Untitled Document

This Q&A was transcribed from camcorder recordings taken by Lelsey Burton and Dale Meachin, UK. At a venue of this kind there is a great deal of laughter, applause, cheering, coughing, etc, which can make certain words or phrases difficult to decipher. So this transcript is as accurate as possible under those circumstances.

Ron Perlman is introduced by David Shwartz (Executive Producer on Beauty & the Beast)

David: There is not much more I can say, other than... My best friend, my brother, one of the loves of my life. I thank God for having the opportunity to work on Beauty and the Beast, it was a great experience, but I thank all the Gods for my relationship with this gentleman.... Let me bring up my dearest friend, Ron Perlman. (They embrace, and David leaves the stage.)

Ron: Thank you, Brother Dave.

Ron: (smiling) I don't have anything to say, so I guess that's it. (Laughter) No, I actually have two things I want to say. One I have said on pretty much every other occasion that I've been here, so you'll pardon me for being redundant but.... It's now 10 years, and I was amazed at the first one! (more laughter) You can, I guess, figure out the logarithmic sort of ramifications, that 10 years later people still gather. You know I'm sure that the evolution of the gathering has gone through many different striations, but the fact that you're all here is quite amazing and not a small degree moving.

Member of audience: Thank you for coming. Thank you so much.

Ron: My pleasure, my pleasure. And I also want to take the opportunity, aside from the obvious reasons for the gathering, I know all of the great work that has been done in the name of charity, through in a large part the people in this room. I keep close tabs on that through David. If nothing else that's..... you know, a small step to making the world a better place and if it's done in the name of Beauty and the Beast, hey that's an amazing thing...... So I thank you. (Ron applauds the audience.) It's a pleasure to see you all again, old faces, new faces........ (Then grinning!) Let the questions begin! (Laughter) Nobody has a question? Oh… go ahead.

Question: Will you come to the New York Convention…(the rest of the question was inaudible at this point)

Ron: I think it's part of my ticket package! (Laughter)

Question - continued: In 2001, to benefit Hale House.

Ron: Let me ponder that for a moment. 2001 is a long ways away. One day at a time is my motto, but who knows? You can't stop it… Que sera sera..

Member of audience: Not a question, just a statement. Sometimes it goes around that maybe we want Vincent and not Ron. WE WANT RON!

Ron: That's good, cause I left my makeup in the glove compartment and my car is parked in the driveway in Los Angeles, So Ron is what you've got! Thank you for saying that, that's very nice, very sweet of you. (Then looking around and grinning) This is going to be the shortest Q&A on record! (Laughter)

Question: My questions, actually the first one is a statement. I wanted to say that I enjoyed you in the Batman animated series of Clayface.

Ron: Thank you.

Question: My second one was actually the question. Why Police Academy: Mission to Moscow?

Ron: Why not?

Audience: (collectively) WE liked it!

Ron: You liked it? Thank you. It was good clean fun. I don't know.... I thought there was a franchise that needed closing down! (Laughter) I have been in the last of a lot of, you know, memorable franchises... Police Academy, I shut that one down. (Laughter) And I don't think they'll ever make another Alien movie! So I thought, You know, it's been around long enough, let me go in there and remove it! Let's get it out of here!

Actually… What was the question?... Why Clayface..no.. why Police academy?... You know, I hadn't acted in a Russian accent in a while, so I thought it was an opportunity to brush that right off and I thought the script was so funny when they sent it to me. (Then to the man who asked the question) And you look really depressed!

Man: This is my normal face.

Ron: (Rubbing his forehead in what is meant to be a perturbed fashion) Now I'm beginning to wonder why I did the dog-gone movie! I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologise for that movie and a long list of others that a lot of you have seen, and you know, its embarrassing, but I'm in there .. I'm in the batter's box, taking shots, and I'm trying to support a family, so what can I tell you!

Question: Will you be doing any stage work?

Ron: Yes, I'm riding shotgun on the stage to ..um...Vegas! (Laughter) I don't have any plans to do any stage work, It's something I probably won't really consider doing until the kids are up and out of the house, because it's very time consuming, it's generally away from home and you want those experiences to be as short and as absolutely necessary as possible, you know, while the family is still around the house. So, not in the immediate future, but I plan to do an awful lot of theatre down the road, you know...get back at it.

Question: With the Internet being so pervasive now, do you think that the fans have a greater impact on the direction of the show….( the remainder was inaudible). The audience shout for the Question to be repeated.

Ron: I'm sorry, the question was: "Does the Internet play a bigger role in the decision making process of people who put shows on the air and vice versa?" I think the answer is no. I mean, there are exceptions to every rule, but the rule of thumb is that these guys make their decisions based on the opportunity to sell advertising minutes and their relationship to advertisers is based on that little box that is in 12 hundred homes across America that's supposed to give everybody, you know, the be-all and end-all in terms of viewers… viewing habits.

Question: So you don't think for example that the fans really had a.. (the exact wording of the rest of this question was inaudible but it was based on a query about "The Magnificent Seven.")

Ron: That could have been an example of them being on the fence and wondering if we give the show some more time will it find an audience, and the audience spoke up so they gave it another shot. I think that was one of the exceptions. I know that Cagney and Lacey credited writing campaigns and certainly the Internet now is sort of a second cousin to writing campaigns, except on a whole other scale, it's immediate, and the amount of people that are functioning in that world is staggering. But by and large it's still the ratings system that's the basis for how networks make their decisions. There are variables - like who the producer of the show is - that will have an influence on whether they believe that the show is getting better, even though the numbers aren't reflecting that. Lots of things. I guess the Internet is one of them.

Question: In "Mag 7" did you have to prepare before the show? Like did you already know how to ride a horse and all those things?

Ron: Not really, no. I wouldn't even profess to being able to ride a horse after having done 22 episodes! (Laughter) There were six guys then there was one guy at the back saying, "WAIT UP! How do you get this thing to work? Where's the gearbox?" (Ron imitates trying to ride his horse. Lots of laughter from audience.) I'm an old dog it's really hard to teach me any new tricks... No, I learned (imitating a slow Southern drawl) how to strap on a g-un, an' I learned how to sp-it. (Loud laughter) I learned how to get on a horse and I learned how to fall off! (more laughter) Thank God I don't have any broken limbs to show for it. The horse would look at me every morning, and go, "Him again… New York Jew!" (Laughter) Occasionally he'd look at me and go, "At the craft service table yesterday? Put on a few pounds, did you?"

