Guests
Lucy Lawless
Renee O'Connor
Michael Hurst
Hudson Leick
Tsianina Joelson
Victoria Pratt
Adrienne Wilkinson Jennifer Ward-Lealand
T.J. Scott
David Franklin
Tim Thomerson
Steven L. Sears
Katherine Fugate

Photos/Artwork

Reports

Links

Convention Report by KT
Con 06 Juicy Lucy Lawless
fsktl@uaf.edu

Part 1 and 2 | Part 3

Lucy was asked if she would be going back to New Orleans. "I certainly will. On Mardi Gras, I may be in Sydney. I don't know." She talked about how much it means to the people there when anyone does anything at all for them. She talked about how people are helping. "We've got friends who are in law enforcement. Habitat for Humanity. Personal families try to help."

A fan brought up Tsianina who had been on earlier. "Tsianina-she's a great girl. Huge heart, disciplined, a loving Mom. I loved her so much."

As part of her new fan club, Lucy had shirts made up to sell to fans with "Who's Yo Momma" written on them. She and Sharon had put various ones on and then taken pictures of each other to post on the fan club site to give people an idea of the sizes. As a little bonus, Lucy signed the ones she had tried on and tossed them in the pile to be sold. A fan came up to the mike and told Lucy that she had received one of these special shirts. She asked Lucy, "Did you wash it before you sent it out?" Lucy started laughing, "We looked ridiculous! I told Sharon, 'These photos will be up for one week TOPS!' We looked awful. No, I didn't wash it-I only had it on for a minute." Now this was really funny because Lucy thought the woman had wanted it washed. WE all realized that she was hoping it had NOT been washed. (Wonder what a little Lucy sweat would bring in on e-bay. . .)

A few times people yelled things out that Lucy heard but I didn't. And she'd say in a warning tone, "Parents! Parents!" reminding the fan that her parents were there, listening. Man, I wonder what THEY think of us. Grin.

So now it was time for Lucy to sing for us. "This is the cowboy song. I was out last night at 40 Deuces, a burlesque place. With Dean O'Gorman, kids from New (hmmm, not sure if she said it was the kids from New Orleans or kids from New Zealand, since Dean is from Young Hercules.) She began to say something maybe about the kids wanting to go there but then she said out loud to herself, "Just say it! Don't make excuses!" Laugh!

Sharon came over with her guitar and sat on a stool. Lucy sat on another one next to her. She happily announced, "Sharon hasn't played in 20 years. We're missing a few instruments. I'll fill in-I'll be slide guitar."

And Lucy sang the song she'd written. She sang to us, not for us. It was a message she's been talking to us about at least since her days in Grease. While it was specifically about Lyle and his new girlfriend, it contained general advice on life also.

It was an urging for a person to grasp a special opportunity when it appears in your life. To not only recognize what you've been handed but to have the courage to seize it with fervor. In this case, the song was both a paean to the woman who was with Lyle that day and also a general philosophy of life. With lines about how fine that woman was and how lucky Lyle was to have found her. And how he should appreciate his good fortune. And how he shouldn't let her go.

I was at Lucy's closing night of Grease. And she flatly gave us this same advice that night. Seize the day, take the chance, don't let being cautious or scared lead to being regretful. Live life with full awareness and enjoyment.

And hmmm, at one con. I'm not sure if she was alone or with Renee, she told us this again. First she told us a story about almost being in a car crash while going to a cast party. She almost got run over by an emergency vehicle. And it made her realize how tenuous life is. And that yeah, we need to live every moment just because we don't know how many moments we have. We should be fully engaged all the time. Make each second you live an act of grace. Suffuse your life with awareness of the sanctity of each moment.

Now I gotta say that I appear to have stopped writing down much after Lucy started singing to us.

I do have a few phrases. "She's a very exciting girl". "She may never pass this way again." And I think the next line was "You may never pass this way again". "Once in a lifetime she walks by. You need, she needs. . . (blank blank blank)". And something about "Summer" and "Stay around forever". And at this moment, I remember that perhaps there was also something along the lines of, "Who'd ever think you'd find someone so
. . ." uh, something. Not perfect, but like who fits you so well. I THINK that was part of it.

Anyway it was a very lovely gift she gave us. We've been asking her to sing to us at cons for years. And in a way, her being her, i.e., the woman who brought to life the character so many of us absolutely fell in love with, the big momma leader of this group of obsessed folks; and us being us, faithful minions, who happily follow her wherever she goes, who listen to and analyze everything she says, who love to hear all about her, who read all her interviews, watch, tape and rerun all her TV and movie guest shots and endlessly analyze and discuss all of the above, in this relationship we have created with her, well, you know what-at some deep, primal level, it felt to me as if "Momma" was singing us a lullaby. One of them old-fashioned ones, with multi-level lessons for life embedded within the narrative. As she wished us a fond goodnight.

It was lovely.

Lucy appeared to be totally relaxed and totally sincere. She was in good voice. Sharon played a very mean 12-string guitar. (I joked later that I had only heard 11 strings.) I wonder who arranged it.

Once in a while Lucy would do an almost Xenaic theme type whine sound, pretending to be an accompanying slide guitar. Laugh!

The music was soft pop, slightly folksy. (Of course, with more than a guitar, in another arrangement, it might not be so folksy.) Lucy sang it with a slightly bluesy take. It was a heart felt, sweetly warning piece, echoing with the ache of chances not taken. Soft advice from a heart perhaps softened from lost chances. Or maybe it was just a song. Smile.

You know, it wasn't easy to get everything Lucy said-what with trying to write without looking at the page because I was looking at Lucy and watching her for her little acting tidbits, (and yeah, okay, okay, just for the pure pleasure of looking at her), people laughing their heads off all around me, Lucy holding conversations with some fans trying to figure out what some other fans had said, trying to get not just what Lucy said but the nuances of what she meant by it. damn, it's a wonder I got anything at all legible on the page. And yes, I rewrote the parts about Lucy singing to us a couple of times, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't ditch the purple prose. This version is not near so fruity as it was at first! But this is the most restrained I can do. I just found her singing to us her own song that carried a message with such a special meaning for her which she wanted to share with us very moving.

Uh, not that I'm complaining about all of the above, just commenting. But, this is also why I always enjoy reading everybody's con reports-other people get things I missed or actually get things I didn't miss but got wrong right. And I'm happy to hear from them correcting me. It's good to get these things right. But damn it! No matter how often I reread the darn things, typos and mistakes creep in. It's Hedda Gabler (one b, not two, the woman's not a turkey Gobbler), rather than "Her, James, Trish and Grace", it should be "She, James, Trish and Grace", 'cause it's the subject of the sentence, dammit! And somewhere I wrote "gace" for "face". *sigh*

It just this moment struck me that Lucy was using a modified accent for us. Laugh! (Because I was also going to whine about having to try to work through her accent. And I realized that was one thing that wasn't a factor at all.)

Anyway, that's my report on Lucy at the Burbank con in 2006. I'm looking forward to next year.

And to anyone who lasted this long, thanks for reading.