Michael O’Leary in Cruise Mode
Michael O’Leary (ex-Rick, GUIDING LIGHT) is getting ready for the final, and biggest, So Long, Springfield event: the GL-celebrating cruise launching from New York City on July 31. The night before, a “Bon Voyage” party brings together the 13 soap stars — including Kim Zimmer, Robert Newman, Grant Aleksander, Justin Deas, Beth Chamberlin and Ron Raines (ex-Reva, ex-Josh, ex-Phillip, ex-Buzz, ex-Beth and ex-Alan) — who will travel to Canada aboard the Carnival Glory in the So Long, Springfield at Sea cruise. O’Leary spoke about escorting the winner of a 103.9 WFAS-FM radio contest to the party (he promises a surprise or two on the way there) and his plans for the five-day trip, which offers GL scene-performing, picture-taking, memory-making and, yes, karaoke.
Soap Opera Weekly: So, you will be taking the contest winner, Peter Romano, and his wife on a limo ride to the “Bon Voyage” party. Can you hint at any plans to make the ride memorable?
Michael O’Leary: Well, I plan to keep them completely entertained.
Weekly: Do you know if Peter happens to have watched the show?
O’Leary: That’s a very good question. I think this is kind of what you call a “blind date,” because I don’t know Peter; I haven’t talked to Peter. They are making it like, “Okay, Michael meets Peter [laughs]. Where to go from here?” I’m going to bring him some flowers…I’m just joking. Maybe that is what I should do; I should bring him some flowers [laughs].
Weekly: Do you have any other general plans for the party?
O’Leary: You know, whatever [soap event producer] Michael Gold asks me to do, I will do. If he wants me to do some stand-up, I’ll do some stand-up, but I think it will be a laid-back affair, and things will get going on Saturday morning. And then it’s on to Saint John, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
This is a huge undertaking — to put this all together, planning and coordinating — so I’m grateful that I am going to have the opportunity to go, and meet and mingle with the fans. Michael does a great job with these events, and it’s nothing but a good time, and they are all very well-attended. We had 1,000 in Vegas and a huge turnout at Mohegan Sun. It shows you that GL still has a very loyal following.
Weekly: So, you haven’t done a soap cruise before; have you been on a cruise in general before?
O’Leary: No; this is my first time on, as they say, a boat. So this is a new adventure for me. I might have to take some motion sickness pills.
Weekly: You never know; you might be a natural and might not have to take anything.
O’Leary: You’re right — I’m Irish; we spent half our lives on boats, going back and forth, so I should have some DNA for it. On a personal note, it may be the last time we do something like this, or one of the last times, so my hope is that we get some really good quality time and reconnect. And my wish is that sometime in the next couple of weeks, something will materialize [with STEAMBOAT, his Web series, which stars a few former GL actors] so I can say, “Hey, guys,” and we can all work together again, doing something fun. Of course, my other hope is that I don’t get seasick.
Weekly: And will you take time for sightseeing?
O’Leary: Absolutely, yeah.
Weekly: Have you ever been to any of these ports?
O’Leary: No, I’ve never been to Canada, and I don’t even know where Saint John is [laughs].
Weekly: You have special plans for the karaoke event; can you go into that?
O’Leary: Well, I’m quite possibly the worst singer to ever walk the face of the Earth, and I plan to take full advantage. My goal is to make people forget very, very accomplished singers. I want to make someone dislike Elvis Presley. I like to butcher “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. Afterward, if people can say, “Who sang that?”, that accomplishes my goal.
Weekly: Are you hosting a trivia contest with GL’s families versus the fans again?
O’Leary: Yes, I am going to be doing that one. It went off very well [at Mohegan Sun], in all its badness. It’s sort of a cross between Richard Dawson and Monty Hall. Shirt open, chest exposed.
Weekly: The “Family Feud” game at Mohegan Sun was pretty chaotic; I was watching some of the fans from the audience yelling, “No, that’s wrong!” Do you like it when the game gets that chaotic?
O’Leary: Yes. The name they gave me is Michael Patrick O’Leary; the Irish DNA equals chaos. So I want chaos; that is my nectar of life.
Weekly: Is it actually bittersweet to be a part of this cruise, since for many people, this is kind of the final farewell to GL?
O’Leary: Well, I was watching [the recently rebroadcast GL segment on] 60 MINUTES, and I am watching everything unfold and I get a little lump in my throat, and I thought it was so much fun, and then there is this other part of me that feels like it is the cycle of life. It’s all good, and seeing everybody again will be like going to a high school reunion. I don’t know if it will be feeling a little bittersweet, but at this point, I am just so looking forward to seeing everybody and catching up and having a good time. The fans are the best fans in the world. They are the most loyal and most caring, and the way of saying goodbye to everybody the way Michael Gold has designed this is genius, just genius. I call it the Resolution Tour, because everybody is sort of saying goodbye to each other.
Weekly: Might the cruise passengers see something between STEAMBOAT’s Michael, Tabitha and Rhonda (O’Leary, Chamberlin and Zimmer’s characters)?
O’Leary: It would be kind of nice to reenact the shooting scene [from the finale]. Maybe we can do something like that.
Weekly: Is there anything you’d like to say to the people who are going to be on the cruise?
O’Leary: Yeah. Put your party hat on and prepare yourself for a bumpy ride.
For more information on the cruise, including the full list of participating actors, click here.
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