Okay, I've been asked to repeat the question. The question was… I don't remember the question! (Laughter)... Yes, the question was "Did I know how to ride a horse when I started Mag 7?" I hope I answered you sufficiently?

Question: How much did your role in Beauty and the Beast help you professionally?

Ron: A great deal! I don't think that it has helped me in the way you may be inferring... How did my role in Beauty and the Beast help me professionally? It helped me more in personal ways. I don't think anybody really ever hired me as a result of having been the Beast, but it certainly gave me personally a frame of reference about quality of material, about what it was that's great about the business when you finally find something to do that's a real gem, how precious that is.

Member of the audience: Well you gave such a gracious speech at the Golden Globes Awards. It really meant a lot I think, to the fans.

Ron: Thank you. I don't remember that, (grins) but thank you. (Laughter) No, it was three years out of my life, that I still look back on as probably the apex so far, of my career. I really felt like I was involved in... I measure careers differently with every passing decade. Now there's been enough decades to, you know… I have an arc going now! I used to measure things in months, but now it's like another 25 year period... There's never been a three-year period or a protracted period in my career that was as intensely satisfying. If my normal level of being is here (raises hand to eye level) I was, like, here for three years! (Raises hand high above his head).

The whole thing was like going to Disney World! People were talking about the show, the show was received in the way the show was meant to be received. It's really one of the only things I've ever done that has truly endured. I mean look, its 10 years later and people are still coming to talk about the common values that they took away from that, and…you know…it's rare when you first see a script that's just nothing but an abstraction of an idea on paper, that doesn't occupy anything other than the 54 pages that it's written on, and you have a dream about what it might be and then you do it, and the letters start pouring in and the reviewers start writing and all of a sudden it's everything you thought it could have been. I tell you, having been a professional actor for 27 years ..that is rare. And I don't have to tell you what I thought about playing Vincent. It's pretty well documented. I'm finally at the point in my life, where I can say that I don't think anybody else could have played that part, but me. (Full agreement and loud applause from the audience)

Ron: It was amazing, like a gift from God. "Here Ron, here's what you want to say to the world, and you get a chance to say it as an artist and you get a chance to do it on Friday nights at 8 o'clock on channel 2." So, what it did for my career just pales in comparison to what it did for me as a person.

Member of audience: It was a gift to us also! Yes! (Enthusiastic applause)

Ron: Thank you.

Question: You said something briefly last night about telling us about the "Ron story"?

Audience: That was David.

David: Oh Ronnie, Ron, you guys. (David gestures towards the Novtek camera man - also called Ron - who is filming the proceedings)

Ron: Oh that Ron! Hey Ron. What's up, man? No actually I had a car in New York that I'd rented because I was just visiting, and I called Avis to think about extending the rental time. He answered the phone, and he said, "Avis, this is Ron." I said, "great name!" He said, "you must be Ron too?" I said, "I am, I'm Ron.. Ron Perlman, I've got one of your cars." He said, "I'm gonna see you at the weekend." I thought I was late on the payment or something! I thought these guys actually come to your house.. you know… "It's a buck fifty, we're taking the car or we're taking him!" (laughter) So it turns out, that's Ron of Avis! (Points to Ron at the camera.)

Ron of Avis: It's funny, I've got to tell you guys… they have, like, 400 operators in this one building.... The odds that I got that call ...... (Laughter)

Ron: That's the Ron story. And I'm sticking to it!

Question: I've seen you play in Highlander as Methos, and as Vincent, and other more generally peaceful characters. Do you like peaceful characters versus the violent ones, like in Alien Resurrection? Which one would you like better?

Ron: I seem to only play the very good or the very bad…nothing in between… but I can't figure out what it is. I don't know, it's an inexact science what it is that goes through my head when I'm reading a script for the first time knowing that maybe they want me to play this character. I've done some pretty bad movies, but I can honestly say that there was always something about the character that I was being asked to play that I wanted to do. Like oh, yeah, I think I could have a cool time playing the head of the Russian Mafia, who is like a totally over the top, power-hungry, cartoon sort of a guy!

I love to do comedy and I don't get a chance to do comedy very much. But there's always been a compelling reason to play these characters. With the Highlander guy, this was a guy who obviously was a transcendental human of some kind. He occupied a different plane than your normal everyday reality, and that's always an interesting jump to make as an actor is to try to take that, sort of like… what is the writer…. he's got this abstract sort of parallel reality that he's trying to depict in the form of a human living, breathing character. And it's the actor's job to close the gap between something that's an abstraction, that never existed before - which is sort of like what Vincent was - and the beating heart.

So that's the job and there's always been some sort of connection to every part that I've done. Sometimes it's just purely as an exercise, to stretch beyond, put me in a place where I'm uncomfortable as an actor and trying to solve that. I'm always trying to re-invent the wheel for myself and keep it interesting. To me it's partly a big game; it's like being in the MBA, how do you just keep it so that it's never boring? I thank God that I'm not one of these guys who plays a school teacher every time you see him, or a lawyer. There's a lot of guys who make a career out of playing one character over and over again. It's what I always wanted to do as an actor, to run the gambit and examine all the colours, as long as it relates back to the human condition in an interesting way. I don't know if I've answered your question, I don't know if I've answered anybody's, but I'm having a hell of a time up here, I can tell you! (Applause)

Question: Although you've been in some movies that were …say, a little weird?

Ron: Thank you.

Fan: You play every role magnificently, every one of them. And I have watched some movies that I never thought I'd ever watch.

Ron: I think you and my mother are the only ones!

I have to tell you, now that I brought up the subject of my mother, I have a funny story that I'll share with you which most of you probably will have heard, but when I do these makeup parts, there's always been parts of my face that were part of the look, like with Vincent it was my chin; my eyes. With the guy in The Name of the Rose it was a lot of my own face, it was just they laid stuff on to it but it blended into...this...whatever … (indicates his face and head.)

Member of the audience: With The Island of Dr Moreau it was your horns, right?

