For me it was Jeff Kinney. I was meeting a different author I love, but there wasn’t enough room downstairs and we had to go up. Turns out that’s exactly where Jeff Kinney works! He’s the author who got me into reading so I thought that was so cool
Dolly Parton at the Nashville rotating restaurant (on top of the Sheraton in the 90s). I was having dinner with a friend and just getting to know her better. She was explaining to me how she always runs into celebrities. She carried around an autograph book everywhere she went. We go to leave and Dolly is coming in. My friend gets another autograph. Dolly was very sweet and very short.
Edit: remove extra words
I am so jealous. If I could meet one person in the world it would be Dolly. She is my absolute hero. I don’t even think I’d be able to speak, I would just start crying.
do birds fly? do ducks duck?
That’s nice. Besides clearing the two rows part for obvious reasons, was it business class, first class, or coach?
do bees be?
I met all of you cool guys here. Witness me!
Neil Armstrong. Got to shake his hand at a symposium where he gave a talk.
Weird Al. He’s a nice and personable fellow.
That’s who I’d like to meet. Not really a big star person but I’d really like to meet weird al.
Have you seen his new movie? It’s amazing 😆
It was fantastic. “can’t you please stop being yourself and doing what you love” 🤣🤣🤣
Kurt Vonnegut. Met him at a Brooklyn farmers market, sitting on a bench. He seemed lonely and talked to me for so long I had to excuse myself.
Stan Lee - San Diego Comic Con 1995.
https://i.imgur.io/aQas1rv_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium
I cooked lasagne for Todd Barry once. It was a good lasagne, made the pasta by hand and spent a full day to make the ragu.
Penn & Teller. Really nice guys. Penn is ridiculously tall, and having a conversation with Teller is one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had.
I’ve also met tons of metal bands, too many to list. I’ll say the chillest/coolest I hung out with were The Black Dahlia Murder or GWAR.
I didn’t actually meet him, but I made Bill Hader smile!
I was walking being him in a parking lot/alley in Venice and when I realized it was him I got super excited, then my friend whispered loudly “keep your cool, don’t make a scene” and then when he turned the corner we could see the smile on his face. It was very exciting
I’ve also walked behind Fred Armisen and Carrie Beownstein when I walked past a place where they were filming Portlandia
If you count the dudes from Last Podcast on the Left, though, I’ve met Henry Zebrowski so often that he recognized me on the street when I ran into him coming out of a bar. And he was in a Scorsese movie
Hail yourself! I was just scrolling back to see if anyone had met any of the boys. I am sad I haven’t met any of them yet. Seems like all of them would be excellent folks to get a beer and talk about weird shit with. It’s strange how parasocial relationships work. I’ve been listening to them twice a week for 8 years and feel like they’re my friends.
Isaac Asimov, who called me a few times. Very kind and patient man.
I’ve seen a lot (doing high-end retail in LA) who have all been pleasant and polite with me but I’d have to say my favorite is Julie Andrews because I’ve also interacted with people who work for her and they genuinely love her warmth and kindness.
No idea. Picture it: Late summer, 1998.
I was working on the Jungle Cruise at Walt Disney World, and had a VIP group get on my boat with one instruction: no Brazilian guests could share the boat. Nice enough dude, built, good lookin’ dude.
As we moved down the dock to load the rest of the guests, a Brazilian tour group saw who was there and COMPLETELY LOST THEIR MINDS. Americans, including me, had no idea who it was.
Went through the ride, they got off the boat, left via the back way.
This was similar to an experience I had years ago.
Was at a summer class at a school in NYC, and one of my classmates was a lovable idiot with a British accent who was very down to earth and nice despite often saying incredibly dumb things.
One day we’re out in one of the parks for a project, and a group of middle school girls wearing uniforms lose their fucking minds.
Apparently they were foreign students from the UK, and it turns out my classmate was one of the members of a huge boy band extremely popular in the UK, but not very popular or well known here.
Weird how relative fame is.
(For example, I have several answers to the OP question ranging from dinner, birthdays, or going to private clubs with different very famous musical artists, but my personal fan experience was meeting Todd Howard at E3.)
Years ago I went to the Philly ComicCon with some friends. On the first day we’re walking in and I see this huge shadow come up behind me and then over top of me and then I see the tallest person I’ve ever seen walking directly in front of me. Turns out it was Peter Mayhew. He literally walked over my small 5’0" self. It was surreal.
John Waters. I met him at an exploitation movie convention and he was everything I hoped he would be