Best of Both Worlds 3

A con report

Who is Corwin? | the Eps | Analysis | Josh Cox | Interviews | Pics
The Corwin Page | Lynne's home page

Beware - much of what I yap about is utter nonsense. Don't take me too seriously, either - Aussies are very fond of using sarcasm and underemphasis and overemphasis and saying exactly the opposite of what they mean. Like being *absolutely* distraught m eans overjoyed. However, whatever I report Josh saying was actually said, although it may not be verbatim. If you want the full con report including stuff about Mira and Michael O'Hare, pop over to the John and Delenn site. I think it is under con reports (strangely ;-).

First impressions - the cocktail party.

Things I noticed: a) Josh smokes (Blurgh - have no fear, Josh, smokers are safe from me! I'll stick to Corwin ;-). b) He is looks just like he does on tv and is quite tall with a thinnish good bod (but more on that later). c) His voice is deeper than Corwin's. Bizarre. d) He wears some very unCorwin-like earrings. Josh found out about my Corwin page and emailed me, and I told him that I'd be at this con. When I finally wormed my way into the circle surrounding Josh and introduced myself "G'day, Josh, I'm Lynne." "Lynne..." he says trying to figure it out - "Lynne! You're Lynne? That Lynne?" He looked around - "This is the person with the web page for Corwin!" Then, after some struggling with the camera, I got the happy snap with Josh, as can be seen.

Second Impressions - the talks

At the con proper, Josh was first up on stage. I won't repeat all that he said - for starters, we weren't allowed to tape the talks and I am no stenographer. Josh is a performer. He got up on the stage and talked and answered questions and generally fooled around. If any of those guys I had arguments with about whether Josh can act are around, I'll meet you outside. This guy could act the pants off a gundark! It was hard to get much insight into the "real" Josh cos he was such a chameleon on stage. He was what Aussies would call a character, or if they are feeling uncharitable, a wanker.

Little tidbits of info about Josh. I believe it was Al Pacino who made Josh want to become an actor. I think he said "Apocalypse Now" is his favourite movie. He loves Monty Python and Black Adder (and can do a very passable few varieties of British accents and quote bits of Python). When he is not acting (which is much more frequently than he deserves), he works for A&B Constructions, banging in nails. Actors have to do something else to keep themselves in money when they are not big names. Waitering or whatever. Friends of Josh run the company, so they don't mind him disappearing once in a while to do a bit of acting. The carpentry explains the muscle in his arms and maybe some of the tan. He also may be doing a bit of "serious" writing for a mag called "Bikini". At this point, it became pretty obvious that he prefers to see girls in bikinis rather than guys (sorry all you chaps who think Corwin/Josh is a bit of a goer!). When he is not playing carpenter or acting, he likes various sports such as surfing, snowboarding and anything "extreme". He broke his shoulder in a snowboarding accident about a year ago after failing to take a jump (as he was sliding down the hill he was thinking something along the lines of "C-h-r-i-s-t!!!! This isn't my usual fall! Where are my sunglasses? My shoulder is burning."). Adding insult to injury, someone skiied straight over his sunnies, breaking them. He managed to get himself to the first aid hut - he was rather proud of not taking the ski-doo. Two operations later and some fabbo painkillers - Demerol? - (he mimed being blasted out of his mind and presenting his butt to the nurse for another skin patch - Nurse! More!), his shoulder worked again. Working for B5 and being in the union (actors' guild?) effectively paid for his operations - they came to a cool 30K USD. The fall stopped him playing guitar for a while, and when he resumed, he took up bass guitar. He now jams with a bluesy sort of band made up of "guys who learnt their social skills in institutions and prisons ". They apparently get a little strung up and Josh cools them down again.

Corwin is in "River of Souls". jms gave him a chance to be in a movie - I guess that is one way of repaying some good work by giving Josh some more exposure. Josh on jms - (twilight music) "He remains a mystery to us all." jms is so busy with his writing and producing that Josh hardly ever got to talk to him - his contact with jms was limited pretty much to "Hi, how are you going?" as they passed in the hall. In one script, jms said that "Corwin would be nice but optional." Optional? Josh groaned and sagg ed down the lectern. Optional! Corwin is "optional?" We all sighed for poor Josh with the "optional" Corwin, but were happy to learn that Josh was called in anyway.

