Your "Brush With Greatness"
Your "Brush With Greatness"
Joined: 12/31/69
#0Your "Brush With Greatness"
Posted: 8/22/06 at 3:33pmDavid Letterman used to pull people from the audience to describe their Brush With Greatness: A random encounter with a celebrity that lead nowhere and meant nothing. So, tell us, what is YOUR BRUSH WITH GREATNESS??
Joined: 12/31/69
#1re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 3:36pm
I'll start. I have TWO Brushes With Greatness, both with Oprah.
I saw her once at a very upscale grocery store in Chicago. She and a servant were at Fox & Obel's filling two grocery carts with every kind of chips. It came to well over $500. She looked very natural-- sweat pants and no make up.
Also, in the audience for Oprah's Christmas Show (Liza, Tony Bennett & Michael Bolton) Oprah fell on me. She was walking behind my row and her heel stuck in a crack in the risers and she went over my shoulder and landed in my lap.
Those are my BRUSHES WITH GREATNESS
#2re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 3:38pm
1982, after seeing Joseph, the crowd parted and Liz Taylor and her entourage walked out, right by me...the crowd was silent. I asked "did you like it?" She said "it was great!"
Turning the corner after a bad day of work, I almost smacked heads walking into Sondheim. I must've given him a stalker stare, cause he looked scared and practically ran away.
"Carson has combined his passion for helping children with his love for one of Cincinnati's favorite past times - cornhole - to create a unique and exciting event perfect for a corporate outing, entertaining clients or family fun."
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#3re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 3:38pm
Harvey Fierstein in Vegas right after a performance of Hairspray,
I've also met lots of famous people that have nothing to do with shows, so I won't go through them all.
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
#4re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 3:38pm
I sold a sausage on a stick to Jeff Chance at a county fair. I had no idea who the hell he was and still don't to this day.
eta: Oddly enough, that was the same day I saw Rue McClanahan in a local Target. What a day.
Updated On: 8/22/06 at 03:38 PM
#5re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 3:47pmRobert Englund bought a book from me a couple of years ago. He's a very soft-spoken and friendly, and we were having a lovely conversation until a group of teenagers saw him through the window and came in yelling, "Hey! It's Freddie! Take my picture with Freddie! Blah, blah, blah Freddie!" Off he went...
And no one grew into anything new, we just became the worst of what we were."
peach
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/29/05
#7re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:15pm
I was introduced to John Heard after a performance at Vassar College.
also spoke to Alan Ruck later that week. He told me (and some others) that after "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," he worked in the back lot of a Sears store.
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.
-Dre- You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~
It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
~Curtains~
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
#8re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 4:21pm
When I worked at Blockbuster Video in Buffalo, I used to rent video games to Johnny Resnick of the Goo Goo Dolls. A very nice man.
Also, I am often in line behind Ani DiFranco at Walgreens or some other store. She lives in Buffalo so I see her alot. She's always very nice.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
neddyfrank2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
#9re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 5:24pmI walked into Chris Rock at Paramount Studios, then was j- walking and almoust got run over by Johnny Knoxville. Not Greatness I know, but two in one day!
#10re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 5:45pmDuring intermission of a preview performance of "The Well Appointed Room" at Steppenwolf, I talked about the play with Terry Kinney, who was directing it.
#11re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 6:40pm
During intermission of the performance of SOUVENIR I attended, Rue McClanahan exited the ladies' room stall that I then entered. I defy anyone to beat that.
And please, no vulgar "Golden" Girl references, y'all.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#12re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 6:49pm
And please, no vulgar "Golden" Girl references, y'all.
Well, not after you beat us to the punch!
And no one grew into anything new, we just became the worst of what we were."
neddyfrank2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
#13re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 6:50pm
Oh wait I have two more.
When I still lived in LA I ran into Steven Spielberg at the Hospital. Also, he was with his wife who was preggers, and they weren't married yet. I could have sold that to STAR for a million!
Also, my mom saw John Travolta at a movie theater when she went to see Saturday Night Fever, and sent her bf to go pee next to him at the urinal, and he didn't wash his hands (ew). This was a long time ago, before she met my daddy!
Updated On: 8/22/06 at 06:50 PM
#14re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 6:51pmNorbert Leo Butz at a show, John Ritter at Disneyland.
"Broadway is a very special place, filled with very special people, people who can sing and dance, often at the same time!
They are a different people, a multi-talented people, a people...who need people...and who are, in many ways, the
luckiest people in...the world." --Spamalot
<^>BROADWAY is LOVE<^>
<^>RENT is LOVE<^>
<^>WICKED is LOVE<^>
<< Me and Norbie. I look icky becuase I was FREAAAAKKKIIINNNGG out.
<^>BROADWAY is LOVE<^>
<^>RENT is LOVE<^>
<^>WICKED is LOVE<^>
<< Me and Norbie. I look icky becuase I was FREAAAAKKKIIINNNGG out.
DG
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
#15re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 6:53pm
"And please, no vulgar "Golden" Girl references, y'all."
Ok. Well then, to paraphrase 'Ralph' from Priscilla, Queen of the desert, "Are you telling me I'm looking at a McClanahan turd?"
#16re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 6:56pm
>>Norbert Leo Butz at a show<<
Is that what your avatar's from?
#17re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 6:58pmSince when do celebrities use the bathroom? Wow, Im learning lots today.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#18re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:09pm
hehe Rath, and boy do I want to comment.
I have several
1. A drunk Robert Morse was a "bit too nice" to me on a plane once.
2. As a kid I pooped my pants in front of Nanette Fabray
3. I almost wet my pants when Reichen walked by me in Paris, so close I could have....er, ah....kissed him.
but the best,
4. I had the honor of meeting the last Empress of Austria, Zita of Parma in 1972 in Switzerland. It was a brief few seconds, but as she is the only one of royal blood I have ever met, I was entralled (my father worked for the state department).
It was quite sad in 1998 when I visited her coffin at the Kaisergruft in Vienna
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story...
AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956
#19re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:10pmI would assume we are not including porn stars we have...er...ah "known?"
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story...
AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956
#20re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:14pm
I'm no fool, WW.
And DG, I'll have you know she flushed. AND washed her hands. She is one classy broad!
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#21re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:16pm
Too many "celebrities" to count because some of them were people that I have directed or gone to school with.
Since "greatness" is such a subjective term I'll say Queen Elizabeth II.
I directed a command performance of a folk opera and she was brought on stage to meet me and the cast at the end of the production.
"Smart! And into all those exotic mystiques -- The Kama Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than seventy-five. Call me tomorrow if you're still alive!"
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#22re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:18pmWhen I was stationed at Pease AFB in NH, I got to ride in the cracker box and be part of the motorcade to pick up then Vice-Pres Bush at his Kennebunkport home( I saluted him and got to shake his hand :O)...was a big deal for me at the time lol
#23re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:21pmpab, which folk opera?
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story...
AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956
#24re: Your 'Brush With Greatness'
Posted: 8/22/06 at 7:28pm"The Legend of Sammie Swain"
"Smart! And into all those exotic mystiques -- The Kama Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than seventy-five. Call me tomorrow if you're still alive!"
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