Ever Encountered A Celebrity Before They Were Famous?

The story:
1993 or so. The United Way was putting on a big dinner with union locals from the county. I was invited to play a few songs(I've been a folk/labor singer for many years), and there was a "star" of the show. So anyway, I'm back in the executive board room(the dressing room) with the star of our show, a ventriloquist. We talked about belly talking as one of my oldest friends had been doing it since we were kids. He had a dummy of an old man with a frown that looked like he had been sucking a sour persimmon, and he was good. AND FUNNY. Several years ago I saw a ventriloquist on Comedy Central that I thought I had never seen, until he broke out that frowning old dummy. Walter.
It was Jeff Dunham. I had opened for him when he was a total unknown.

 

This is about the closest thing I've got - Jay Mohr performed at my college twice while I was there. The first time, he was just one of hundreds of road comedians. As a member of the Campus Activities Board, we all took him out to Applebee's afterward and had a blast. The next time he came, he had gotten Saturday Night Live and everyone was clamoring for him to do Christopher Walken.

 

Katherine Blake from Miranda Sex Garden fancied me in school. Why, I have no idea. Also, Jan, Simon and Andrew from The Brand New Heavies were at the same school. They were 4 or 5 years older than me but were friends with my older brother so I knew them vaguely. When I was 12, I remember Jan playing drums with shades on at the Christmas concert I also have a vague memory that they were in a band called Coke Bottle Willy and that they played a 'gig' in the school hall.

Edit: didn't realise this was in Visual Arts - ah well, good memories

 

Two:
Around 1961, Regis Philbin was a local TV personality in San Diego (Channel 10). Among other duties, he had a low-budget Saturday Night talk show, which my parents and eleven-year-old Moi used to watch. My Dad got tickets once, and the two of us went. Very small studio, very small crowd, cheapo bleachers...it was great.
For some reason Dad and I were among the last to leave afterwards, and as we walked out through the lobby we crossed paths with Rege himself. I got his autograph, he even called me "Tom" (probably because it's my name). I was stoked.
Shortly after, he was off to LA on his way to the big time.
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From 6th grade to high school I had a group of five close friends. One of them had a younger brother who played bass guitar. Not too many years later I saw his name in a jazz band lineup, local San Diego group doing a gig in L.A. Kind of forgot about him for another few years, until I saw an Eric Clapton live video one night- couldn't believe my eyes. Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, can't remember who else, and Ray's little brother on bass. Nathan East.

 

Me....no. But my mom knew Dr. John when he was Mac Rebennack, playing gigs on Bourbon Street as a teenager. She also met Elvis on the Louisiana Hayride in 1954.

 

Well, if hanging out in my front yard with James Franco when he was still an acting student and working at McDonalds counts, yes. I thought he was a skinny little kid and didn't have a chance (although my friend who was in acting classes with him said he was a really good actor). Who knew?

 

Kiefer Sutherland was in one of my classes in high school; we never spoke.

 

when my old roomie and I split up she moved in with a young woman who was very nice and had an actor brother who was also very nice and just starting to get some paying gigs- I realized later it was Don Cheadle...

 

Used to sit in Rachel Bolan's garage and watch his pre-Skid Row band 'Second Child' rip through some awesome cover songs ('Another Piece of Meat', 'Ziggy Stardust')

 

After the Atlanta Falcons won a road playoff game in 1991, my brother & decided to go to the airport and greet the victorious birds as they arrived back in town. We were able to high-five most of the players including Deion Sanders and Andre Rison. So, after the bulk of the players moved on and the crowd was dispersing, my brother and I noticed the last player off the plane walking by himself. It was the rookie quarterback. We hollered "Brett Favre!" and ran up and high-fived a grateful to be recognized and grinning Brett Favre. He was traded to Green Bay during the off-season, and the rest is history.

 

I used to see Randy Moss around campus at Marshall University, but I never met him.

 

About a year before "The Big Bang Theory" started I was in Santa Barbara and did a whale watching excursion and among the dozen or so people on the boat was Johnny Galecki. I knew who he was from "Roseanne" but he was probably barely making ends meet at the time compared to the $1 million an episode he just signed for in his new contract.

 

Liz Vassey, who might be best known for "CSI", was in a class I was in school in Tampa. I remember her last day of school as she was moving to Hollywood to begin her career on "All My Children".

 

I knew Jackie Fox of the Runaways (when she was Jackie Fuchs) before she was in the Runaways.

John Elway lived two doors down from me in my dorm his freshman year of college.

 

Went to school with this guy, who I learned fairly recently does TV now. Can't say I liked him at the time, but eh.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4365169/?ref_=fn_al_nm_2

 

I wouldn't call her an A-list celebrity but Melissa Howard used to hang out with me quite a bit at the record store I ran in Tampa. She would skip school and hang out listening to tunes. You might remember her from The Real World: New Orleans, Girls Behaving Badly or Maxim.

 

What store did you have in Tampa? I might have come across it before I moved away.

 

I helped run The Alternative Record Store from 91 until 97.

 

Okay. I moved away in 90 so that was just before.

 

It opened in 87...at Nebraska and Fowler. Before that I was a buyer at Peaches at 30th and Fowler.

 

My wife was Reggie Wayne's (Indianapolis Colts WR) math tutor in high school.

 

Not a celebrity per se but I went to grad school with one Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the current creative director for Archie Comics and the one who came up with the Afterlife With Archie series. He also wrote the screenplay for the latest adaptation of Carrie, but I kind of doubt that's highlighted on his current CV. Still keep in touch occasionally through the miracle of Facebook.

My sister went to school with Gavin Crawford, a comedian who has some profile in Canada for being on the cast of This Hour Has 22 Minutes and having his own short-lived show.

 

Saw the rock group Kiss at a gymnasium in a health club that had just opened around here in early '75, on a bill with James Gang which is who I went there to see - within the next year Kiss became big-time.

 

A band I was in once played at a club in L.A. on the same bill with a band called Mookie Blaylock, who later became Pearl Jam. We also played on the same bill with Hole once.

 

I met Earvin "Magic" Johnson when he was still playing high school basketball in Lansing, Michigan.