Corwin is what Josh interpreted the character to be from the scripts - he didn't get any direction on how to play Corwin. He figures that since he got asked back again and again and again, he must have gotten it right. He sees Corwin as the wide-eyed, everyday man. He does not *effect* the changes happening around him, but he is *affected* by them. He is not a hero, unlike so many others in B5, but if asked to get into a Starfury would do so. If Josh could be any other character, he would be G'Kar. He (like so many of us) thinks that Andreas is an absolutely fabulous actor - the expression Andreas can get through the makeup impresses Josh greatly. Also, he reckons G'Kar is a great character (hey, great minds think alike! Did I ever mention G'Kar is my very favourite? ;-).

At some stage, someone introducing Josh to the phrase "Shaggin' wagon". This obviously amused him greatly because when asked a list of questions, he managed to get shaggin' wagon in somehow or another. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it means (oh hell, most of you wouldn't understand the phrase "panel van" now would you?) umm... You know the old phrase - "if it's rocking, don't bother knocking?" Well that applies beautifully to a van or a station wagon/estate used as a shagging wagon. Indeed, the shagging causes the rocking. The audience answered a couple of questions for him, like where would he like to be? (In his shaggin wagon!), where is your favourite holiday spot? (In his shaggin' wagon), what is his favourite book? (anything in his shaggin' wagon), favourite food? (whatever is in his shaggin' wagon!!!!!), favourite colour (his shaggin wagon's colour), etc, etc and introduced him to the concept of having a mattress in the back of the shaggin wagon (may as well be comfortable ;-)... He answered a couple of questions sensibly - he used to have two cats (the audience tittered madly when asked if he had any pets - where were they kept and what did he do with them there?) and he is an Aries - a Ram.

He would love people to write to jms to ask for Corwin to be in Crusade. Not only is it his livelihood, he also has enjoyed working on B5 and would love a contract!

At one point of Josh's second talk, Adele, one of the organisers, came up to Josh and gave him a Best of Both Worlds 3 t-shirt. Naturally, we insisted that he put it on, but he had to take off the t-shirt he was wearing first :-) "You really want me to do this?" The crowd screamed "YES!!!!" and went wild with excitement. So Josh looked at us and looked at the BOBW3 t-shirt, then pulled off his own t-shirt, and the crowd screamed many "woo hoos!" and many flashguns went off and lots of people got in my way - I had to get a shot of the bod! - and then pulled on the other t-shirt. You would have thought that we were at a manpower event or something. Josh has a nice bod - I'd guess the result of honest labour in helping his friends at A&B constructions (Andy and Ben? Sounds like a typically Oz thing to do - umm, what do we call our company? Well, your name is Ben and mine is Andrew, so let's call it A&B Constructions!). There is muscle on his arms and he has nice pecs. The six pack isn't as obvious at I was told it was at Wolf but we managed nonetheless :-). At the end of it all, Josh comments "Now that I have totally embarrassed myself..." but the crowd loved it. Nicely set up, Adele (and Josh?).

Third impressions

In the autograph queue, I am afraid to say it, Mira won the popularity stakes. That didn't particularly surpise me - Delenn is my second favourite character (then who is the third? Oo, umm gosh lots of them - Corwin, Na'Toth, Lennier, Sheridan all level peg). Still, that meant that I was able to entertain (??? I think not!) Josh because half the time there was only him and Cathryn at his table. Josh signed all the stuff I shoved at him and yeah, I got a bit more than two things signed....which reminds me - buy the photos! He was also willing to oblige with more happy snaps. Off stage, Josh was a bit more relaxed (let's face it, he was bored witless) but still proved slippery about personal stuff, and I couldn't ask about any season five stuff cos there were always people about who would scream if they heard a spoiler....

Hmm, that is about all I can add. To this part, anyway.