[2020] Off-Topic Fridays: Have You Ever Met a Celebrity?

It’s been a while since an OTF! No excuses, I’ve been lazy.

For whatever reason, I was cleaning the coffee machine and this question popped into my head.

My earliest memory of meeting a “celebrity” was as a child, meeting Matthew Kelly, who hosted a TV show called Stars In Their Eyes here in the UK… it was a rather cringeworthy singing contest in which people would impersonate showbiz stars. He was visiting my primary (elementary) school. Why? I have no idea, but I remember being really excited.

Later in life I met Bam Margera and some other members of the CKY crew outside a show which was cool because I was BIG into Jackass/Viva La Bam/etc.

So! Tell me, have you ever met a celebrity and who was it? Share your stories!

I made Paul Merton a cup of tea once.

I went to school with Gareth Barry.

I saw Eddie Izzard at a shopping mall but he was on the phone and I didn’t wanna be that guy

The queen was driven past my house? Does that count?

I… Yeah no that’s it. I guess the answer is ‘No’.

I’m excluding industry names as I feel it’s cheating but I’ve met folks like Mike Morhaime, Frank Pierce and co. - and had soundtracks signed by the legend Russel Brower. I don’t count them as technically they were colleagues so meeting them is cheating

If love to meet William Shatner, his Seeking Major Tom album was absolutely off the hook!

Did you get to chat with Tarrant? He always struck me as a kind of nice “fatherly” type of chap!

How was cooking for Gary Rhodes? Stressful or just another day?

Met Jason David Frank at an ice skating rink in NYC when I was around 5 or 6. He was with his then gf at the time, I guess? And I fell down and scoops me up and goes, “CAREFUL!” and skates off. I was a little shell shocked.

Met the 1998 team of the San Antonio Stars at my local airport; my brother recognized them and asked for autographs. They were very deer in the headlights—not used to being recognized and awed over by a 10 year old child who somehow knew every one of their names and had basketball trading cards with their names on them, lol.

Met a couple of game industry folks; Eric Pope from Ubisoft, etc. Do they count?

Haven’t really met anyone else.