Writer's Block: Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind

[vovat]

[Error: unknown template qotd]

I've met several, if walking up to the person at a table and getting them to sign an autograph counts as "meeting." I'd say my three best celebrity encounters were with Carolyn Mark, Robin Goldwasser, and Amanda Palmer. I'm usually really shy around celebrities (and non-celebrities, for that matter), and I have the feeling I might have had more enjoyable experiences with others if I'd come up with a topic to discuss with them. And preferably a topic more interesting than, "Hey, you know that one song you do? It's AWESOME." But some others just seemed totally uninterested, like the two Johns from They Might Be Giants, although this WAS at an in-store for a children's album, and they were probably both tired and expecting to spend time with kids rather than adults. I've come across reports of other people having pleasant encounters with one or both Johns (Flansburgh, not surprisingly, tends to be more outgoing), and others who were basically shooed away by them. I get the impression that it really depends on their mood at the time. And I've had things signed by David Lowery on two different occasions, and he was in the middle of a conversation with somebody else both times.

Comments

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

That's gotta suck with David Lowery. personally, I've met Bob Love (a former member of the Chicago Bulls basketball team), Tomie de Paola (children's author/artist, when I was 10 and my mom encouraged me to show him my own drawings), Muhammad Ali (on several occasions and he was the most intimidating, father of one of our neighbors), and Neil Gaiman (I assume you know who he is from Good Omens; who I probably pissed off by talking to him after he was done signing my graphic novels and moved on to the next person in line).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Oh, that reminds me that I met Terry Pratchett at a reading at Borders. I showed up early, which worked out well for me, because he eventually stopped writing personalized greetings on all but the newest books. For me, he wrote "you are here" on my copy of the Discworld Mapp.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

Oh! I neglected to mention I met Roger S. Baum and got Lion of Oz and the Red Badge of Courage plus a Wizard Centennial t-shirt signed by him. I thought he was okay at the time, but now I realize he's just into writing for the money, not for the readers. What do you expect from someone who was originally a businessman? (Sorry, Frank!)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The only book of Roger's I've read is Dorothy of Oz, which wasn't bad, but seemed a bit lazy. Now I hear it's being made into a movie. But I think Lion of Oz already was, wasn't it?

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Tomie de Paola is definitely a COOL author/illustrator to have met. All the ones I met as a child were much less interesting (ie, I hadn't even heard of them until I showed up at the library those days!)-- I've done much better since I've been a grownup in the kids'-library field (most famous author I've met to date: Lois Lowry). Here's a link to a long but funny video that features Tomie de Paola in a large and Definitely Acknowledging His Coolness role, which is automatically what I think of when I think of him anymore... well, it's funny for kid lit people who know who all these people are, I'm not sure how funny it is to the average layman off the street (though, come to think of it, Nathan, YOU might be interested to see who is playing the role of The Agent in this movie...).

On the original topic, definitely the biggest celebrity I have ever interacted with (that is not an author at a book signing) is Mr McFeely. The biggest celebrity I ever ran into unexpectedly but did not interact with was Hines Ward. Both these encounters happened at the Children's Museum, go figure.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Didn't Tomie de Paola write the Strega Nona books? I'm pretty sure I read some of them as a kid.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

I've never met Lois Lowry, but I did win a copy of the The Giver signed by her.

"I was thinking of writing about a grandmother who was a witch..." "NO NO NO! BAD IDEA! BAAAAAADDD IDEA! NO SALES! NO FAME!" XD

[annamatic.livejournal.com]

Probably the coolest celebrity encounter for me was either the time I stood around shooting the shit with Henry Rollins and about six other people after one of his spoken word engagements, or the time I got to meet Soul Coughing and told M Doughty that I was from Wichita and liked the song "True Dreams of Wichita", and we talked about the song and what it supposedly was inspired by (a barbed-wire museum).

[annamatic.livejournal.com]

And I might add that both Henry Rollins and M Doughty (and the other three of Soul Coughing, whom I also met and talked with) were all lovely nice genuinely pleasant guys.

I did have to crush Doughty's soul a little by telling him there was no barbed wire museum in Wichita that I was aware of, and it was actually kind of a shitty city.

[nova-one.livejournal.com]

Lance Storm wrote a great article on meeting... well, wrestlers, but the tips definitely apply to other types of celebrity too:

http://web.archive.org/web/20031223182442/http://www.stormwrestling.com/commentary/default.asp?aID=1197

I saw hockey players Eric Lindros and Paul Coffey at a cousin's wedding a decade or so ago, but I didn't approach them - I figured I didn't have anything to say to them, and I didn't want to ask them for autographs at a private function.

[carvinkeeper12.livejournal.com]

I'm one of the ones who has had a very pleasant encounter or two with Mr. Flansburgh. Once I ran into him at a museum and secured an interview for an essay, and the second time I asked him about the finished essay I'd sent him afterwards. (He said it was more academic than he'd expected. I'm choosing to take that as a compliment...) The second encounter was at a signing and it was a bit rushed, but pleasant none the less.

I've also had nice encounters with Amanda Palmer, the members of Mindless Self Indulgence, Neil Gaiman, and John Hodgman.

How did you meet Robin Goldwasser and Amanda Palmer?

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

How did your meeting with Neil Gaiman go? What was the function? Mine was a reading of his then yet-to-be-on-the-market "Wolves in the Walls" at a book fair in Chicago.

[carvinkeeper12.livejournal.com]

It was brief but pleasant. I was the 373rd signed book this past Saturday at a New York City reading of his new children's book Blueberry Girl. Well, I would have been 373rd if people hadn't given up and left. It started at 1pm, professed to be over by 4, and I left with my signed book at 7. He was very chipper for having been sitting there for ages, and later he blogged about almost canceling the event because earlier that morning he'd found out about his father's sudden death. :( I wish it had been during happier times or with fewer people, but I'm glad for what I got. He's so awesome.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

He didn't blog about the event I was at. He did bring Maddy with him, who stood up from the front row seats and gave everyone a wave during the reading.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Robin was hanging around on the floor after a TMBG show where she'd opened (as part of The Last Car). I approached her in order to ask whether the Last Car release they were selling was the same one we'd bought earlier, and she mentioned that she liked bethje's Chococat purse, which led to a little more conversation. As for Amanda, I actually won a contest that I'd entered by pre-ordering No, Virginia, and was able to participate in a meet-and-greet before the show. I also got her to sign a T-shirt (which I now can't find) afterwards, and she said it was nice meeting me earlier.

I'm sure I COULD have met John Hodgman if we hadn't been in such a hurry to leave after his recent Philadelphia reading from More Information Than You Require.

[kyrie1618.livejournal.com]

I met Fumio Demura once. He signed my uniform.

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

I've met Ken Hite (got a picture of him this year) a few times at gaming cons, as well as Steve Long a few years back. For those who don't know who those guys are, they both worked on the last two Star Trek roleplaying games, among other things.