to her “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” means friendship. Most of her best friends she’s met through the show somehow and she loves going to conventions and getting to interact with the fans.

·       Someone asked the guests if they had any goals left in regards to their careers. Clare said she’d like to win an Oscar, which prompted Troy to say that he’d like to star in the movie that Clare won the Oscar for as the male lead. Mark’s goals are simple...he just wants to keep working. To keep performing on stage and to continue to love what he’s doing. Mark said he’d rather die while living his life to the full than by slowly fading away. He said he’d love to die on stage like Molière. Andy echoed Mark’s sentiments and also just wants to keep working and enjoying his career.

·       Clare was uber jealous that Andy has worked with David Duchovny...twice. She’s a huge “X-Files” fan and would have attended a convention like “Hallowhedon” for “X-Files” if one existed back in the day. Troy said he’d have attended a convention if it meant meeting Jimmy Page. Mark said he wouldn’t attend a convention to meet anyone, but he’d love to travel to work with certain people. This led him into a funny story from when he was working with Meryl Streep. Apparently they got into a tug-of-war over a sweater that they both wanted. Mark joked that he “let her win” and also joked that “she was a bitch” (because she won). Eventually, Mark bought himself another one of that same sweater and still has it at home.

·       All four guests thanked us for coming to “Hallowhedon” and talked about what a great time they had.

(Troy getting some revenge on Clare for the sloth comment...)

Feeling depressed that the weekend was over, myself, Robyn, and our friends Christa, Rebecca, and Jeremy headed to the bar, where we proceeded to have a two-hour long conversation about “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, who we’ve met at conventions before, and who has been cool or an asshole historically. It was a lovely talk and good times were had. As we were sat in the bar, Troy Blendell came in to get something to eat and to chill a little now that he was off the clock and out of the spotlight...or so he thought. He was approached by at least five different people while he was eating or just after. We avoided going over to him because he felt he deserved a break and was probably exhausted from the weekend. As he was leaving, Troy informed us that he’d just read that Eliza Dushku was robbed a couple of days previous on Halloween. It was oddly poetic that the last time I spoke to Troy Blendell, he was giving us news about an actress from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, and “Dollhouse”. I’m not gonna lie to you, by this time, it was about 8:30pm and I was knackered from the hectic rollercoaster of a weekend. Myself and Robyn headed upstairs for an hour before heading back down to attend the “chill down” party...and what a chill down it was. There were only about 10 people there and they were playing cards against humanity. Frankly, the party was dead. Not in a cool vampiric way, but in an Edward Cullen way (that’s a sparkly leech, not a vampire).

Apparently, Troy had already been down to the party and said goodbye to everyone by this point. It was a shame that we missed him, but I have spoken to him a few times since “Hallowhedon” and have been able to thank him for coming that way. Within an hour, 30 or so other people arrived to the party, but it was still pretty dire. Andy Umberger came down to say goodbye to everyone too, which was another nice gesture, as both Andy and Troy weren’t under contract to do anything anymore, they came to say goodbye because they wanted to. Due to the, erm, thriving party, myself and Robyn decided to head upstairs to bed (after a wonderful conversation with Christa and Immy!). The next morning, while eating breakfast, Mark Metcalf came over to me and gave me his email address, as promised. I thought he’d forgotten about it and had already headed back to the U.S.A., but true to his word, he remembered and gave me his email address. He shook my hand, thanked me for coming, and said that we’d stay in touch. It was a lovely gesture on his behalf and one that I greatly appreciated. Soon after, myself and Robyn met Kim and her mother in the lobby and started the three-hour drive back home. Soon after this, post-convention blues started to kick in like a mother fucker, so myself and Robyn closed out the wonderful weekend by watching “The Wish” (Mark Metcalf), “Intervention” (Clare Kramer and Troy Blendell...the episode they should have given the commentary for, damn it!), and “I Fall To Pieces” (Andy Umberger).

 (Bye Sunningdale...)

So, there you have it. Another “Hallowhedon” weekend done. While the line-up wasn’t particularly captivating on paper, all four guests delivered in a big way.

If you were at “Hallowhedon 6” or have attended any of the previous Hallowhedons, let me know your experiences and highlights in the comments section! If you haven’t attended, gimme your thoughts in the comments section anyway!

The first guest for “Hallowhedon 7” has already been announced (it was announced at “Hallowhedon 6” on the Saturday night)...MIRACLE LAURIE FROM “DOLLHOUSE”! There’s even talk of Miracle’s husband coming over with her to perform over the weekend. They’re in a band together called “Uke Box Heroes”. The website for “Hallowhedon 7” isn’t live yet, but keep an eye out for it as it will hold all the relevant details if you want to attend the event! UPDATE: IT'S UP NOW, LOCATED HERE. One other funny story...when Massive Events announced Miracle Laurie on the Saturday night, they mentioned that they intended to have “all guests announced by Christmas”. My friend Emma was sat behind me and she burst into laughter. It was the funniest thing. Massive Events haven’t done the greatest job in the world this year with announcing guests and communicating with  the attendees, so this declaration was highly amusing.

As I’m #TeamStarfury, I also feel it’s my duty to tell you about “Vampire Ball 6” next year. I mentioned “Vampire Ball 6” at the conclusion of my review of “Vampire Ball 5” at the end of September, but there has been an update. The first guest has been announced...J. AUGUST RICHARDS! If any of you want to know my reaction to this news, ask Robyn. I couldn’t shut up about it all of “Hallowhedon” weekend (it was announced right as the opening ceremony of “Hallowhedon” was happening). Furthermore, Starfury will be announcing another three or four guests over the coming weeks. One every Friday. As I type this, it’s 4 hours before the next announcement. If I remember, I’ll add in the second guest announcement before uploading this review...UPDATE: IT WAS FRAN KRANZ (TOPHER FROM "DOLLHOUSE"!). The “Vampire Ball 6” website is located here. Go, go, go! Sean has even invited me to the Starfury Christmas party!

If you made it through this 25 A4-page review (excluding pictures!), I commend you. It’s my second longest review EVER (to “Vampire Ball 5”) and it’s taken about 8 hours to write when you take into account researching things and trying to remember specific phrasing or moments vividly. Thank you SO MUCH for reading and please, please share the review! Just below the end of this review, there are conveniently placed buttons to share this on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and more!

Finally, a few words of thanks. First and foremost, thanks to my gorgeous girlfriend, Robyn, for being my partner in crime for the weekend. The experience simply wouldn’t have been the same without you. Secondly, thank you to Massive Events for putting on the event and for running another one next year. Third, thank you to Kim and her mother for driving myself and Robyn to and from the event. Fourth, thank you to Troy Blendell, Clare Kramer, Mark Metcalf, and Andy Umberger for coming! Fifth, thank you to everyone who came to the event and talked to us. I saw so many old friends and even made a few new ones. Finally, thank you to all of you for supporting the blog, for reading, and for helping spread the word. The blog would be absolutely no fun without you all.

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10