Maybe it is just me, but back in the day when I could stay up late enough to watch the talk shows I wondered what I would say if I were ever in Letterman’s audience and his staff chose me to talk about my encounter with a celebrity.
One instance, and I mentioned this to the college newspaper reporter who was interviewing new faculty, came in 1993 when the Bulls were playing the Lakers in the NBA Finals. We were living in Wheaton and I was flying to LA for a meeting the same day that both teams were traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles for the third game. On my flight were the television announcers, Marv Albert and Mike Fratello. Of course, they want to the front to sit in first class and I took my place among the plebes. But first-class and business-class passengers have the same needs and when we arrived at LAX I saw that Marv Albert was heading in the same direction as I was — to the men’s room. And there, low and behold, we occupied adjacent urinal stalls. Thankfully, LAX has stall dividers. So at one point I might have told Dave that I relieved myself next to Marv Albert.
But I could also mention that back when I was waiting tables to support myself through seminary, I waited on the pitchers Steve Carlton and Larry Christiansen, who were coming back to Philadelphia ahead of the Phillies to rest for their respective starts. I’m less inclined to bring this one up, even though I was privileged to be working at one of the best restaurants in the city — Frog — and even though this was the year the Phils won their first championship. Truth be told, I was serving them on a Sunday night. My sabbath convictions not being what they should have been, it’s not a moment of which I am proud.
One last instance is my running into and exchanging pleasantries with Wendy Grantham. She is the actress who played the night club dancer that wound up with Lester Freeman in The Wire. I happened to see her while in line at a Trader Joe’s in Wilmington and tried not to look too carefully at her lest her very big boyfriend think I was checking her out. But I finally summoned up the courage to ask if she had acted in The Wire, she said yes, we shook hands, and talked a little about the show and her career (mainly a singer). I left walking on the clouds since I believe The Wire is the best moving image production ever made.
But all of these encounters pale in comparison to my new found greatness — the Baylys have publicized one of my speaking events. Last night I lectured for the Great Lakes Presbytery of the PCA. Once again the theme was two-kingdom theology. And once again I encountered some criticism — some were even willing to speak of 1k — but also much good will and fraternity.
I can’t say that the Baylys post gave me the same feelings as meeting Wendy Grantham, and I am a little perturbed that they used up two of my fifteen minutes of fame. But, what an honor.
Old Life 
I worked the hospitality bizz through college. I once delivered a late but professionally stuffed duffel bag (fantastic specimen) to Doc Severenson. You’ve got your urinal, but I’ve got a claim to have been alone with Doc in a hotel room in nothing but Speedos, navy blue. I also delivered a cheeseburger to Mary Travers at the end of her career. Bear of a woman, she, and not nearly as generous a tipper as Doc. I also bell hopped a sun-burned and half baked Kingston Trio into their hotel room. One cart carried nothing but booze. And on my way to pick up a nobody I ran into the great Rick Mears renting a car(!), a hero to my Indy family fan club. He signed a luggage tag for dad, and I’ve been a hero ever since. All of which sounds a bit uninteresting, but all the encounters happened in our modest little town, which makes it a little more interesting. I was once tipped a signed glossy by a Blue Angles pilot. I tried to buy a girlfriend with it, but it didn’t work.
But all of these encounters pale in comparison with arranging for your talk last night and sharing human conversation instead of cyber speech. Thanks again for offering your talent and insights in person. I just regret we couldn’t finalize our 2k plans to take over the world and smite all naysayers. But I had a wife and kids and dog to get home to.
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Bulls/Lakers was ’91.
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hmm… I sang for the Queen once, and I’ve encountered a host of celebrities since, even getting dived into by Steven Curtis Chapman shortly after being warned onstage that he was indeed diving in, but I have to say my most impressive brush with greatness came as a youngin’ listening to Ruth Vinson, a little old lady and unsung prayer warrior in a failing Presbyterian church, praying out loud to God like He was her oldest and dearest friend, which of course He was. She’s even more intimately with Him now, and I think her praying is as celebrious as ever.
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During my undergraduate days at Flagler College, I was selected to represent my business school at an ethics symposium hosted by a PCUSA congregation in Hilton Head, SC (which was appropriate, since it’s not like many mainline churches has much else to offer aside from ethics, but I digress). The other students from my school and I were invited to dinner by one of the elders and his wife at their home. During dinner, they mentioned their son was an actor who had a supporting role in the film Batman Begins. Being a lifelong Bat fan, this piqued my interest. Turns out, their son is Mark Boone, Jr. who is probably best known now for his role as Robert Munson in FX’s Sons of Anarchy. In Begins, he played Flass, the crooked partner of Jim Gordon. I made my appreciation for his work known by proceeding to reenact the upside-down interrogation scene from the movie…Batman voice and all (for the sake of the uninitiated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY8fei3Zres). The parents seemed awkwardly amused at the whole thing; I even got to see his baby pictures. So, that’s as close to celebrity as I have yet come.
