Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo 2014: John Barrowman’s Panels

Saturday\’s Panel:
John Barrowman (of Doctor Who, Torchwood fame) has always been a favorite of mine, but I had never been able to see him in person, until Stan Lee\’s Comikaze Expo in Los Angeles during Halloween weekend.  I follow John on Twitter and Facebook, and I follow his sister, Carol, on Twitter, so I\’ve known for awhile  they write books together.  John and Carol had a panel on Saturday, which I wasn\’t sure I was going to make it to since it started right after the Godzilla panel (which was on the opposite side of the building!), in which a dear friend of mine was a panelist on.  I was lucky to catch up with my friend, Michelle, just as she was about to enter the room for John and Carol\’s panel.

John Barrowman and Carol Barrowman

Carol showing the audience how you can tell her and John apart (breasts).

We managed to get pretty good seats from which I was able to get some fantastic photos (with added benefit of a telephoto zoom lens) of John and Carol.  Their panel was really an opportunity for fans to ask questions.  Two really memorable moments/stories, was Carol telling the story of when she saved John from being arrested in Spain.  Apparently, they were on a road trip (with Scot, John\’s now husband, and Carol\’s husband) in a Chevy van conversion in Spain.  It was John\’s crazy idea to drive this large vehicle on Spain\’s narrow streets which is the basis for the story.  The road was a single lane, and they had to unload their luggage at the hotel in less than 28 seconds (John was timing them), as traffic was stopped and backed up behind their van.  They run and try to get into a LOCKED van!  Now, the van\’s engine is running which should tell you where they keys are.  Everyone starts freaking out, people in the cars behind them are pissed off, to the point where a man comes up and throws a brick (or stone, I can\’t remember) through one of the van\’s windows.  John is instantly pissed off and Carol is like \”it\’s open, just get in and move the van!\”  They drive away, but pull over in a better spot and John is still pissed off, then the guy who threw the brick comes walking up swearing in Spanish to John and John is screaming back at him.  John basically tells the man that he through a brick through his window, but now he (John) has the brick in a threatening way, to which the man backs down apologizing.  Listening to them tell this story was something you just had to be there for.

The other big story is John and Carol going to Wales to Ianto\’s memorial.  Carol was saying that they shouldn\’t go because John would be mobbed by fans. Carol recorded John loudly mourning and crying out for Ianto. Which of course creates quite the crowd, and it took them hours to get out of there.

Here are photos of John re-enacting this trip to Ianto\’s memorial:

Sunday’s Panel:

Sunday’s panel started a bit late as the staff were trying to squeeze as many people as possible into the room and fill all of the seats.  I was a bit late getting to the convention center on Sunday, and only came for John’s panel, so I was very far back in the line  I still managed to get a decent spot, but nowhere near as close as I was on Saturday.

The BEST story told on Sunday was John talking about he likes to be naked, (no modesty pouch for him!), and one of the jokes he played on the cast on the set of Torchwood.  It’s when he was in concrete and dropped off a cliff.  He’s waiting for the car to come with everyone in it and he’s naked.  I..um…get’s himself ready and once he’s at “attention” the car is about to come around with the cast members each getting out of the car and he’s standing there.  He re-enacts their reactions to his erect nakedness (their reactions are in the episode!), then starts to walk towards them.  Apparently, John didn’t want his feet to get wet so I put maxi-pads with wings on the bottom of his feet (Who thinks of that?!!).  He was surprised at how much water they absorbed and you could hear the squishing of the water-logged pads with every step he took.  He re-enacted this whole walk to the car.  I was laughing so hard, tears were coming out of my eyes, and that’s why there aren’t pictures or video of this story.  As I left the convention center that day, I kept thinking to myself what fun John Barrowman is, and now I think John “Always a Good Time” Barrowman whenever I think of him.

First question was from this adorable little girl Cyberman.

Malcolm Merlin in The Flash?

TTFN,
V