Ron: I'm getting to that. Right, Moreau was the first time I've ever worn makeup where it was a total full mask. From the hair all the way down to here, (Points to his neck) it was somebody else's creation, including... I think I wore.. yes, I wore lenses. So there was no part of me, that was me! When they got done applying the make up for the very first time, I looked in the mirror and I went, "Jesus, my own mother is not going to recognise me!" (Laughter) Now my mother goes to the first show, on the first day of every movie that I'm in, God bless her. So I knew that she was going to see The Island of Dr Moreau at 12.15pm, showing at whatever theatre... Sure enough, I made sure I was home like two and a half-hours later, to get the call! (Ron imitates his mom's voice) "Ron?" (Laughter) She goes on and on for 20 minutes, about this masterpiece that she's just seen that I still don't understand! She goes on and on how wonderful Marlon was, Val Kilmer, you know the whole thing. She's giving me the Siskel and Ebert, you know? Twenty minutes goes by and there's this like a ten second pause, and I'm waiting and I'm waiting, and she goes "Ron," (once again imitating his mom's voice) " Can I ask you something?.. Which one were you?" (Much laughter) Yeah! Good old mom!

Question: Will the fans in England ever have an opportunity to meet you at one of their conventions?

Ron: The English Conventions? I don't know. We'll see.

Question: In Alien Resurrection, was it you that actually fell back on the ladders and shoots the aliens?

Ron: Yeah! I still have two cuts back here, (Point's to his legs) Yes, from doing that 18 times!

David Schwartz: I like when Sigourney kicks your butt!

Ron: Dave likes when Sigourney kicked my butt. (Laughter)

David Schwartz: Tell them about the basketball.

Ron: For those of you who saw Alien Resurrection, there's a scene where I first meet Ripley, and it's in the common area on the ship, there's like a gymnasium, cafeteria, you know, where people go to have their R&R. She's shooting hoops and we all come in, our crew, our motley crew, and I like.. WOW!.. I just made up this thing where I can't stay away from the tall ones, so I try to hit on her. Now Sigourney was practising with a really professional basketball coach, for like three months, to get ready for the scene and for some strange reason I went and hung out at the practices a lot, cause they were fun to watch and we'd all get involved with it. He had her practising this shot, where she went like this, (Ron demonstrates how Sigourney stood with her back to the basketball net and threw the ball over her head). I'd never seen that done anywhere and I'm wondering, "why are they working so long on this shot? They should be working on dribbling and making her look like a good player!" We get to shooting the scene and it's like the end of the thing, she's knocked me down, she's knocked all my other guys down, she starts to walk off the court and she takes the ball, and she goes.. (imitates Sigourney throwing the ball backwards over her head) and she's about 20 feet from the three point line, which is like 50 feet away from the basket. They were going, of course, to shoot her releasing the ball and then cut away to the ball going in. So take one, she walks by, and my nose is all bloody and I get up and I go, "WHAT ARE YOU?" And she just looks at me and sneers and she's walking away like this and she goes, shummmm (throwing the ball) and the ball goes through the hoop!! Nothing but net! And the camera follows the ball, so you see it's not a trick, and then the camera is supposed to land on me and I go, "OH MY GOD! DID YOU SEE THAT?!" ( Laughter) I don't know whose question that was, but it was a great story!

Question: Using your 27 years in your career as hindsight, if you could go back and talk to yourself as a 20 year old, what advice would you give yourself?

Ron: (Thinks for a moment) Pay more attention in college! (thinks a bit more) Just.. you know... you're enough. The only thing I didn't know back then was that I was enough. I guess one of the reasons I became an actor was to try to get away from who I was. It was a good way to do it, you get to occupy all these other identities. In terms of, do I wish anything had gone any differently? No. I am absolutely, totally at peace with everything that's happened.

Question: What are the goals you set yourself as a young actor?

Ron: I've always said many times to this group, that people say "what haven't you done that you wanted to do?" I don't bother to do that, to dream any more, because things have gone way beyond my dreams. The reality of the opportunities that I've gotten and the people I've met... so there's obviously this divine plan that goes beyond anything I could possibly have dreamed and I am thrilled with the way things went. In fact if I could have articulated the kind of career I wanted to have when I was 18, it's all happened. It's all happened exactly the way it should.

The only thing that I would hope, is that I get another opportunity to be in that same place I was describing to the lady who asked about the Beauty and the Beast years, because I just had lunch with Ron Koslow, and I was talking to him about... he and I have, like a birthday 3 days apart, so every year, even though we usually don't speak on any other occasion, I call him and he say's "God damn it, lets go get a meal!" So we got a meal and I was telling him, you know you spoiled me; you ruined me. I got other TV series now and I'm just always looking for that feeling and it's illusive! I just realised how rare it is. I'd love to be able to feel that way about something again, that's not fleeting and momentary, comes and goes, like movies. The great thing about a TV series, is that you do, if you're like in the Zone or something like we were on B&B, you get to wallow in it for more than a couple of months. So that's it. No I wouldn't change anything.

Question: I want to ask do you still study, or do you have an acting coach, or do you take classes? To always try and keep yourself fresh, I just wondered do you still do that?

Ron: No, I threaten to! (Laughter) And every time I go and find the right teacher to start studying with, I get a job that takes me away for six months, so I've never gotten around to it. But it's absolutely something that's on my list of things to do, and I have a couple of people in mind, out in L.A.

Question: Any movies coming down the road, where you not only stay alive, but you get the girl? (Laughter)

Ron: Nop! I have two movies coming out in the fall. (Sounds of surprise in the audience.....)

Ron: What? You don't know? This is a shocker! I usually go, like, to the site to find out what I'm doing. (Members of audience start shouting out some titles.)

Ron: Ah, some of you know! (Someone mentions Tinseltown.)

Ron: Tinseltown came out already. See? you don't know about that. Ah, I've got a couple of secrets, (grins) but I'm gonna let the cat out of the bag. I stay alive in both of them and I don't get the girl in either. I don't think I'm ever going to get the girl. Look how much make up they had to put me in to get the girl! If you're a guy and your spending good Hollywood money and you pick a face like this, are you gonna give him the girl? (Audience all shout 'YES!!')

Ron: I guess that sounded like I was fishing for a compliment. And I was! (Laughter).

Ron: Yes, so the two movies that are coming out in the fall. One is called Happy Texas, which was made on a shoe string budget. Some guy mortgaged his house and made this film, it's a comedy, it's really funny. It set a record at the Sundance Festival for the most that was ever paid for an independent film by a major distribution company, and I think it's going to be out in the fall sometime, maybe October, November. It's got a phenomenal cast, some of my favourite actors are in it. William H Macy and a guy named Steve Zahn, who's like from another planet! He's the funniest guy I've ever seen on screen, including Jim Carey or anybody. I don't die in this - I shouldn't have given that away! I don't get the girl in that, but you'll see what happens. It's pretty interesting!

