"Salute To Supernatural" Con Report, Day One

Here is the much anticipated day one report from the “Salute to Supernatural” convention in Chicago. I must say, so far it’s been quite an event and it’s only getting started.

First Day

This was a surreal experience from the word go. The day started by me getting up at 4:30 am. Considering that I'm a night owl who rarely turns in before 1 am, I only see one 4:30 a day and AM isn't it. Fueled on a coffee-and-power-bar high and armed with well loaded iPod, I made it to the hotel 7 1/2 hours later, and easily an hour of that was in Chicago traffic.

Check in was easy and while waiting I talked to James, one of Creation's faithful volunteers. He's done about nine or ten of these events for Creation in Chicago, and does a great job of not letting the riff raff in. He mentioned that so far Fangoria has been the craziest (about 1,000 people winding through the hotel in line), but Sunday here, when Jared and Jensen arrive, will be pretty nuts too. He also said there's no Star Trek convention this year because people have lost interest. He hopes for next year though, when the new movie comes out. I must say, that news surprised me.

The first speaker went on at 12:35, and it was Gabriel Tigerman, who played the ill-fated but loveable goofball Andy in season two. He's a very funny and charming guy and his panel was a lot of fun, even though the ballroom was barely half full. Here are some of the things we learned from his panel:

• He's working on an indie film written by him and a friend, greenlit for March 2009.
• He got married six weeks ago.
• He didn't take the news well (in a joking way of course) that he's no longer the only character other than Sam and Dean to drive the Impala since Bobby just drove it in "Yellow Fever." He accepted it with grace though, saying Bobby was "in good company."
• Contrary to rumors, there was no discussion with Eric Kripke to bring Andy back.  In an amusing story he told the driver while filming "All Hell Breaks Loose Part II" that his character was getting killed off. The driver asked if the body would be salted and burned. When Gabe replied no, the driver told him "oh, then you're good."
• He got the common asked pranks question (that Jared and Jensen are notorious for pranks), and said he'd never been a victim.
• When asked what actor or director he'd work with, he said Pauly Shore. Ask a strange question, get a...
• His favorite episode? “Simon Said” of course. He didn’t die in that one.
• He let out a strange rant against Time Warner Cable, which in the end was meant to make a point he doesn't have Showtime and has been catching up on Dexter with Netflix. I actually understood his pain on that one.
• His favorite scene -- Dean telling the truth in "Simon Said" and him driving off in the Impala, "which is no longer special."
• He addressed an issue that his wife saw on that site we won't mention over whether Andy was a rapist, (aka, scoring chicks through mind control). His answer was a pretty solid "No!" (the answer was lighthearted, so he didn’t take offense and found it funny).
• He originally auditioned for the part of Neil and didn't get that part. He was called back for Andy later.
• In what is my favorite story, he had to ride to the set in the back seat with Jared's dogs (Jared was in the front seat). They apparently got more of his coffee than he did.
• He also fears spiders and sharks, and told a gruesome tale of his wife microwaving a spider when she was young. Guess what? They don't explode.
• He got the stranded on a desert island question (which character would you be stranded with) and he said Bobby, so they could share driving the Impala stories. Then, in the best answer of the panel, he said that according to fanfiction, he should be hanging out with Chad (Lindberg, who played Ash). That got me rolling pretty good.

Article Author: Alice Jester

Alice Jester is a long time IT professional, wife and mother of two, a freelance writer in her spare time (ha!) and a complete obsessive when it comes to TV. She's currently putting her IT skills to use as the creator and administrator of The Winchester …

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