Bravo Con Day 1 - Southern Charm: Mind Your Manners

Now it's time to spill a little sweet iced tea from the folks at Southern Charm.  I picture Michael, Patricia’s butler, brewing sun tea on the grounds of the Jenkins Mikell House in Charleston.

The event was held in the Grand Ballroom.  This level of the Manhattan Center is also home to the Southern Charm bar.  Hanging above the bar is a quote from our famous grand dame, Pat Altschul.

I believe the bar was open all day.  It was very apparent by about 6:30 (Bravo Con started at 10:30!  The events later in the day were a little more rowdy like the "Battle of the Sexes" game show.   Many of the participants as well as the audience were "into their cups" as they say.

Since my strategy was to stay in the Grand Ballroom all day, there was quite a bit of downtime.  The events were typically an hour, then 45 minutes for the photo opp followed by a 30 minute break until the next session.  We did get the opportunity to see some cool things when the Bravolebrities would come out to film.  I am not sure what they were filming - promos for the next season?  spots for Bravo.com?  updates for the Bravo instagram account from Bravocon?  Who knows!

Cameron, Kathryn and Craig filming before the Southern Charm:  Mind Your Manners segment

Andy "The Godfather" Cohen checking in with the crowd to see how things are going

Southern Charm:  Mind Your Manners

Moderator:  Lea Palmiere, Decider.com

Participants:  Austen Kroll, Cameron Eubanks, Craig Conover, Kathryn Dennis, Patricia Altschul & Shep Rose

The group was introduced one by one to allow everyone to make a grand entrance.  Of course they saved the very best for the very last.

I am not familiar with the moderator, Lea Palmiere but she swears that she has written thousands and thousands of words about the cast of Southern Charm.  I know that moderating is hard but since my only other experience at BravoCon was Andy moderating the OG Housewives, this was a tough standard for Lea to live up to.  There were some awkward moments when she would ask a general question to the whole group and they all looked at each other not really knowing what to do.  I will say, I saw her moderate another event and she greatly improved from one day to the next.

Everyone loves Patricia's butler, Michael.  When Lea suggested that Michael become a full time cast member the crowd went crazy.  When Patricia was asked who she would loan Michael out to on the cast that needed the most help, she immediately answered "Cameron".  We all saw the episode where the woman from the Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits (or maybe it was Michael?) came over and she still had all of her kitchen wedding gifts in their original boxes.

Cameron told us that we didn't need to worry about Michael.  He is well compensated - "VERY WELL COMPENSATED".

At this point Patricia chimed in and shocked us all when she said "Michal makes more than the President."  A quick google search told me that The President of the United States' salary is $400,000 / year.  But, Patricia's statement could be taken two ways:  maybe Michael does make $400 grand but remember, Trump said as the President, he would take $0 salary.  I guess it is safe to say that Michael the Butler makes somewhere between $0 - $400,000 / year.  Either way, he is sitting around counting his Benjamins when he is not mixing up martinis for Patricia.

Michael has been with Patricia for 17 years - longer than any of her husbands.  When Patricia was living in NYC, her decorator (did you ever doubt that Patricia had a decorator?) called her up and said one of the ancient society ladies had recently passed away and Patricia HAD to get her Butler because once the word got out, every household in NYC and Long Island would be after him.  Before her warm body was even lowered into the ground, Patricia was on the phone negotiating with Michael on his new position with her.  Basically she stole Michael from a dead woman.  

Austin said he and Madison are doing well this week but next week may be a different story.  When asked point blank if he and Madison were back together, he avoided the question and would not give a firm answer.  When the guys were asked if they all get along with Madison now, Austin told us that Madison was at his house a few days ago and Shep called and wanted to stop by.  Even though Shep knew Madison was over he still came by and that made Austin so happy.  The two of them were able to sit in the same room and peacefully co-exist.  At this point Patricia chimed in and said "Yes, Madison told me about that - she had to bite her tongue".  Shep played Mr. Peaceful / Righteous (like on the reunion) and said "See, I am not going to play into that".  Things do not seem to have changed much at all.

Shep walked out looking like he had just rolled in from the duck blind

Craig is 5 months clean from Adderall.  He talked about how much better he feels.  His pillow business is doing very well. The crazy thing is apparently you don't even get a pillow! They were only selling pillow cases at the Bravo Con Marketplace.  Shep shared the wise advice with us that he gave Craig. "Dude, don't take it if you aren't studying for a test".

The group played a very interesting game of "Never Have I Ever".  After the moderator explained to the group how to play - raise you had if you have done whatever it is she says - the tea began to spill out of the glass.

Never have I ever . . .

Lied about liking one of my castmate's entrepreneurial ventures.

Cam admitted that she doesn't like Austin's beer.  Trop Hop is an IPA and she said she is more of a pilsner girl. She encouraged Austin to make a more girly beer.  He said the plan is to launch many more beers.  Unfortunately Trop Hop was not available to drink at Bravo Con because he cannot transport it across state lines.

Had sex at Patricia's house

Of course we know that Kathryn has had sex at Patricia's house a couple of times when she hooked up with Whitney but the surprise was that Austin, Shep and Craig had all had sex in the Jenkins Mikell house as well. "Everyone but me" Patricia said.  Apparently there are a couple of rooms above the garage that are "very nice" according to Craig.  When the boys go out in Charleston, Whitney would have people back over to the house after the bars closed down.  This is when the garage rooms got all of their action.

