Have you ever met a celebrity?

[gokaiblue]

Where do I begin?

My aunt is head of hair and wigs for SNL (Saturday Night Live) and also works on Late Night with Seth Myers, so I've met my fair share of celebrities. The first one I met was Keenan Thompson in 2003. 12 years later, I met him again along with Colin Joust, Leslie Jones, and Seth Myers (also recently got to see his dressing room, and might I say that he has a rather pristine NES).

Outside of SNL and Late Night, I've met Erik Estrada, Jason Mraz (who I also performed with and went to the same High School I he attended), K.D. Lang, Christina Perri, Jason David Frank, Karan Ashley, Michael Copon, Walter Jones, Jonathan Wolf, Adam West, Marv Wolfman, C. Martin Croaker, Trina Nishimura, Bob Camp, and Bob Gale. People that I've talked to but haven't met in person include Mike Pollock, Yuji Naka, Takeshi Izuka, and Sean Schemmel.

[Uran-chama]

Holy moly! That's a lot of people!

I've never met anyone famous. The closest I've gotten was attending panels for voice actors at conventions lol

[gokaiblue]

^
Well, that's the advantage of having an Emmy award winning Aunt

[MrsEclipse]

I've attended book signings and gotten to talk briefly with authors. Most notable are Judith Viorst (of "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day") though she was very busy and inattentive, so it wasn't anything special. I also got to meet Katherine Patterson and tell her how much "The Great Gilly Hopkins" helped me out (I told her a little of my situation), and she appreciated hearing that very much.

Last year I went to a charity event at my dad's work where Alan Alda and his wife Arlene were appearing. Alan Alda only agreed to come if nearly all the attention was given to his wife and her new book, "Just Kids from the Bronx," so he didn't stick around to meet any fans. I was disappointed I didn't get to shake his hand, but I think it was great he did this for her.

My favorite story, though, is one that a search tells me I haven't told here. If I have, sorry for repeating, you can ignore me. Back in 2006 I was working at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World and became infatuated with the animatronic performer, Sonny Eclipse, in Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café. While there's a lot of information about him and his background online now, very little was known about the character a decade ago. I tracked down his voice actor, Kal David, an R&B musician and amazing guitarist who, among other things, has played with BB King. I e-mailed him and asked him about voicing the character (everything I learned has since become accessible through a google search so I'm no longer privy to secrets.) He told me lost of stuff, like the recording sessions, and about the back-up singers, the Space Angels, and who they were played by. I even got him to sign a photo of Sonny Eclipse, which was already pre-signed signed by the character, and sent him a photo for his collection (as well as the raw audio for the show, don't ask me how I got it.) The first time he was interviewed for a Disney podcast (Inside the Magic) he mentions me, but not by name (but he confirmed it was me.)

Several years later, I went to a concert of his in Roanoke. After the show, he was signing autographs and selling merch outside. When it was my turn, I said to him, "I don't know if you remember this nearly as well as I do, but I'm the one who e-mailed you back in '06 about Sonny Eclipse..." And he and his wife Lauri Bono both said at the same time, "YOU'RE [My first name]!?" We hugged, we took a picture together, and I cried.

Now, years later, whenever Sonny Eclipse comes up on their Facebook and I say anything, Lauri mentions I'm his #1 Space Angel.