Awkward Encounters w/ Famous People

[BIATCHabutuka]

I can't be the only one here to have some awkward encounters with famous people so time to tell my Reggie Rucker story and see if there are any other ones out there people would like to share.

Reggie Rucker was a pretty good receiver for the Browns. Probably was better than pretty good honestly. The league wasn't as pass heavy back then as it is now and he still put up respectable numbers by todays standard. That was as a Cleveland Brown mind you, so yea Reggie Rucker was quite good.

Reggie has also done a lot of TV and radio after his playing career was over. Part of his duties in the media was to get out to on site gigs and sign autographs for the fans. That is where me and Reggie met up.

Not sure of the year honestly but it was probably late 90's or early 2000's. I was at my parents house in New Philadelphia Ohio and needed some beer to watch the Tribe. So I headed to Discount Drug Mart to get me some beers and there he was. I spotted Reggie right away down the long aisle. I identified him as Reggie Rucker from all the way across the store. Big fan. Nobody was in line even, he looked bored. I had to go up and say hello and BS with him for a little bit. The beers could wait and I had plenty of time to get back for first pitch.

So I walked right up to Reggie and we started talking football. It was great. We disagreed on whether it was better to be the coach of the Browns or the Buckeyes (Bucks, duh), but in Reggie's defense it was the Cooper era.

Anyway we talked for maybe 10 minutes, maybe 15, who knows. It was a good time. I kind of felt bad for Reggie that nobody else was there and I was enjoying myself, I thought he was too. It had to be better than sitting there alone.

Well that whole time nobody else came up to talk to Reggie and I didn't want to leave him there by himself so I kept the conversation going as long as I could.

Eventually even I ran out of stuff to say as did Reggie. Being the pro that he was Reggie took over and asked me if I wanted an autograph. Now I didn't have anything for him to autograph and I didn't notice where he had anything free for me to autograph and I only had enough money for beer so I couldn't go by some Browns merchandise to have him sign or anything like that.

I said no thanks Reggie, you mind getting out of the way though, I need in the beer cooler behind you. He politely stood up, moved his chair out of the way and let me get my beers and go.

Who the hell decides to set up autographs with Reggie Rucker right in front of the beer cooler where you couldn't get a beer in that store without asking Reggie to move. Idiots.

Pure professional. Big fan of Reggie too. If I had spare cash on me I totally would have bought an autographed item or had him sign something of mine, but I needed that suitcase of Busch Light.

Good times.

 

[BayBuck]

Johnny Depp at the OK Corrall, circa 1989. It must have been a weekday or something, Tombstone was nearly empty (I almost said a ghost town), and he was there looking all scruffy (way before scruffy was his norm) and just being a tourist with his buddy. We have a very fuzzy picture of him with my middle sister (because my mom was so nervous being around such a hunky celebrity), and then when I went to ask for his autograph, my younger sister stopped short to pretend to tie her shoes. We were a classic dorky vacation family, making it awkward for a young celebrity.

 

[The KSB]

I had just returned back to Ft. Bragg from Desert Storm in '91. Early one Saturday morning I headed to the PX to pick up a few things. I got there about 10 minutes before they opened up. The only other car in the parking lot was a race car right in the front of the PX. I've never been a big fan of racing so it was no big deal to me but having some time to kill I walked over to take a look at the car. I guess it was pretty cool but what really stood out to me were the headlight stickers. It seemed a bit odd to me to put stickers on a car to make it look like there were headlights on it. About that time some tall, goofy looking guy with a big moustache and a cowboy hat walks up behind me to ask me if I liked it. I didn’t know this guy from anyone. I honestly thought he might be some gay dude trying to pick me up so I made certain to keep some distance between us. I just mentioned it seemed kind of silly to put headlight stickers on the car. The guy was a little taken aback by that but conceded that I had a point. He moved in a little closer to me. I wasn’t sure if he was going in for a kiss or something so I took a step back only to see him put his hand for a shake. I gave his hand a quick shake and took another step back. He thanked me for my service and asked if I wanted to take a picture with him. Keep in mind I was 19 years old, raised on a pretty strict Quaker farm. I knew there was all sorts of evil in the world. This pretty much confirmed my suspicions. This guy wanted to tap my sweet ass. It never occurred to me that this might be the driver. I told the guy I wasn’t interested and had things to do. The PX was open by that point so I said bye and headed in quickly. By the time I headed out of the PX there was a line of people waiting to get autographs. Turns out it was Richard Petty. I still think he was trying to get the buttsex from me.

