I’m with @cstatman, it’s so easy to plod through life without thinking about what you’re doing as interesting. Heck, I bummed around the comic industry for a while and even if you don’t think what you’re doing is cool, talk to a fan of the industry about what you did (assuming you don’t get sick of the jokes about being a tracer ). You’ll see how the everyday aspects of that job are VERY INTERESTING to those outside the industry.
I delivered food and still wandered away from that mundane job with a bunch of celebrity encounters that were just a part of doing business (Me: “Here’s your food.” Them: “Thanks!”).
Worst case scenario, you just don’t have a celebrity story (but I guarantee you’ve got some damn good stories from your life).
Thank you. This has turned out more affirming than I expected
“A tracer”? If only it had been that easy I seemed to get weird pencillers who required more than tracing; with the exception of John McCrea, who’s pencils where lovely and clear.
The jerk celebrity I heard about consistently before he died was Milton Berle (who was also reviled by other comedians as a joke thief). People who worked in all sorts of settings where he might be present (newsrooms, film sets, restaurants, high-end retail stores, banks, home service) would just spontaneously tell me what a raging arsehole Uncle Miltie was.
In my experience (limited though it is) I haven’t seen much difference, percentage wise, in celebrities versus other “anonymous” rich people acting like assholes to service staff, or just in general. If anything, the odds are more likely that famous rich person will be (or at least behave) like more of a mensch than that anonymous rich person.
About the only celebrity I’ve met (excluding a british one who visited our studios) was way back when I worked in an arcade, and I got to play run and gun against phife dog… who beat me, but gave me one hell of a hug
I did see Toby Jones a year or so ago on the Old Street Tube station platform, but I didn’t want to be one of those people, so I left him in peace.
Milton Berle was really nice to my mom, strangely enough. He sent her tickets to his show, great seats, and a backstage pass. He was really happy to see her at the show, too. Maybe he only liked short, sharp-dressed brunettes?
She said Henny Youngman grabbed her and tried to kiss her “with those big, icky fish lips!” as she described the encounter. She managed to shove him off her and escape. Horrifying!
I worked in the bar at a hotel while I was at university in the early 80’s, and the only celebrity of note I met was Andre the Giant, who was utterly charming and sat at the bar and chatted with me for a couple of hours. He was with a tour of WWF wrestlers (which at the time I loved as great stoner TV), and spoke with fondness about the Australian circuit of the 70’s (which I had loved). Quite late in the night after the rest of the WWF guys (including Mr Fuji, who had the most pronounced Californian drawl I had ever heard) had gone to their rooms, Mario Milano who I had adored as a ten-year old wandered into the restaurant to see his old friend. There were tears of joys as they hugged - it was one of the most heart warming things I have ever seen. Literally giants among men, and both with enormous hearts.
He was a drunk, too. Every year, his network affiliate had a “Best of the Class” day, where high school valedictorians were invited to come to the studio. They took pictures of us, which ran on ads on the channel, and we got a certificate and a fancy pen. Billy Bonds showed up drunk (we could smell it on him) and obnoxious.
Diana Lewis was also there, and she was an absolute sweetheart. I’m glad I got to meet her (very briefly.)
He was also a notorious sex hound who leveraged his celebrity and the (by all accounts true) rumour about his “endowment”, so I can see that happening if he had her in his sights.
On the other hand, some LA waitstaff base their niceness on whether you’re a celebrity or not. I had the opportunity to spend some time in an organic café in Santa Monica with a celeb and had a very nice afternoon. On another occasion I went there sans celeb and I couldn’t get the staff to even acknowledge my existence.
I lived in LA for 15 years and can say your experience was an outlier. The waitstaff are not mean to non-celebrities any more than waitstaff are in Ohio or Alabama. LA has 13 million people in it and a few thousand of those are celebrities. Even the hip Hollywood scene places have a tiny tiny percentage of famous guests.
Oh, god, billy was a horrible drunk. He was really awful to fellow customers, not just the staff where mom worked. She stayed as far away from him as poss.
shoemaker wound up drunkenly crashing his car in a really bad wreck which crippled him. He sued the state of CA, trying to claim a bad road was what done it, but he lost.
). You’ll see how the everyday aspects of that job are VERY INTERESTING to those outside the industry.
I seemed to get weird pencillers who required more than tracing; with the exception of John McCrea, who’s pencils where lovely and clear.
