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On Friday night Mel, Moira, Saf
and I caught Don Franck's second show, starting at around 9:00 (I believe that the two
shows had just under half of the Con attendees at each of them). Unfortunately, Mel
wasn't feeling well and left shortly after the show began (much to her great
disappointment later - especially since she was sitting in the last row on the end, right
by the door!). A little after 10:00 out of the corner of my eye I saw something
light colored moving at my left (the room was darkened for the show). When I turned,
I saw that it was a guy in a straw hat - BUT not just any guy - Roy! Before most
people knew that he was even in the room, I had grabbed Saf and was going "Look,
look!" Sixteen years of schooling had really paid off - I'm sure that my
English teachers would be proud of how easily the English language was wiped from my mind
<VBG>. Besides the Panama-style straw hat (the infamous hat of stove/cooker shopping fame), he also had on a knee-length black leather jacket and black jeans - I found out later that he had on a bright green and black striped shirt (I was too busy taking pictures to notice LOL). Roy went up on stage, and Don had been about to step off of the stage but Roy ran over and pulled him back. Then he and Don hugged. Everyone behaved, although there was a lot of screaming (as you can well imagine), not to mention quite a torrent of camera flashes; people stood up but no one rushed the stage. [BTW, Carlo was in the audience watching the show from front row center.] Roy then turned like he was going to walk off the stage, and we all yelled "Noooo!" Grinning, he went to the mike and started to talk; then everyone sat down. What I remember that he said was "Thank you for supporting us for these four years. It was an honor to serve you. I have to go home; someone has been waiting for me every weekend for the past four years. Have a great weekend (at this point, someone yelled, "You just made our weekend!"). la vie." While he was speaking, he looked like a deer caught in headlights - obviously nervous, only looking straight ahead as he spoke. He spoke with a lot of pauses, but we all hung onto his every word (no surprise there!). Roy left amidst more screaming and flashes. Afterwards Don was going "Wow." He said that he wouldn't have been surprised if Jesus had showed up, but he was *real* surprised that Roy had come. He said "You know he's a lonesome cat, a loner, but he's a very, very sweet man." Of course, we walked out of there saying we have to remember what he said, so hopefully between Moira, Saf, and myself, we were able to reconstruct it even though we were all a little bit in shock - we still couldn't believe that he showed up! I'm sure that holding the Con at an airport hotel and not downtown really improved our chances of his stopping by on his way to the airport. The next day at his panel, Don said that he was still surprised by Roy showing up and that Roy had been crying. We weren't totally sure that Don wasn't just exaggerating, but I had it confirmed by a woman who told me that she was standing right at the door when Roy came out. She said that the tears were just streaming down his face. We figured that the combination of being confronted with this many fans at once (something that we don't think that he has experienced before except for the small groups he has met) as well as the realization that the show is probably over was pretty overwhelming for him. It definitely made for a special moment at the Con, and I'm sure glad that we decided to go to Don's second show - I would have been sooo upset if after 3 Cons, I missed seeing him only because I picked the wrong show! ;-) Heidi Beckley |