Then there's a movie called Price of Glory, which is a boxing movie, which stars Jimmy Smits, who's the patriarch of a … he's an ex-fighter who's raising three sons, and he wants them to have everything out of boxing that he never had, and I play the fight promoter, like a Don King sort of guy, and I definitely don't get the girl in that one!

Question: Do you have any plans for a new series?

Ron: Not at the moment, no. We were stuck with waiting out the verdict of Magnificent 7 and that's finally been put to bed so we'll see what the next (?) brings, whether any great series come along…or even bad ones! (Laughs).

Question: How difficult was it to shoot the underwater scene in Alien Resurrection?

Ron: Very!

Question: How long did it take?

Ron: Three weeks. It took me three weeks for my hands not to have those little lines in, you know, like a prune? The question was how difficult was it to shoot the underwater sequence. It was planned as well and handled with as much care as you possibly could, by one of the great stunt co-ordinators in Hollywood, who really knew what he was doing. And you're underwater.... Do you want to hear about this? (Audience shout YES!)

Ron: Okay. Your underwater and there's a microphone and there's speakers under there, so that they can talk to you from above and direct you. And they're all looking at what's going on, like on a bank of video monitors, so they know exactly what your doing. Usually we work with mostly three or four cameras for every shot, to make sure it's well covered, cause you don't want to keep doing these things over and over if you don't have to. And you have these regulators, scuba tanks that you are breathing at and you have these masks, and you see everything really clearly for the rehearsals. And you do the rehearsal, they tell you what they want you to do, you take a nice leisurely swim, get your bearings. You got the mask on, your breathing oxygen, you see clearly, then it comes time to do the take.

They count down, they go, 6, 5, 4, when they get to three, you're supposed to take the thing out, take a huge breath, whip the mask off, then you can't see anything. ANYTHING! You can't see your hand in front of your face, because there's 8 million gallons of chlorine to keep the water... so that we didn't all get, like, organisms.... so whatever breath you have has got to get you through, and invariably it's a panic scene because were swimming away from the aliens... The director needs to see more panic. So he'll grab the microphone off Ernie, who's trying to just make sure everybody gets through it alive! And he'll go, "I need to see more bubbles!" (Laughter as Ron puts on a French accent to imitate director Jean-Pierre Jeunet). BUBBLES! I basically just have enough air to just like make it -- maybe! BUBBLES! So you try to just expel a little bit, pph! (Ron pretends to expel bubbles.) "NO!! MORE BUBBLES!" …" I'll give you some BUBBLES!!"

I was real good, there were people who.. I won't name names but they had to use their stunt doubles because they just couldn't get through it. But I was real good at it, pretty athletic, pretty good swimmer… there were five occasions where when they said 'CUT,' if I didn't get rescued by one of the safety divers that were down there, God only knows...! I actually breathed in the water! (Ron demonstrates.) I had nothing, nothing left on five different occasions! One time, I tried to find the surface. We were about 20 feet down and there was this lattice work so if you went up in the wrong spot you hit a roof, and they had to swim and get me and shove this thing in my mouth, my eyes were going in the back of my head! It was a pretty challenging sequence!

Member of audience: Sounds like an understatement. Scary or what?

Ron: But, you know, cool to do, real cool to do, A real challenge!

Member of audience: You were very funny by the way, really funny as Johner.

Ron: Thank you, thank you.

Question: At the end of Alien Resurrection, it was obviously a set up to get the aliens to earth. So if they do another movie, would you be interested in being in it?

Ron: Sure. Absolutely! That was one of those like, "WOW! Aliens!" Some amazing people, who have done these movies, directors and actors, and that was a great privilege to be a part of that… the Alien Arc. I'd absolutely love to!

Question: How old are your children now and are they showing any interest in going into your line of work?

Ron: My daughter's 15 and my son is 9, and…yes! (Laughter) And I won't go into any details.

Question: Now that you've had lunch with Ron Koslow recently, Any talk of a movie, perhaps?

Ron: We didn't talk about that but I think.... yeah, I think we did talk about that actually! It's a subject that always comes up whenever we're together. It's clear that we both want to do it. We both would jump at the opportunity to do a Beauty and the Beast Movie, if it was gonna be really, really like... something that would take it to another level someplace that would be challenging and engaging. I wouldn't be surprised if I called ole Ron and say, "come on Ron, let's start taking notes, lets get together and see if we can come up with something that would really extend the envelope a little bit," because the opportunity, I've said many times, since you have an other worldly creature, whose almost like, more of a myth than a man, the opportunities have always been endless, its just a question of finding the right approach and seeing how much interest we can pull in.

I mean, look at the movies and TV series that are being remade into big movies. Who ever thought The Wild, Wild West? I've seen it and I still don't think that… So, yeah!.... But by the time we do it though, Vincent will be on a walker! (Ron does the actions of Vincent with a walker and then speaks in an 'elderly' Vincent voice) "I'm coming.. I'm coming, Catherine. I'll be right there!" (Laughter). Instead of riding on the subway, he'll be riding in the subway! (Ron imitates Vincent strap-hanging in a subway car) "Oh, this rush hour travelling!" (Once more said in the same "elderly" Vincent voice). (Lots of laughter from the audience).

Member of audience: By then we will be that age too! (Laughter)

Ron: There you go. We'll all go through it together.

Member of audience: You said you wanted to do comedy! (Ron smiles.) (Laughter from audience.) Different tack. I once saw a picture called Cronos. Where did you make that and how did you do a character so totally evil, so without soul! Where did that come from?

Ron: I don't remember! (Laughter) It was a Mexican film, It was the first film of a gentleman called Guillermo del Toro, who went on to make an unfortunate film called Mimic. But a brilliant young man, brilliant! Guillermo was to Mexico, what Rick Baker is to the United States. He was the cutting edge of special effects make up, so he knew of my work, because I had done so much of it, and he sent me a letter and a script and it was a really, really interesting, bizarre script. And it fit into the profile of what I described earlier, like WOW! I've never played anything like this before... It was amazingly challenging. I loved the talks I had with him, I knew I was going to have a great time. We shot it in Mexico City and it was one of the really rich experiences, and he... (member of audience calls out "You were great!")

