For me it was Jeff Kinney. I was meeting a different author I love, but there wasn’t enough room downstairs and we had to go up. Turns out that’s exactly where Jeff Kinney works! He’s the author who got me into reading so I thought that was so cool
Met Arthur C. Clarke in 1997 in his house near Colombo, Sri Lanka… A friend of my dad organised the meeting…when we arrived Mr Clarke was sitting in his office watching one of the first Mars rover landings live on CNN…a moment and coincidence which i was only able to understand many years later…
I lived and worked in New York and met a ton of celebrities/big names there. James Gandolfini was really nice. Bjork was not particularly nice. Tori Amos is one of the sweetest, most open and genuine people I’ve ever met. Ethan Hawke was a gross dick. Rik Okasek smells bad but is nice. I got shitcanned with Claude Coleman, my favorite drummer. My favorite celeb I have ever met though is Joan Jett, who I have met many times and is absolutely the best. It was super funny the one time I was just hanging out randomly on the street with a group of friends and this short little muscular blond lady rushed up to me, gave me a hard hug, and rushed away and I got to be like, “Oh, that was just Joan Jett” to my friends.
Wow, that’s an impressive list! Did you meet them through work? What sort of work do you do?
Believe it or not, most of the big actors and stuff I met while I was working at various big retailers in Union Square, like Circuit City (rip), Barnes and Noble, and the Virgin mega store. There are absolutely a ton more that I did not list and probably more that I have forgotten lmao. Taye Diggs (very nice, seemed shy), James Iha (super friendly and excited to meet fans), Natasha Lyonne (messy drunk), David Sedaris (nice, smells good), Elaine Aberlin (Lady Elaine from Mr. Rogers, over the moon to meet someone who recognized her as an adult, gave me lots of hugs, hard to end the conversation with haha), lots more.
I’ve always been low key and friendly when interacting with celebs, especially when seeing them while they’re just going about their business. I don’t think they’re more valuable or interesting than other people and I think most of the time that is a welcome break.
I’ve also gone to tons and tons and tons of concerts throughout my life, many while volunteering or doing activism work, and I have met a kajillion bands and performers like that. Lots of people who started out small and later made it big.
I actually met Joan Jett at a county fair, and when I saw her play again a couple months later she recognized me (and then I saw her play again like 12+ times and eventually started just bumping into her because apparently we have similar interests and hung out in similar places lol). I highly recommend going to see her at every and any opportunity. She puts on an incredible live show that feels like a party and is a super sweet and wholesome person.
My wife confirms the “gross dick” status for Ethan Hawke. She was working as a bartender back in college and he sat at the bad one night. He kept creepily propositioning her.
Kurt Vonnegut. Met him at a Brooklyn farmers market, sitting on a bench. He seemed lonely and talked to me for so long I had to excuse myself.
James Randi. Glad I got to meet him before he died.
Oh I met him too at the Amazing Meeting in London a decade ago or something.
Dizzy Gillespie. Way back in high school our school jazz band opened for Dizzy at a festival/contest. I was heading to the rehearsal room and saw our director chatting with him, and the director waved me over and introduced me. He said “Hey man, it’s cool to meet you” and shook my hand.
I died.
