Con 07 Chicago. Joe, Then Lucy and Joe, then Lucy and Joe and Renee, then Lucy, then Lucy and Renee, then Renee, on stage

Lucy and Renee at the Con Part 8

Someone brought up Renee’s movie, "Diamonds and Guns". Renee said she had put in some things just for us. Then added, "I put the fart jokes in for my son Miles." (Just in case some of us thought that she had put the fart jokes in for us, I guess.)

Then I think there was a little skirmish maybe? Perhaps Lucy was trying to get Renee to go to the other side of the stage again? My notes just say, "Stay together. . ." and then, "I’m telling a story!" Anyone?

Renee looked around at us in the audience and then said something about having seen a Tina Turner? (Could it be Tina Turner? That doesn’t seem likely but that’s what my notes seem to say) in the hallway and also some storm troopers. As I said, this was a unique con for me since there was another Creation con going on at the same time in the same hotel. I’ve never experienced that co-mingling with other show fans since the big L.A. area cons are always just Xena (or in the very early days, just Hercules/Xena) cons.

Since in our whole audience there was only one person dressed up that I saw (AND she was dressed as Gabrielle, grin), Renee smiled and declared, "We’re all normal here." Then she added that Miles is a HUGE Star Wars fan and she mentioned "Boba Fett" and that "Daisy helped me get things for Miles".

Which was an interesting thought-that Daisy could move around freely among the other con audiences. Nobody would stop her and try to chat with her. And in fact, with her punk, green Mohawk appearance, she fits right in with our fan base and probably theirs too and so could easily move around their tables totally incognito.

Then Renee told her brownie story. She said something like her former husband Steve was a typical Kiwi and the impression I got from what she was saying was that he found her family very amusing. She added, "At my wedding, Eddie and his buddies were eating (drugged) brownies. Steve found it comical."

Then she and Lucy talked to each other, asking, "Does everybody have a brownie story?"

Lucy told us that when she and Renee were getting ready for the concert, she called Renee at the hotel and asked her if she wanted to get together to roll their hair. I think it was Lucy who said, "Because we’re not good at this." So Renee was going down to Lucy’s room. Lucy said something like, "I was in my undies and a bra. But I didn’t get dressed, it was just Renee. Then I went to answer the door-and there was Renee out in the hall in HER undies and a bra."

I imagine some of the women around me were close to fainting at the mere thought of this display of lingerie. (I’m also betting this scene will show up in a fanfic some day.) I have what looks like the word "Document?" slashed in my notes. But I honestly don’t remember is someone asked if they had documented this moment or not or what that indecipherable word is about.

Lucy did reply to some comment on this with, "Yeah-we’re real friendly." Then she said in a "think about it" tone, "Would she wipe my butt if we weren’t really good friends?" And finished with great satisfaction, "Proof of the pudding."

Someone asked if the actors had ad-libbed a lot. Lucy said, "Only if we hadn’t done our homework." Then she looked around the room and said, "Don’t say this in front of the writers." Renee said "We have the ultimate respect for the script." And then maybe I missed something or I perhaps it was to this that Lucy added, "And a whip. I know you."

Lucy told us she had sent Sharon to a sex shop to get the French tickler that they’d played with the night before at the concert. Renee added, "Now THAT’S a friend".

Renee replied to a question about Gabrielle with, "Gabrielle was never evil." Which prompted a big laughter response from the audience. She added, "Her essence is all about (pause) Hope". Which made us laugh even more. Renee concluded with, "Funnily enough. . ."

There were some people shouting our questions and Renee pointed into the audience and said "There’s some question from over there". And either she or Lucy added, "THEY’RE definitely eating the brownies."

Renee declared, that "It will be a whole different show tonight", referring to Lucy’s concert I believe.

Lucy was talking about something I think in the future or something she did in the past, I don’t know. And Renee looked at her and said, "Lucy, what haven’t you done?"

Lucy answered, "Blockbuster next. A blockbuster musical." At first I thought she was talking about a personal appearance at the video rental place but then realized she meant making a summer movie blockbuster.

Lucy talked about her days as a travel show host. How she used to jump out of planes. "So amazing now. I used to have to do it for my job". She talked about how she’d do something scary like that and be thinking at the end, "THAT was stupid" but she’d have to say with great excitement for the camera, "Oh, I’d DEFINITELY do that again!"

A fan asked something (I’m thinking possibly it was for her to do the Xena yell). Lucy started to answer then stopped, put on a disgusted look and sneered at the fan, saying, "Oh, don’t do the puppy dog face. It may work on the people at home but it doesn’t work with me." (She MAY have been referring to it working for her little sons at her home, not sure on this.)