 

[Poe McKnoe]

About 8 years ago, my girlfriend and I were visiting her sister in New York City. We were on the subway when this fucking guy, who was relatively SNL famous at the time, asks us which subway lines to take to get him somewhere, probably because we looked like tourists (because two of us were). Of course, we didn't know and he went back talking to his group.

That, or he truly didn't know and I'm defensive about being a tourist.

This will probably end up on Portlandia.

 

[MolGenBuckeye]

I worked at Lazarus in Upper Arlington during college, selling men's shoes. One day, an older couple came in, looking for some boat shoes for the gentleman. We made a bit of small talk, and it came up that he had played football for OSU and in the pros. I didn't recognize him, but to be polite I asked what position he played. He replied, "kicker and offensive line". Sounded odd, but being in UA, it wasn't that uncommon to run across former players and I didn't really think about it. Once we found him some shoes that fit, his wife handed me a credit card to pay for them. Last name on the card? Groza.

 

[Poe McKnoe]

PS Does Lydell Ross count as famous? Because he tried to take my 6 pack of beer one time.

 

[Mac]

Wasn't me, I stayed back but watched/listened...but me and some friends were at Little Bar one night. Pryor was outside hammered, and had his friends around him. My buddy, who had class with him, went up to him and said hey "Hey TP, I helped you on x project, do you remember me?" TP looks up, eyes glassed over, drunk as all get out, and says "Helllllll no" (Yes he did hold on the L'). To which point TP's buddies didn't care for someone walking up to him, and decided to try and pick a fight over the simple and polite question.

Now it's even more comical. The whole thing was awkward

 

[Zurp]

Not really awkward for me.. or anyone else, really. Well, maybe for my brother. Anyway, it was our other brother's bachelor party and we were golfing next to the Columbus Zoo. Safari or something? Anyway, my one brother is a pretty good golfer, but one time he hooked off onto another fairway. (That's my move, you baloney-smeller.) So we drive over there to get the ball, and it's next to another group golfing. They seem cool about the fact that his ball was next to theirs - I don't think they were close to his ball when it landed. Anyway, we all stand clear for each other so we can all go about our round. A couple of holes later, it happens again. Again, same people his ball is close to. Again, they're all totally cool about it. We finish up, and get some more beers in the clubhouse. A little while later, that other foursome finished. That other foursome appeared to be a "makeshift foursome", because the 2 guys came in the clubhouse, and the 2 women left. The 2 guys came over to us (there were maybe 10 of us) and they started talking to us. They introduced themselves (I forget Mr Notre Dame hate guy's name, but Mr. Buckeye hat was "Mike"). We all talked about nothing for 20-30 minutes, and then he left. Then some of the other guys were talking about whether he was going back to Dallas, and I was like, "Ok - he lives in Dallas?" And they said, "Well, yeah, he played for the Cowboys last year, but he got hurt so he may have been cut." It was Michael Wiley we were talking to. Ha. And I thought it was some dingus.

Same brother - he has a great story about meeting Z in a book store.

 

[Dryden]

Back in 2000 or 2001, was seated on the sidewalk at Carmine's in Chicago one evening with a guy I was travelling with for work that week, when the guy looks over at the table adjacent to us and says, "Hey, is that Ghandi?"

I look over and observe that the person beside us doesn't look too much like Ghandi, but he does look an awful lot like Ben Kingsley.

Guy sitting with me asks if it would rude to ask for an autograph or something.

I advise it would be really, incredibly rude, especially because not only would he be imposing on Ben Motherfucking Kingsley, but he'd be imposing on Ben Motherfucking Kingsley in the middle of his dinner with a party of about ten other people.

Guy sitting with me hands me his point-and-shoot camera and does a little lean-in to Kingsley's table from where we're sitting so I can "take his picture sitting beside Ben Kingsley" even though Kingsley is sitting at the table beside us and isn't perfectly facing the camera.

I do it, not thinking about the fact that this shitty point-and-shoot camera has an auto-flash that goes off blinding everyone at Ben Kingsley's table.

Ben Kingsley then gives me a death stare like he wants to rip me apart. It's that look he had when he played that bad mofo Don in Sexy Beast.