Hooked up with another Bravolebrity
We all know that Shep and Scheena have hooked up a few times.  They even talked about it on WWHL when they were on together and their moms were Bartenders.  I think they may have attended Jax and Brittany's wedding together.  The surprise to the rest of us was that Craig, Austin and Kathryn all had a notch on their belts as well.  Kathryn would not admit who or even what show the person was on that she hooked up.  She was asked twice!  Apparently Shep and Austin have hooked up with not just one but two Bravo Ladies.  We were advised to watch Summer House this upcoming season because they may be making an appearance on the show.  I am assuming that is where the hooking up will take place.

Have you ever turned down the advances of a Bravolebrity

I think we all saw the Instagram photo of the men of Southern Charm with Ramona in the Hamptons.  Apparently Ramona invited the boys to a party and there were other housewives at the party and apparently we have some very handsy housewives according to Craig.  No word on which franchise these ladies were from. I was going to assume NYC but I learned that Kelly Dodd met her Fox News boyfriend at a party in the Hamptons that Ramona invited her to so who know?  Maybe Kelly D was groping the boys.  I was going to say "she like's em young" but I think she and Shep are the same age!

Had an embarrassing video on the internet
Austin immediately stuck his hand up.  It took Shep a minute to remember his video harassing the woman collecting cans in NYC but he finally stuck his hand in the air.

Joined the mile high club
All of the cast looked at each other and no hands went up until Patricia slowly raised her hand.  The group was teasing her about her accomplishment.  Of course Patricia had to clarify that it was on a private jet - a private jet that had a bedroom.

Spilled something at Patricia's house
Everyone in the group raised their hand on this one.  PatriciaI brought up a story about Shep and Little Craig visiting her house.  Shep knocked over a "priceless" chair and broke the leg.  Little Craig grabbed the chair leg and they had to chase him all over the house to try to get the chair leg back.

Katherine is VERY single.
Cameron is never having another baby
Cameron and Jason have officially adopted Elvis 

Andy brough up Eliza Limehouse.  Shep said she was super sweet but very young.  Craig told us that they have a group text and Eliza texted them and said "Today is the first day in 14 days that I haven't worked, what are you doing today?"  The group just looked at each other and laughed and shook their heads.  I got the sense that no one responded to her. 

One of the questions from the audience was around the group's interesting southern family heritage.
Kathryn shared her great grandfather was assassinated by someone in Al Capone's gang related to moonshine and Moncks Corner.
This is what I found on the inter web:
https://charlestonmag.com/features/moonshine_over_hell_hole_swamp

Shep's aunt was in a documentary on PBS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Boykin_Chesnut

Patricia has been busy taking care of Whitney.  If you saw on Instagram, Whitney was recently at the Mayo Clinic.  He was having rotator cuff surgery.  It has a 6 month recovery time.  She shared that Larissa (german actress / reality star / model from previous seasons) had come to "do whatever she does to make him feel better" for a week.  If anyone has recently rewatch old Southern Charm episodes you may remember Whitney's assistant from Season 1, Brandy.  Apparently Brandy jumped on Whitney's back in a "give me a piggy back ride" fashion.  The old man was thrown off balance and both Whitney and Brandy went down.  She fell on top of him and shattered his rotator cuff.

The most interesting tidbit came out when one of the audience members asked Austin where she could drink Trop Hop when she is in Charleston.  The boys listed a couple of their favorite bars and Shep said something a little vague that made me think he and Austin were thinking about opening a bar together.  He said something like "their may be a place soon you could come and drink beer and shoot the shit with us"  No one really caught it or asked either of them to elaborate.

Overall it was a cute, interesting discussion.  Mostly the ladies sat next to each other and behaved. They even looked bored at times. The guys were constantly talking to each other or talking over each other (especially Shep talking over Austin)  Again, nothing ever changes.

The guys got a few propositions from ladies asking question during the Q&A but since it was 1:00 on day one, the questions were pretty tame.  Its safe to say none of those guys slept alone if they didn't want to because there were plenty of fish in that sea.

Southern Charm was my first photo opp. I felt so awkward because I love the show so much but I didn't really know what to do.  Patricia was not there for the pictures which I totally understand.  She is almost 80 years old and to stand and take photos for an hour is a lot.  When I walked up Cam and Craig were talking to each other and Shep was talking to someone (probably one of the cute young Instagramable ladies in line.  I said "Hi guys!" and Shep immediately said "well hey there".  i think Cam and Craig kept talking to each other.  Either way, I was underwhelmed.

I am not sure if either Austin or Kathryn said anything to me.  I think I was so in awe of how tall they both were.  I am 5'8" and felt like a little person between the two of them.

I met a woman when I went to the Top Chef dinner on Sunday night that was seated next to me.  She came to Bravo Con to eat.  She attended both Top Chef Dinners, the Southern Charm Brunch on Saturday and the Bravopalooza Brunch on Sunday.  Different strokes for different folks I guess.  Anyway she said she LOVED the Souther Charm brunch.  She said that Patricia, Kathryn and Craig all stopped by each table and spent 10-15 minutes talking to the folks attending.  She said that Kathryn was VERY sweet.  She was very chatty and talked with them about her kids.  And Patricia was just as you expected - regal and graceful.  I mentioned that Craig was going to be in the Mercantile from 6-8 that night (the night we had dinner) - I had just seen him in the "Men of Bravo" session.  She said that Craig must be exhausted because overtime she had walked into the Market, he was in their manning his booth talking to fans and taking pictures with them. I think that everyone that interacted with the Southern Charm cast enjoyed their experience.  

Cameron must have left right after her appearance on WWHL because it was P's birthday and her party was on Saturday.

That's the sweet tea from Bravo Con on Southern Charm!  Next up "Below Deck"

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