Ron: Thank you! And he's become a lifelong friend, you don't pick that many up along the way, but Guillermo and I are like soul brothers and will be for the rest of our lives, whether we work with each other again or not. He's a great, great mind and a wonderful spirit, so that was a lucky experience, meeting him.

Question: Did you enjoy getting into your part in The Last Supper?

Ron: I loved that. The Last Supper! Did I enjoy that? That was one of the ones I read.... you know it's funny... the lady who directed the movie.... I used to work out at the Hollywood Y. I would ride the stationary bike, because I like to read a script, like, on the bike. I could read almost a whole script during a work out... that's like two stones with one bird! (Laughter). So this woman was sitting next to me, on the bike next to me, and she saw I was reading this script which was Cronos. And she was, like, reading along with me. (Laughter).She didn't read the first 25 pages, so she's trying to figure out this vampire movie from pages 26 to 29 and she's finally said to me, "What the hell is that your reading?" Her name was Stacy Title. I'd never met her before. I said "Oh, this is this weird thing, it arrived from Mexico yesterday, I've never read anything like this, It's so unique!" She said "yeah, I've been reading along with you, It's, like, NUTS!" I said "yeah!" So she said, "are you going to do it?" I said "I think so." (Laughter). "The guy asked me, so, why not?" (more laughter).

And like, every week and a half, she and I would be on the bikes next to each other and we started to become friends. So I got back from France and ran into her best friend at the gym and I said "where's Stacy, is she working out?" She said "no, she's prepping this movie that she's going to do," and she said "wow! I need to get you a copy of it." Sure enough she brings it to the house and drops it off. I open it up on a Sunday morning, 9 o'clock, to read the script and I was done with it by a quarter after 10. I'm a slow reader, but this script just read like... gangbusters! It was The Last Supper. I called Stacy and I said, "who have I got to kill to play Norman Arbuthnot?" (Laughter). She said, "you got to kill Beau Bridges." And so I went to Beau's house! (Laughter). They had already offered him the role, but he had ended up turning it down, so....

Audience: You were much better!

Ron: Ah no, I don't think so, but thank you. It was a great part.

Question: Do you have any humorous stories…

(Ron interrupt's) NO! I don't have any! (Laughter)

Question continued: …From working on Magnificent 7?

Ron: The question is, do I have any humorous stories about working on Magnificent 7? Whenever I'm asked that question, I can never think of anything. I'm sure there was a lot, you know? Just the horse poop alone! (Laughter). There was a lot of this going on! (Ron pretends to scrape horse poop off his shoes, while shouting "I'll be right with you!" "I'm coming!") (more laughter.)

Every once in a while, I would, like, try to be really cool and do my Elvis… (Ron assumes a moody expression) and I'm doing all the gun stuff, you know, and with the hat, (pretends to tip his hat and then draw a gun from his holster to attempt spinning it) and it ended up landing on my ankle a couple of times and they'd say, "Cut! We'll have to try that again.. just try keeping it in the holster, Ron, okay?" (laughter) I'll think of some funny stories, I 'm sure there were many. I'll think of some.

Question: Your daughter's name is Amanda, is that correct?

Ron: Blake.

Question, contd: Okay, I just wondered about the Amanda part. Maybe in your younger days did you have a thing for Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke? (Laughter)

Ron: Who didn't? (Laughter). I didn't realise I was doing that, reversing Amanda Blake with Blake Amanda. It just rang good, like.. Blake Amanda… Blake Amanda.. (Ron tilts his head from side to side as he repeats the name and the audience laugh.) Yeah, that was it. Then my butcher pointed it out to me.... he was the first person to ask me that question. The baby was born... "What did you name her?" "Blake Amanda." "Oh, you liked Miss Kitty?" (Laughter).

David Schwartz: Not Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke, Miss Kitty from Don't bother me, I'm just having the fish?

Ron: That's right. David has a movie that he's working on to produce called Don't bother me, I'm just having the Fish. Which later on maybe you can twist his arm a little, get him to tell you the plot, but in the movie Sharon Stone will play a character named Miss Kitty, who's the makeup artist from the Broadway musical Cats. Think of the mathematical…(the rest of that sentence was inaudible due to laughter). Wow, I need an Advil!

Question: Throughout your career, but especially in reference to Beauty and the Beast, have you kept any momentos, and what did you keep?

Ron: I kept two things, and to this day I don't know where they are. I made a concerted effort to keep them. I think my wife said, "What the hell is this?" And…shhhhh! (Ron imitates his wife flushing them down the toilet.) (Laughter).The two things were, in Quest for Fire I wore these, like, sticks in my hair, like two Kabuki things. And it really set me apart from all the other cave people! (Lots of laughter) There's like all the other cave people… and there's Ron! (Ron poses and pats his hair.) (lots of laughter). I kept those and I kept the last mask that Margaret ever put on me,[for Beauty and the Beast] from the last day of the filming. I definitely don't know where that is, but hopefully it's someplace safe and not too hot, because that stuff melts!... That's all I kept.

Question: Most actors would like to direct one day. Is that an ambition of yours?

Ron: I'd love to, yeah. I've never really actively pursued it. I directed one episode of the Beast, which had sort of varying degrees of success and failure to it. It was one of the more challenging scripts to do. If the show had gone on a lot longer, I'd have done a whole lot more of that, but then whenever I get around to trying to find something to direct, the acting career takes me away from it and I've just never gotten around to it, but yes I would love to direct. I would probably have to say that, if you asked that question to 100 actors, 95 would say they want to direct.

(Ron calls out to Edward Albert at the back of the room) Eddie, you want to direct? You are directing! Eddie directs! Eddie's living out all his dreams! He never calls me.....(Ron pretending to be Edward) "Ron, I got this part and it's got your name on it." That's all right, I don't call anyone! (Laughter) My dream is to direct Eddie, directing me! (more laughter)

Ron: Yes, the young fellow in the corner. (Pointing at David Schwartz.)

David: Can I ask you the last question for the next to last question?

Ron: We can go on. I'm not in any hurry.

David: Okay. You want to tell everybody about working with Marlon Brando? Maybe one small anecdote about The Island of Dr Moreau?

Audience: Yes! Yes! Please!

David: Like when he realised how you were working, how your character was working?

