tellhimfred.com

This weekend, I was talking to my friend Ben and the subject of celebrity run-ins came up. Working at Houston’s, a lot of politicians, atheletes, and other famous people come in fairly regularly. Which made me think: I’ve only met a handful of what you’d call “celebrities”, and none of them were all that memorable, but here are a couple of my favorites.

Al Franken- Met him during the DNC here in Boston. He was doing a live remote of his Air Americal show, and I was able to shake the guy’s hand and get a picture. The picture came out absolutely terrible, so I’ve never done anything with it.

James Carville- Met him the same day, also got a picture with the same result. He’s got to be my favorite.

Donald Trump- I met Mr. Trump at the Saratoga Race Track when I was in high school. He signed my ticket for me, which I still have.

Quentin Tarantino- My freshman year of college, he was in a play at the Wilbur theater. It was pouring out, but I waited until he came out. He was very nice, answering questions and joking around with the 5 or so of us that waited for him.

Oliver Stone- He did a “class” at the BCAE, which was really just a long lecture about how awesome he is. He really does like himself a lot.

And my favorite celebrity run-in of all time:

Duran Duran.

Yep, I said it. Duran Duran.

Let me set the scene. My freshman year of college, I had tickets to see Fiona Apple at the Orpheum, but didn’t know who to go with. A friend of mine gave me the following offer: her uncle was the production manager for the Cranberries, and if I took her to see Fiona Apple, she’d score us Cranberries tickets and backstage when her uncle came to town.

So, about two or three months after the concert, my friend calls me. The singer from the Cranberries was having a baby, so they weren’t touring. Instead, her uncle was touring with Duran Duran.

I had to be honest: I’d heard the name before, but had no idea who they were or what they sang. But, we’d get to hang out backstage and even listen to the show in the production booth. I was excited to see the behind the scenes stuff even if I didn’t know the band at all.

We got to the show about 3 hours early, and her uncle met us at the door. He brought us in, and we sat down in what looked to be a makeshift cafeteria. Her uncle left for a while, as he had to do some setup work.

About 10 minutes later, a group of guys come in and sit down with us. They were really friendly and we all had a fun conversation. I noticed that they had an English accent, but that’s about all I noticed about the group. About half an hour later, the uncle comes in and says “So, I see you’ve met the band.”

The look on my face must have been priceless, as everyone started laughing at me. I was completely oblivious that the guy who introduced himself as “Simon” was actually that Simon. Not a clue. I immediately started searching my mind to see if I’d said anything stupid during our conversation. Of course, I did: “I have no idea who this band is, but I’m really excited to see them.” To which Simon replied “You’ll enjoy the show. We’ve seen them a thousand times and they’re really good!” Should have known.

There’s a lot more to that story, but I don’t need to get into it now. I’d be curious to hear some other random and funny celebrity run-ins.