This afternoon, I sold Fin Fang Foom to Roberta Flack. That, my friends, is bafflingly high on a list I just composed, tentatively titled "Things I Didn't Even Think to Think Would Never Happen, But Totally Did."
(To, uh, clarify, it was one of those rad little Superhero Squad Fin Fang Fooms, as I do not have access to fictional Communist dragons from space. If I did, I doubt I'd work retail. Because my new job would be Ruiner of Cities and Stomper-on By Proxy of Dum Dum Dugan.)
Now, this isn't the first time I've done strange things with celebrities, no - I once shared a cigar with Peter Weller while discussing The Passion of the Christ (Buckaroo Banzai laughed when I said the movie was "like a fucking Wile E Coyote cartoon," which made my life awesome) and a small me learned the finer points of wrestling the bejeezus out of people from longtime WWF champion Bob Backlund. But this is the only time I've witnessed a Grammy winner buying absurd comics-related malarkey.
Anyway, I'm reasonably sure I already know Devon's answer to this, but
what is your most unlikely, ridiculous or otherwise noteworthy celebrity experience?
5 comments:
I went to high school with Christina Ricci. She was a freshman when I was a senior, and I think I walked past her everyday on the way to Spanish. I say I think because she was extraordinarily low-key, and this was after the second Addams Family movie came out.
Also in WWF-related meetings, I met Al Snow at my old shop, and then remembered that I was wearing my "Ask Me About an Ass-Kicking" T-Shirt, which his wife thought was hilarious.
And in recent weird purchases, David Gabriel from Marvel recently bought Miracleman vol 1 and 2 from our Amazon store.
I went to high school and jr. high school with Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket. One of his books is actually about our high school class-and the discussions about turning that into a movie was just too weird to contemplate.
I was in a comic book store at Christmas time in 2006 buying stuff...and there was just this normal looking guy in line ahead of me-and all of a sudden the clerk said, "thanks Mr. Williams-always great to have you by"..I was curious why he was getting all the attention-and lo and behold, it was ROBIN Willaims..
hrm..ok.
i've had a weird series of meetings with people over the years. My brother used to be a managing editor of a local paper and got many a weird interview and i went along with some. i witnessed John Lydon (Rotten) from the sex pistols call my brother a cocksucker and to fuck off. it was alot of musicians..most no longer relevant. but the most notable for me was Joey Ramone..over a period of years until he died my brother kept in contact and interviewed him numerous times..and i went along for most of it. i was a huge fan and it was awesome to be kind of friendly with him. but seeing him in those last years was rough. it was just heartbreaking to see a major musical influence bedridden and physicly destroyed and getting worse by the minute. my brother and i parted ways after Joey died.
then there was the weird moment when i met Steve Guttenburg when i went for pizza...they names a street after the guy (i live where he went to school not sure he was born here) and i was oblivious to why Mahoney from police accademy was there..i recognized him but was like 'nah..why the fuck would he be here?' and here i am at this small counter with him 2 seats over with some woman talking to him that i doubt was his wife..this was well after police accedmy and 3 men and a baby..so it was like he was just one of the regular people.
during my comic years i met and pretty much spent a day with Dave Cockrum. he was signing at a small shop i hung out at. he was awesome and i got to check out the sketchbooks he had with him. there wasn't a huge turn out there which was sad. but it was during the 80's image boom period of mediocrity. then i met steve stern of zen intergalactic ninja and struck up an odd friendship with him that led to weirder moments. i did uncredited inking on a few books for him andsaw his weird way of getting big name guys to do covers for him.
one story was when i was working for another shop at a convention. i went to take a break and i saw steve at a table..he called me over and had me sit down and we were talking about shit. i had my sketchbook and he was having me draw out stuff. out of no where Joe Quesada came by with Jimmy Palimotti and steve totally started chatting them up (they were having a break in signing their just released ASH comic. Joe ended up checking out what i was doing and asked me to draw ASH for him..which i did fairly quick and was suprized when he found out i was only 14 at the time.
years later i worked at jones beach state park..it was a shit job..but one day Kelly Ripa was doing a thing there and they assigned me to dealing with that. she's really much better looking in person and insanely nice to me. she asked me a few times if i needed anything as i was there all day while she was filming something. she checked on the crew to make sure people were ok and shit. then there was the Verison guy..the 'can you hear me now? guy...he was filming a commercial and my ex was like practicly raping the guy...thats when i reevaluated dating the girl. i mean come on..thats just low class.
later september 11th happened and i met a flurry of people when i was helping out with clean up. one being the president for a second. it was just a weird strange time and it didn't phase me as i was really in a fucked up place. when i had to leave the site i was so spent and wondering how i was getting home and the guy that was with me was all starstruck by the people who came by...i was kind of numb.
i had a weird knck in my early life where i ended up in very odd places and situations. in recent years that doesn't happen much..as i work mostly on my graphic novels in relative solitude.
My friends & I met Dave Foley at a concert the weekend after 9/11 (he was dating one of the band's backup singers - she's now his wife). We had one of those "where were you when you heard" conversations & he actually hugged us all at the end of the evening. Super nice guy. When we walked outside, I turned to my friend Frank & said, "If you told me this morning that I would be hugged by Dave Foley today, I would not have believed you."
Also ended up at a urinal next to Gil Gerard at Chiller Con a few years back. :)
I sold a toilet brush to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.
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