I've briefly met a lot of well-known (or at least I consider them well-known) stage actors, playwrights, and writers over the years, most of the time by chance. Also a few scientists in different contexts. I listed them all and it came out to nineteen names in various disciplines, which is a little bit tl;dr, but I can list them if there's any interest.
Some friends of mine and I organized a jazz trio (piano, bass, drums, with occasional vocals along with piano provided by yours truly) which played at the Eighth St. Taproom in Lawrence, KS sometimes during their weekly jazz evenings.
I was also caught on the news singing Irish folk songs on one St. Patrick's Day. (I'm a classically trained tenor, so that's why I flatter myself that they used my voice over and above the other drunk people who were doing the same thing.
)
While I lived in Lawrence, I was also on the news (though you couldn't see me) when they got an establishing shot of me driving my bus after a snow storm.
I was also on TV for almost a full half hour as team captain of my high school's "Academic League" (kind of a quiz bowl competition) team. We won, by the way.
But my real claim to fame was when I was interviewed in the local paper as I was leaving Borders. The Lawrence local paper did these "person-on-the-street" blurbs, usually based around totally insipid questions. But the day I was caught unawares at Borders was
the day before the anniversary of the Iraq War. I've been in protests of, and even arrested in protests of the Iraq War, so I was preparing to warm up to my theme, when their young intern turned around and asked me how many times a day I wash my hands. Turns out that they asked people their views on the Iraq War the
next day on the anniversary, and then printed it the day after the anniversary. Way to go for timeliness, guys.