She was asked something like, "How much of you is Xena and how much of Xena was you?"

Lucy replied, "We don’t even know anymore". Renee said about having played Gabrielle, "I didn’t need to revisit my adolescence."

Then they’re talking about something else (that I didn’t write down) and one of them says, "I’ll tell you a secret-I just didn’t want it bad enough." Someone added, "Everything happens for a reason." They also talked about how they learned together.

Renee asked Lucy, "Is that what you said?" and Lucy replied "I don’t know anymore." Sadly, I have no idea what they’re talking about.

Then they talked about having to do things yourself. Not to wait for things to be offered to you.

One of them said something like, "Who am I?" And that it’s scary, but you have to have the will to start following through on things.

Lucy said, "Cut the damn trap door, man."

Renee added, "Work outside the box."

Lucy: "Be like the "Little Red Hen"’. And she added in a high, scratchy Little Red Hen voice, "Alright-I’ll do it myself!"

They were asked what was their favorite and least favorite thing about each other. There was a short silence while the grrls stood stock still and stared at us. Then Lucy cackled and said, "Oh, I know-I know!" And she answered for Renee. She said "It would really piss her off" when she was trying to run lines and would ask Lucy to help her. And all she wanted was for a totally flat tone to be used when reading the lines of the other character to her. And Lucy just could NOT be flat-she’d drop right into a character. And Renee would keep telling her to keep it flat, just say the words. Lucy talked about how Renee wanted just to run through the lines quickly but that Lucy kept emoting. AND that she began to get pissed herself as Renee kept telling her to tone it down. She copped an attitude as she played herself saying to Renee, "Sorry, this sentiment will take some time to get into".

I’m remembering at this moment that Lucy laughed and said something about Renee running lines with a crew member, maybe a janitor? And Renee said in an aggrieved tone something about him at least doing it the way she needed.

Lucy said, "I needed to adopt more of Renee’s approach."

Renee’s reply to that was, "HA!" Then she added, "I stopped studying."

Someone in the audience asked Lucy, "Can you really fly?" Lucy didn’t skip a beat, immediately answered, "Yeah, I can fly" and then quickly pointed to another questioner.

They were asked, "How did being on Xena change you?"

Slight pause. One answered, "We both got married." And then I think I have written that Renee said, "Ask Lucy alone-it takes me a minute."

Then the woman in the audience who was dressed as Gabrielle asked Lucy a question. Lucy started to answer and the women turned to Renee and asked her something or said something about her staff. Lucy stopped talking and looked around at us and said, "She asked a question but she’s not actually interested in the answer. Now that’s my kind of fan."

Renee, (possibly answering the previous question about how being on Xena changed them, or maybe saying how she and Gabrielle were alike) talked about how she was in her twenties when she played Gabrielle. And that twenty year olds need to learn that, "The universe is not about me."

Then Renee talked about Miles’ birthday party. "I dressed up as a Jedi. My mother was Princess Leia." She said that her mother had rolled her hair up like Leia’s but that after a while it kind of flattened out and got stuck to the side of her head and she wound up looking like one of the short order cooks in Threadgills on a hot day. "Iris was Yoda." Short pause as Renee looked around at us. "It’s not very different from here, really."

Then Renee said something about a fan having 15 foster kids. She added, "That’s why I’m here. The fans are amazing."

Then something happened and one of the grrls asked, "Was that a fart joke?" And then declared, "Oh, it’s a bee." (I’ll be real curious to see what this was all about when the DVD comes out.)

One woman on the left hand side of the hall raised her hand and pointing to a young woman standing against the wall on the other side of the hall said, "My daughter is trying to get your attention." One of the grrls said, "Now that’s an awesome mom!"

The young woman asked a version of the classic, endlessly repeated question, "Weren’t they lesbians?"

Renee answered, "I don’t know. What’s great is (the show) made people stand up. No whether or not we’re (and I can’t make out the next word. HEY-my handwriting is like the static that obliterates Xena’s answer in "You Are There"!)

Lucy said, "I think they probably were at the end." Unlike Renee’s answer, this one got some applause.

Renee said, "I wish more shows would take a stand."

Lucy said, "I just want people to stop shaming other people to death. Diversity (matters?)"

Renee: "Wasn’t it sexy?"

Lucy: "Everybody craves to be accepted and respected. That’s the heart of our fan base.

Renee" "We’re a bizarre family—isn’t it great?"

Then Lucy left the stage to get ready for her show.

KT