 

[BayBuck]

My favorite story about my uncle is one where the celebrity was the awkward one. He lives in Buffalo and is a huge Sabres fan, so he's at a game one time, and the guy in the next seat keeps asking him questions about the game. Finally my uncle turns and says basically "Hey buddy, I'm trying to watch a game here." So a little later, maybe during a break or after the game, the guy apologizes and introduces himself as Thurman Thomas. Then he says how cool it was of my uncle not to kiss his butt like everyone else in Buffalo does, and they get to talking about hunting and fishing. So now my 5-foot-5, bald, red-bearded Uncle Art is the Thurmanator's go-to guy for setting up fishing trips.

 

[Buckeye Maniac]

When I was working at Kings Island back in 08 or 09 Rush was putting on a show in Cincinnati one night. I worked at the Wild Thornberries River Adventure, and I was at the load position, which is where people get onto the ride. Early afternoon some lanky hippie looking guy decked out in Rush gear comes up in line with a little girl. I motion for them to get in the boat and send them on their way. When they get back around one of the other workers called me on the phone geeking out because Geddy Lee had just gotten off a boat.

Also at KI, this was in 09, I think. It was a Brady Bunch reunion because they had that episode at KI. This was right about closing time, and I was helping the Beast with their trash. The last ride of the night was for the actors. I ended up standing right by the front of the train when they got in, and Barry Williams (Greg Brady) turned to me and said ''Can I stand up?'' I replied ''Only if you want to die''

 

[Deety]

Since I lived halfway between the airport and work, I used to wind up picking up guest artists often. The first one was a famous pianist. When I walked into the hotel lobby with him to make sure the receptionist knew how to find the reservation, which wasn't in his name, he assumed I was volunteering my services upstairs. I pretended to mishear and stammered something about "no need, someone already checked the room this afternoon," and exited quickly. Made for an awkward week.

And then there was the time this guy...

...walked around the office for an hour discussing the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal in extremely explicit terms, with plenty of embellishments and suggestions from his own imagination. The entire office was incredibly embarrassed, and it didn't help that the little children for our sing-along kept wandering in, looking all angelic. I had to drive him back to his hotel, and my boss, a sweet guy who had been cornered for quite some time and turned the reddest shade of red I've ever seen, said I could stop anytime and make him get out of the car if he was inappropriate. I said I didn't think the one-block drive would be an issue, lol, and he just shook his head.

 

[cincibuck]

I dated Bill Hosket's cousin and played a lot of pick up games with Bill and his Belmont friends at Oakwood's Wonderly Park.

I took Woody's course, and Fred Taylor's course, and Larry Snyder's course. I had Foster Dulles, brother of John Foster Dulles of the DC Airport Dullesses, for a poli sci course.

I was at the Troy Relays and competing against Jerry Lucas in the disc and watched Bob Ferguson win the 100 and 200 and anchor the winning 4 X 100.

Lucas and Havelicek were in my freshman dorm as well as Dick Reisbeck. Reisbeck used to boast that he could sit next to two people in a class, one would get a B, the other would get a B and by copying answers from both he'd get an A. He also had a stack of student activity cards, at least fifty, that he would sell to home games. Don't ask me how he pulled that off.

I have Lou Groza's autographed picture - thanks to my dad. Spent a night at a Moeller smoker drinking beer and listening to Joe Nuxhall talk baseball.

But my biggest thrill had to be senior year of high school. I was one of three kids picked from our civics class to accompany our civics teacher to Fairborn and Springfield, Wittenberg University's stadium to hear JFK speak. I crossed the street in Fairborn just before the motorcade began to get the sunlight out of my face. Everyone else decided to stay in the sun to avoid the October chill. Just as this enormous Lincoln 4 - door convertible got to me, Kennedy looked over, saw my bright red vest and a huge Nixon - Lodge button. he ordered the car to stop, stuck out his hand and said, "John Kennedy, I like that vest, but I'm not very crazy about that button." I shook his hand and managed to get my name out - more soprano than baritone.

 

[BrAss Man]

I didn't party with Pete's Johnson's beard, but I did party with him, into the wee hours of the night. East Harbor State Park, probably 4th of July or Memorial Day weekend, circa late 70's. It used to be the place to go for holiday weekend partying. His buddy kept trying to tell me who he was- I kept calling Bullsh*t. He finally drug out his drivers license and finally had to flash his Rose Bowl ring before I was a believer. We smoked fattys deep into the night. Fast friends for one day. Pretty laid back dude. Could it have been the herb?

 

[Merih]

Great thread.