Creation Entertainment 'Vampire Diaries' Con Boston: Reviewing the panels

Several of the beautiful, talented cast of the hit CW show The Vampire Diaries  graced fans with their presence last weekend at Creation Entertainment's TVD Con Boston. It was a weekend that connected the stars and fans through music, humorous, enlightening panels, and of course photo op and autograph sessions.

Presented more as a show than a convention, and with the focus being only on one television show rather than several, the event was a little different than others. Held at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, there was one vendor room and one room where the panels and night-time events occurred, so the condensed location and one-thing-at-a-time gave it a more intimate feel. Although that meant those who didn't purchase every autograph and photo op had a lot of down time, also meant it was relaxing and easy to manage time-wise.

Note: I thought it was a small turnout and when a convention staffer heard me comment on the small size, he said this was their smallest turnout ever, so it had a much smaller feel than it typically does. Perhaps this can be chalked up to the fact that it's the first time the con has been in Boston, or because of the off-beat location, but who knows?  

As far as the nitty-gritty details, some of the volunteer staff could have been nicer, but there were some friendly, helpful people to make up for the not-so-great ones. The Hyatt Regency was a terrible location for a con in that if you weren't staying at the hotel. It was a pain to get to and is located a good 20 minutes from any main restaurant/shop-filled area (the closest was Harvard Square or the Cambridge Galleria). But hotel staff was helpful and things ran relatively smoothly — Sunday evening autographs ran really late, but that was chalked up to the actors actually sharing a few words with fans instead of rushing them off, so can't complain about that.

Now, let's get to the events themselves. People enjoyed the Friday night karaoke bash, where some got to sing with the actors. The Saturday concert featured appearances from several actors, including Zach Roerig, David Alpay, host Micah Parker, Chase Coleman and his band Samurai Fish. The headliners had a small turnout (a few scores of people), but the stars rocked the stage regardless. Coleman was a true performer, walking through the audience to get close to them, jumping up on chairs. He brought an incredible energy that made people feel like they were at a sold-out stadium — and he took his shirt off, so there's that.

For the daytime activities, there were five panels on Saturday and four panels on Sunday. Most were Q&A style but there were some bizarre — yet entertaining things — that went down during those panels.

For starters, Sebastian Roche did not answer questions. He sang songs - including singing "Frere Jacques" to a crying baby. He sang regular sentences. He ran around the stage and the whole room  rambling about... well I couldn't tell you what. One girl got up to ask a question about half way through his 45 minute appearance. He asked her to say her question, but jokingly shushed her when she did. Then, he told her to say it in a Sean Connery voice, which he proceeded to imitate himself. Then, he asked for a Celine Dion impression. The girl finally got her question out: What's your preparation strategy for a character? Instead of answering, he started rambling about Celine Dion and Titanic. Then he told her to sing her question on stage. She was clearly frustrated but played along. Once on stage, she flipped her hair, prompting Roche to request a cat walk. She eventually sang the question (well), but not long after, time is up. He never gave an answer and the audience was left wondering: what just happened?

There is no doubt that Roche's "performance" was frustratingly manic, random and nonsensical. However, it was unique and memorable. It certainly showed off his energetic, goofy personality, teaching audiences a bit about the man who plays someone very different: angry, serious, mean vampire villain Mikael.

That was by far the weirdest panel of the weekend, but it wasn't the only deviation from the typical Q&A style. During his panel, David Alpay answered a few questions, but also played the violin and spent the last 10 minutes or so reading a fan fiction story submitted to him by someone via Twitter about a steamy encounter between Kat Graham's character Bonnie and his character Professor Shane. He purveyed the room first for children, then proceeded to read, only slightly censoring it. The story started with Bonnie approaching Shane in his office and the two spent time flirting as tension built. Alpay's time was ending before he got to the good part so he speed-read to the part where they start getting physical. It was really, really weird, yet also incredibly entertaining and the crowd ate it up.

Matt Davis spent the last 10 minutes or so of his panel telling a story about a prank pulled on him regarding aliens. Apparently, he believes in aliens and had a dream (or something... I didn't catch the beginning) about being abducted by aliens. He told everyone about it, convinced it was real and soon after he received a mysterious package containing only a "space rock" and a note that said "we're watching you." No one he knew fessed up to sending the package so he was spooked. Then, sometime later, he started receiving routine calls from a deep, creepy voice for two weeks. Eventually, a friend who'd had a guest role on TVD admitted to sending the rock but swore he wasn't the one making phone calls, so Davis was still freaked out. He became so paranoid he accused Candice Accola, which angered her. One day, however, his ex girlfriend came to visit and he, the ex-girlfriend, Candice and other cast members went out. The woman was a practicing witch in real life so when Candice approached Davis looking frightened, he thought his friend had simply creeped her out. Candice then came out and said that Davis's friend had claimed responsibility for being the "alien" making the phone calls. Davis had suspected her all along but was nevertheless shocked by the ultimate revelation. The story meant some people didn't get to ask questions, but it was an intimate tale that made for good bonding with the fans and they seemed to enjoy it.

Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley's joint panel was a typical Q&A, but they went off on tangents, both by simply going off topic and by getting distracted with one another's answers, jokes and antics, bantering back and forth.

All of the craziness at least showed the chemistry between cast mates and brought the celebrities down to earth. Their candidness, honesty, silliness and good-natured humor made the interaction with fans feel like a reunion between old friends... if your old friends were really beautiful people you had to pay to see. Jokes aside, it was a good event and all of the cast members seemed as genuinely interested to be there as the fans were to see them there.

For more on the panels and what fans learned during them, look for my next story about the event.