Ron: Yeah. Well, I had a scene with Marlon that should have taken, at the most, a day and a half to shoot. And it took five days! So it was a great thing because it gave me... it was the only scene that he and I were in together. He was the reason why I did the movie. Why I put the makeup on all over again and so, for me this was five days of like WOW! With my personal GOD! I had decided prior to Marlon coming there, that I wanted to play this guy blind. So the makeup guy said we have some lenses for you that once you put them in, you become blind, you can't see anything, you'll be totally blind, like being in the dark. I said cool! Then I won't have to act! (Laughter) Stupidest decision I've ever made in my acting career! Because once you're blind... as an actor you have to get a mark, you have to stand there so you're in the light, so the camera can find you and everything, but I didn't know where the hell I was! People were going, "Ron! You're facing the wrong way. Turn around!"

So anyway I get to do the scene and basically once I got placed on my spot, maybe I could find a chair to sit down, or stand up, but if I moved either way, like this, (Ron demonstrates) there's two sections.... Marlon had a chair here, and I stood here with my staff and I was, like.. blind! So every time we got ready to shoot the take, Marlon would have to be called in and he'd come onto the set, and you could feel him, like, come up the stairs. He'd always have to push by me - because I'd be standing there - to get to his chair. He's rather a big fellow, so he'd say, (Ron does a very accurate impression of Marlon's voice) "Jesus Christ this guy's just".. "I can't get him to move".. "great lummox"… "you know I'm just trying to sit down"… "could you just move over a little bit?!" And he's pushing me and pushing me, you know? And we get to the last day, the fifth day. Over the course of five days Marlon's been saying, "why don't you move over here when you give that line. It would be much more effective," and I'd go "right! right!" I'm just lucky I haven't, like, fallen off the rostrum! I'm not able to take any of his directions, because I just can't see anything. So they say, "Marlon. Okay, Marlon we're ready," and sure enough Marlon grabs me and starts to try and move me. I turn around and I've got the lenses in and he looks at me and he goes "Holy Jesus! What are those things in your eyes?"(Once again imitating Marlon's voice) And we've been doing this scene for five days!! And I said. "you didn't you know I had these in?" He said, "wait a minute, are you telling me your playing this guy blind?" I said, "Err… Yeah!" He said, "Oh, that's brilliant! (Laughter). What an amazing idea! You're, like, this guy with the justice and your playing it like blind justice!" And he's making these gestures, (Ron mimics him) "We gotta start shooting the scene again! If I'd known that, I'd have played the whole f.....g thing different!" (lots of laughter). The rest of that day was the best I got on with him, he wanted to know about my personal life…. For four days he'd thought, "this is the most uncooperative jerk I've ever seen!" (Laughter)

Question: Linda [Campanelli] was asked this question this morning, but how would you have dealt with Linda Hamilton leaving Beauty and the Beast?

Ron: I'd have gone to her house and I'd have said, you're not going anywhere, okay? And I'd have gone with handcuffs! Looking back on it, you know she really ruined my life! (Laughter) I had something good going, picture on the TV guide… what the hell was she thinking..? (Ron laughs.) What was the question?

(Question is repeated). How would you have dealt with the story line?

Ron: OH! How would I have dealt with the story line? See where I went? ME! ME! ME! (lots of laughter from the audience)

Ron: I don't think I'd have killed her. I think that was like, a little radical. You know, always leave the door open. When I first heard about it.... It was so dramatic, you know, the fact that she dies, and the way she dies. The whole two episode arc that takes place.... I responded positively to it, because it was so dramatic! It was so like.... but then what are you left with at the end of the day? The fact that Catherine Chandler is, you know, dead…

Member of audience: Sleeping beauty!

Ron: Yeah, Sleeping Beauty. I don't know. Ask all the powers that be whether they would have done it differently. I don't know what the answer would be, but I think it was maybe…

Member of audience: Overkill! (Laughter)

Ron: Overkill! God, I wish I 'd said that. Overkill, I did say it!

Question: Was Marlon Brando aware of your role in Beauty and the Beast?

Ron: If he was, he didn't talk to me about it. I hear Frank Sinatra was a big Beauty and the Beast fan, and I can tell you for a fact that Sammy Davis Junior, who I became friends with because he was a huge fan of Beauty and the Beast. I don't know if you all know this story, I'm amazed that Dave hasn't shared the story with you over the years.

The first year of the show, they asked me to be a presenter at the Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time I was ever going to do anything like this on National Television. So you know, they pluck you out of the audience five minutes before your supposed to go on and do your thing. You go backstage and they throw some powder on you and stuff and they say, you'll enter from here, you'll walk to the middle of the stage, you'll meet the person your going to hang with, then you'll look out.. and they're giving you all these directions. And I'm going "Okay! Fine!" (Nervously) and I'm hyperventilating! And somebody's tugging on my clothes and I look (Ron looks up and then looks down!) (Everyone laughs.) And it's Sam. And Sam says, (Ron does his impression of Sam) "Hey man, if you ever need a copy of any of your shows, I have them all on tape." (Laughter and applause.)

Then Sam ran off like a little elf! "Wait a minute, I want to talk to you!" Then Sam comes back with his phone number, and invites me to his house to watch the Super Bowl. And I got to know Sam the last couple of years of his life and got to meet Frank and Dean and all that stuff, because they were getting together to do that last tour that they all did together around the country. And it turns out that Frank watched almost all the episodes, and that was a huge thrill to hear that people who I've been.... I knew every nuance of these guys work all their lives…and to hear that we reached those guys.......

(Then, impersonating Marlon Brando) And I bet you anything, Marlon never missed a show! (Laughter) (Ron imitates Marlon talking on the phone) "Anyway I got to hang up now, Beauty and the Beast is on. Baby I can't …I can't go out with you tonight, I gotta watch the Beast!" (Laughter) He did say he saw Quest for Fire 13 times, he did share that with me. And one other picture that I had done, that he was a huge fan of, so…. It's a great life!

Member of audience: I think Elizabeth Taylor was a big fan too.

Ron: Yes, I met her at a party one time and she shared that with me. It's amazing what these Icons do, you know? They're just ordinary folks, looking to be entertained, same as everybody else.

Question: In preparing for the transformation to Vincent, about how long did you have to sit in the chair. About how long did you have to be in it?

Ron: I haven't been asked this question all day! EVERYBODY?? (Everybody shouts "FOUR HOURS!")

Question: No, No, No! In a shooting day, how long did you have to be in it all day and did you have any input with the design?

