Kevin Sorbo (Hercules)

The Hercules star appeared looking trim and dapper in a jacket, hair neatly back in a pony tail, waving to the crowd. That lasted for about three minutes, before crowd requests had him lose the jacket and the 'tail (including lots of hair-shaking), and he looked a little more like Herc - or at least, Herc in a blue T-shirt and black pants. No waffle pants! And by the way, Kevin reminded us during his appearance that those pants weigh twelve pounds. "So the next time you say 'Oh, that kick wasn't very high'..."

Kevin started out his appearance by apologizing for not being able to make it last year. (The aneurysm in his arm came up about this time last year.) He mentioned that he felt lucky to still be here and was feeling grateful to be where he was.

Kevin called writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci onto the stage to congratulate them for what he called the most dramatic and interesting season of the show so far. They waved to the crowd, said hi briefly, and threatened Kevin with nastiness for bringing them up.

Kevin's charity is promoting February 2nd as "shadow day" - a day to take a kid to work with you to demonstrate why staying in school matters. He brought onto the stage the young boy who was shadowing him that day (since he'll be back in New Zealand by the 2nd).

The crowd commentaries didn't stop for Kevin. When he cracked at one point that "I suppose you guys all want to go home," someone shouted back "Is that an invitation?"

Getting into the character of Hercules is all about the gauntlets. Kevin said that he usually starts the day spending 45 minutes in the makeup chair talking about anything but the show, but the moment the gauntlets go on, the character is in place.

Kevin is quite the jock. Lots of football comments, discussion of rugby versus football, and (joking) judging of whose question he'd take based on what football conference their hometowns were from.

Kevin is planning on doing a film during the August-September break. No word on what the film will be.

Kevin praised the staff he works with, mentioning how great it is to work with a crew that's still having fun doing the show.

Lots of kids wanted to ask Kevin questions, including one who kept breaking into the giggles on the microphone. One kid asked for a photograph, which Kevin granted happily, and gave him rabbit ears for the picture.

Kevin was knocked for a major loop when he recognized a group of Xenas in the question line and asked them for a question. His eyebrows nearly hit the ceiling when the first one leaned forward and spoke - in a man's voice. It brought the house down. It also launched a minor case of Herc-vs-Xena comparison from Kevin. "That's why Herc's the family show," he quipped, and told the Xena "and your cleavage looks great." He "reminded" the audience that if Hercules hadn't been a hit, Xena wouldn't be around. When asked if he'd be willing to try a Xena battle cry, he bowed out of it.

Return to the Santa Monica Report.

	Web www.bethgriese.com