Ever Encountered A Celebrity Before They Were Famous?

After seeing him in Stand By Me I'm not surprised.

 

Hey! That's a good Akira russiki flick.

 

Yup' missed out on a slice of pie.

 

Aimee Mann?

 

I knew Janeane Garofalo, Louis C.K., Anthony Clark, and maybe a few other future celebrities when I was a comedy open miker. I was a little bummed that they became famous comedians and I was stuck working at Barnes and Noble.

 

I fondly remember Kiss walking around the Central Park Zoo in full costume before they made it...

 

Amos Lee used to work as a waiter in a restaurant I went to often. there was a club upstairs and he played twice as an opener when the opening act didn't show. He was exceptionally boring and self indulgent and the second time, really obnoxiously drunk (one of those 'I'm really clever' drunks).

 

Back in the mid-90's I taught the little Kardashian girls how to use their computers.

Sorry about that

 

Likely not a person who'd typically be considered a "celebrity", but...

While in college I took a class called "Intermediate Poetry Workshop" from a reasonably young poet, Charles Simic. In time, he went on to win a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, and a bit later the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He has won other awards as well, and in 2007 he was appointed as the fifteenth "United States Poet Laureate".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Poet_Laureate

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/charles-simic

 

I've known Terence Winter , writer for "The Sopranos" (he wrote "Pine Barrons"), creator/producer of "Boardwalk Empire", and Oscar nominated screenwriter for "Wolf of Wall Street" , since we were teenagers in Brooklyn NY

 

Spent 3 summers with Jim Carrey at a local festival in the 70s.

 

Oakland A's manager Bob Melvin was in my junior year high school english class. Nice enough guy. I didn't know him well. The girl I had a crush on in 6th grade (but never mustered the courage to speak to) was his HS girlfriend.

 

Tom Morello (Rage against the Machine) was in a few of my classes in high school. Very smart and socially aware guy . First time I ever heard of South African apartheid was during a presentation from Tom. Probably around 1981.

 

Before becaming a real actress, Penélope Cruz was know for appearing on Mecano's (Spanish Opo band from the 80's and the 90's) La Fuerza Del Destino in 1988. I went to see Mecano on their 1991 tour with some older friends and they happened to know what hotel where Mecano staying. After the concert we went as fast as we could to their hotel to meet them, but only of them, Nacho Cano, showed up, who was seeing Penélope at the time. She was there too, I remember her short, tiny, kind of fragile, but she was extremely kind. She looked like a nice girl.

 

I second that! Good for Quentin.

 

When did he take classes at USC? He played football for BYU.

 

I'm confusing him with someone else, clearly...

 

John Savage. I think it was 1971. My friend and I (I was 14) went to his girlfriend's house and once there his girlfriend's older sister introduced us to the guy she was seeing at the time (Savage). I think they were in acting school or classes at the time.

 

Had a similar experience with A. Whitney Brown. He played my college a few times while I was on the activities committee, then was picked up as a writer/cast member at SNL. We were all quite proud.

 

I went to a Dionne Warwick show in Reno around 1980, and the opening act was Jay Leno. I remember he did an extended routine on how guys love the stooges and gals do not.

The football coach at my high school was Mouse Davis, who invented the run and shoot offense.

Man, this thread is pathetic (-;

 

Did he ever get to be THE Whitney Brown?


For those unaware that was his opening line:
Hi I'm A. Whitney Brown. Someday I hope to be THE Whitney Brown.
I first saw him on Michael Nesmith's Television Parts

 

Leno was also on Television Parts. Did a routine about his Buick Roadmaster

 

Wow, there was a Peaches in Tampa? Back in the 1970s, we'd drive all the way to Ft. Lauderdale to go to the nearest Peaches, because there were no good record stores in Central Florida during that time. Peaches was like the mecca.

I've met a few famous people in my time, but not before they were famous. Sadly, I've met a lot of them after they were famous, and it's sad.

One of the best Leno routines ever: "The Buick Roadmaster! Dashboard made of solid steel. You get into a wreck with one of these babies, they just call the coroner, hose it down, and sell it to the next guy!"

I got to work with Leno a few times in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, and he was really nice, funny, and easy-going. His wife Mavis made me a ham sandwich when I set up his video system for him in 1978 (true story -- he lived in a small house on Spaulding right off Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, around the corner from a fire station).

 

I could spend hours in a Peaches store back in the day. The one by us was huge.

 

He's not hugely well-known, but I went to high-school with David Hart (Parker Williams on In the Heat of the Night. ) We were also at The University of West Florida in Pensacola at the same time. He was studying acting and I was an English major. Very good actor, super nice guy.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366231/