Ron: Okay. I won't answer those in order. Yes I will. Four hours! You know now, don't ever ask again! (Laughter) The longest day was 23 hours long. There was a 23 hour day on the pilot where I thought "Geez!! If it's going to be like this all the time, I'M OUTTA HERE!" (Laughter) The only input I had into the design, I didn't want any input into the design, I thought the design was amazing. But Rick wanted me.... I'm sure I've answered this question before, but for those of you who don't know, Rick had these lenses, cat eye lenses, that were part of the design and I didn't want to put them in. So I made up this story that I was allergic to them. I said "If you put those in, I'll throw up all over you!" (Laughter). He said, "hey I'm Rick Baker, I won academy awards," so I said "Okay, try it!" So he opens up my eye and he starts to put this thing in my eye and I go, (Pretends to throw up, then imitates Rick backing away!) (Laughter). I thought that the eyes were the only avenue that I personally had, you know? (Agreement from the audience). The windows of the soul and all that stuff. And that was the only input I had and luckily I won that argument. (Applause).

Question: What was your favourite episode?

Ron: Last episode of season one. (Applause) 'Happy Life.' Great episode...... We have some surprises for you later... I won't let the cat out of the bag.

Question: Do you have any new projects coming up?

Ron: The last one I did was the one I talked about, the boxing movie. There's a couple of things that we're talking about now, they're coming up very soon, but the deals aren't closed or anything like that, so I'm waiting to find out what my next assignment will be.

Question: Do you have a really embarrassing story about David you can tell us?

Ron: Yeah! I just.... which one should I tell?... should I go in alphabetical order or order of grossness? (lots of laughter from audience)

David: (Pours himself a glass of water from the jug and pretends to tip it over himself nervously) Tell the story Ron.

Ron: I've got a lot of embarrassing stories. David and I are room mates now. He's staying at the house, and … no, I'm sorry to disappoint you, he's perfect in every way…or as they say in the fanzines…Prrrrrr, (Ron puts his mouth close to the microphone) Prrrrrr…Prrrrrrr! I always wanted to do that.

Question: (I was not able to make out the exact wording of the next question but I believe someone asked Ron whether he had anything he wanted to say in regard to Vincent.)

Ron: It's not something I want to say, it's something that resonates inside of me… that… maybe it is something I want to say… but Vincent… you know, I could go on for hours about what that character represented… I mean.. it's.. (Audience all shout for Ron to go ahead!)

Ron: Well, I mean… you know, he was the greatest example of humanity, who because of circumstance was prevented from living a life that no one deserved to live more than he, so right away he's in a really poignant and charged reality. He was so brilliantly educated and so appreciative of great things that had come before him that were the gifts of mankind and yet he was living in a world where he was not able to celebrate those things, or take part in those things. So he was probably the loneliest man on the face of the earth, who because of his spirit was able to transcend and become a positive force, and do his part to make his mark in the very, very limited ways that he was able to.

It's the reason why the Beauty and the Beast thing, which originated as a pagan ritual of thousands of years ago, continues to be told, is because it's a real morality tale about… don't ever judge someone from without, without getting to know them from within. So he's the embodiment of that, and he's the most compassionate, most feeling character I've ever played, far and away! Linda has..... to me, the defining line of the whole 56 episodes is a line that Linda sort of threw away in 'Nor Iron Bars a Cage.' "He's the best part of what it is to be human."

That 's what he was, majestic, he was a king, who communicated equally well with anyone on the planet, regardless of… he never judged anybody by what their status was, or stature or situation. A brother of man, who saw everyone equally. So there was that… a phenomenal, beautiful character! He means so much! So much! What am I leaving out?

Member of Audience: Possessive! (Laughter)

Ron: You all know I posed for the picture Jamie did? I don't have an eight pack any more, I have a one pack! (Laughter)

Question: Kind of a follow-up on that question, but I read somewhere that some of the writers tried to bring out the more beastly part of the Beast. Were there any thoughts in that direction as far as you know, and what were they?

Ron: Well, Yeah, I guess they thought that this was a character that had a wide range of possibilities. He was half-animal and half-man presumably. The thing that was easiest to write for, the man of letters, the poet, the highly cultured, reserved individual. And that was the thing the audience seemed to respond to most. But I guess in wondering whether we could play to a larger canvas, they said "What can we do for the guys in the audience? Let's give the Beast a beer every once in a while!" (Ron demonstrates Vincent with a beer!) (Laughter.)

Question: Because Vincent was such an inspirational character, did you take any of that home with you, like did it change your life at all, after that?

Ron: Yeah! (Gives a secretive smile) (Laughter)

Fan: I wasn't talking about the sexy part!

David: Neither was he! (Laughter)

Fan (continuing): Like the moral values and that? (Ron pauses to think).

David: I can answer that. All you have to do is meet Ron's children and that answers that question, like you know, without a shadow of a doubt! Who his children are and what we have in store seeing them grow up, is what Ron's brought home, because they are the most magnificently poised, intelligent, humorous and challenging children I've ever met. (Loud applause).

Ron: I'm gonna let Dave take the rest of the answers! (Laughter)

Question: I will say though, that the most romantic thing I've ever heard about the show came from a bachelor of my acquaintance and I asked him why he was watching the show, since at the time they were saying it was all a woman's show? And he said, it's such a great show, because all of us, deep inside really hope that there's someone out there, that would love us as much as Catherine loved Vincent.

Ron: Yeah, there was intrinsic in that relationship, something that really was so basic, not something, but many things, you know, the yearning, the longing, the loneliness, the fears. Those things don't touch some people, they touch everybody. There are an awful lot of people out there who aren't interested in being touched that way, but there is universality to those feelings that Koslow really struck on when he wrote the first one, set the thing off. He really understood how to portray those values and in a very respectful and very sensitive way.

Question: There was just so much chemistry between you and Linda Hamilton as actors, and a lot of synergy between the roles of Vincent and Catherine. As an actor do you think your performance needed to have the presence of these elements or is it pretty much everything you created for yourselves?

Ron: Acting is 95% reacting, so if you put your concentration on the other guy in the scene and you take the concentration off yourself, you will pretty much find a performance there. The more your getting, the more your challenged to give back, the more it animates you and fuels you. Linda was.... I mean, the energy that comes out of Linda as an actress is formidable and all you gotta do is just relax and pay attention and respond in kind and that's the basis of chemistry of two people that are actually listening to each other and are part of each other's worlds, I think. Besides she could kick my ass! She made that very plain on the first day! So I was, like.... "Hey, whatever you say!" (Laughter)

Question: I think one of your most Vincent-like characters, in soul if not in brain power, was One in The City of Lost Children. Could you talk about your experiences on The City of Lost Children, which I thought was an awesome film!