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I once shared a men’s room with William F. Buckley, Jr. at Hillsdale. Definitely a “1-Ker”, Buckley was. 🙂
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I once met Steve Zrimec and had a beer with him.
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I once gave a program to Allen Iverson when he played at Georgetown.
I also talked about swimming once with Iain Murray.
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During lunch recess at the PCA’s GA a few years back, I sat, like, two tables away from Tim Keller. I couldn’t help staring… Oh, and RC Sproul signed my Bible way back when (I even joked, “I know you didn’t write this, but…”) 🙂
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I envy Paul the most.
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I ran into Pete Rose when he was playing for the Fighting Phillies at a “Wa-Wa” in center city Philadelphia. Wanna bet?
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Is the talk accessible on the internet?
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I once hugged James Dobson (or he hugged me; I believe he initiated it).
But more importantly, I believe that my very own mother had a brush with greatness that unseated her prior #1 BWG, attending a Sunday school class taught by James Earl Carter. You see, she was one of the ladies serving meals at the presbytery meeting (Covenant PCA, Holland, MI, yes?). I’ll let her know what happened; a signed publicity photo of you (if you could spare one) would be nice to place next to the picture of her and Jimmy out on the church lawn.
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I once had a beer with Paul and Steve.
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I’m one degree of separation from DGH.
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I used to work room service at a luxury resort in the San Diego area so I had the opportunity to serve a few celebs. Here’s my list:
Michael Jordan – He’s the only guy I was truly star-struck by, pretty cool guy and a decent tipper.
Chralize Theron – Classy lady and a great tipper
Dave Chappel
George Thorogood
Rocco Mediate – pretty funny guy for a golfer, most golfers are anything but
Mark Whalberg – coolest celeb I served, fun to talk to, and great tipper
Joel McHale
There were a few more, but it was a highlight of the job. I still wait tables in my never ending quest to finish school. It is kind of fun to serve these celebs. Not to long ago I waited on Terrell Davis and his wife, they were a cool couple, lot of fun to serve.
I am sure that it wouldn’t top a couple of beers with Paul and Zrim though.
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I was at a Bulls game last year with my son when B.J. Armstrong and Will Purdue (former Bulls players during the Michael Jordan era) were shamelessly checking out my son’s girlfriend all game and then had the nerve to try to talk and hit on her when she went to the washroom. It was an amazing display which my son kind of got a kick out of. He ended up going over and talking with them about it and it all turned out Okay without any adverse effects or fights breaking out. In fact, they ended up all laughing about it. It was all quite bizarre from my perspective.
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And Marv Albert’s greatest brush with notoriety came when he was arrested for indecent exposure. It had something to do with a diaper, which for some reason makes me think of the Bayly brothers.
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Steve Carlton not Carlson.
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Thanks. I had my colleague Alan Carlson on my mind.
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No problem. The only reason I remember is because I am an Indians fan and we signed Carlton when he was washed up.
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I also played basketball in high school against Mike Quade (who is the new manager of the Chicago Cubs after Lou Pinella retired; he was the third base coach for Pinella since he was hired as manager and he used to be the Triple A manager of the Iowa Cubs for many years). Quade was the point guard at Prospect High school (Mt. Prospect, Illinois) and I played point guard for Arlington High School (Arlington Heights, Illinois). We both had good teams and we meet in the conference finals in the most intense basketball game I ever played in, in my life. Quade was very quick and difficult to guard and they ended up beating us by 3 points. The game shifted leads about 20 times and no one was ever more than 5 points ahead. After the game I was physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. I gave it everything I had and was beaten up. Quade scored about 20 points and dished out many assists. I felt like a complete failure and almost the whole town was at the game watching. My senior year of high school was full of failure and it ended up leading me to a relationship with Christ. I was spent, broken and wounded beyond repair I thought. High School is such a tragic time and we blow things way out of proportion.
We also had a good tennis team that year but my partner (who went on to play #1 at Northwestern) and I whom we teamed up with in doubles to try to get more points at the state tournament ended up losing in the Quarterfinals to a team seeded below us. The whole school was again there to witness the failure. It was quite humiliating to say the least.
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