Ron: Thank you! I agree. I really thought when I was sent the script, WOW! I get the chance to play this guy again. He was very much like Vincent in a lot of ways, but in a totally different garb and a totally different circumstance. But the heart of the guy… he was big brother, he was the guy who was willing to get killed to save his little brother. He was pure and innocent. The guys who made the film, had just come off making a movie called Delicatessen, which had won all the awards in film festivals all over the world. So they were very celebrated at the time.

They had a lot of resources to make a really big film after this little film was such a success.They sent me this script and there was this guy, One... heart the size of the world, beautifully portrayed sort of relation of innocence again, with an 11 year old girl, so it's a love story, but it's a love story that only plays out on a spiritual plane. It's not allowed to play out on any other plane because of its limitations. But it's as grand and profound, in it's way, as the hottest love could be portrayed, in fact even grander, because it exists on a none physical level. So it just blew my mind, that, Wow! I'm getting the chance to play in this field a second time, and in French no less! (Laughter)

(I couldn't make out the exact wording of the next question, but Ron was asked if he was aware of how often the Vincent voice was imitated. Someone named Keith David, who does the voice of the Head Gargoyle in an animated series called Gargoyles, was mentioned.)

Ron: Yeah, he calls me up and he says "Just say Catherine." (Ron says "Catherine" in a low Vincent-type whisper). "See you later Ron!"…. He's getting my gigs! (Laughter)

Question: Do you do the Serta commercial?

Ron: Yes.

Question: (Someone asks about another commercial)

Ron: No, Dean Witter. I do two Serta commercials and three or four Dean Witter commercials.

Question: I thought I heard that Self Storage was going to be a film?

Ron: It was. It was called Tinseltown. It played for...... In fact it closed in the first reel! Dave saw it. There was never a film more deserving to close! It was mostly hacked to death for political purposes. The Director's Cut was pretty funny, and they took it away from him, thought they could do it better, then it wasn't funny anymore and it was one of those really "out there" movies that if it wasn't going to be funny, it was going to be ugly!

Question: Did it open anywhere?

Ron: Yeah, it opened in… L.A it played... and I think a theatre in Texas.

Member of Audience: It played in Houston! It was in Houston.

Ron: By the way, a lot of Beauty and the Beast fans came and saw the play when we did it in the Odyssey Theatre in L.A., and I played this serial killer who injects his victims with Windex, while he's raping them. Then puts a ziplock bag over their heads and asphyxiate them. Fun loving guy! (Laughter). It was the first character I played after Vincent!

David: A lot of you guys I'm sure came, and a lot of the L.A. fans who came were sure surprised!

Ron: I looked out in the audience and all these people would be going, (Ron stands with his mouth open, expressing shock and disbelief!) (Laughter) But it was a really, really funny piece of material and it was in the Hollywood satire, at the end of the day it was all good clean fun! If you like that kind of thing! ( Laughter).

Question: What did your mother think about it? (Laughter).

Ron: (Ron puts his hands to his face imitating his mom being shocked) "Oh! Oh! That was … a bit familiar!"

Question: We know you do the Vincent voice and you've done the tape album "Of Love And Hope." Is there a chance that you would ever do another tape as Ron reading poetry?

Ron: Yeah! Sure, that was a phenomenal experience, because the poetry that Ron Koslow picked to be on the album, regardless of what voice you do it in, it's world class stuff. The authors that are represented and the works that are represented on that tape are really phenomenal.

David: I'm gonna let Ron take one more question, because we gotta do photographs and autographs and we have to save time, energy and money for … there it is!

Ron: There are two more questions. Go ahead.

David: Thank you Mr Perlman!

Question: You seem to have a natural affinity for foreign accents, do you actually speak any other languages?

Ron: Not even English! (Laughter). On certain days! No, I worked in some foreign countries, I did a movie in France. I learned how to get home in a taxi in six months! (Laughter) I learned the role, which I did in French, phonetically pretty much.

Question: When you first dressed up as Vincent, did Linda Hamilton actually comment on your outfit, what you were wearing? Was she pleased with it, being as she had to play the opposite part?

Ron: I'll do Linda seeing me for the first time. (Ron mimics Linda looking Vincent up and down!) (Lots of laughter from the audience). She called up the costumer and she said, "How come I don't look like that? I'm wearing these clothes and he's wearing THAT!" Linda… she really dug the Beast! (Laughter)

Audience: Great Story!

Question: Do you play chess in real life, like you and Father used to?

Ron: I know the rules of chess, but I'm not a good chess player at all. I don't have the patience for chess.

Member of audience: It can be a bit boring sometimes.

Ron: People say golf is boring! There's a lot of this in chess. (Ron runs his hand across his forehead in a gesture of intense deliberation!) I get that in life! (Laughter).

Question: Have you seen Roy lately?

Ron: I was just asking if anybody's seen him lately? No, I haven't. I haven't seen him. I spoke to him about six to eight months ago. I haven't seen him in a while, I'm due to see him. How's he doing? Does anyone know?

Several Member of Audience: He's fine!

Ron: Good! See, I knew who to ask.. Is that it? One more.

Question: What happened to the Portrait of Vincent and Catherine from "When a Bluebird Sings?" (Ron looks confused. He didn't hear the question properly so the audience call out, "Olivia... the Olivia painting!")

Ron: Oh yeah, I don't have that. I think Ron Koslow has it. Selfish son of a ...... (Laughter).

Ron: That's it. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

David: MR RON PERLMAN!

Loud Applause

* * * *

Ron was leaving Orlando early on the Sunday morning to fly back to New York, so he said goodbye to us all after the Charity Auction on the Saturday night. He said it had been a lot of fun and that he'd had a great time. Explaining that the last time he'd seen a clip of the show or heard the voices of "those near and dear characters" was the last time he'd attended a B&B convention, Ron confessed that watching the clips and the poetry that evening really got to him.

He went on to say that it had been a very special day for him meeting us all and participating in what it was that got it all started. After pointing out that most of the time you just tend to move on, he admitted that every once in a while it's nice to pause and look back and think "yeah, that was pretty good."

Ron's closing words were, "So thank you for providing me with this opportunity, and - - - Rock On! (Applause).

I'll see you all again." (More applause).

* * * *

Photos