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Best Cab Ride Ever
“I won the chance to take a cab ride and grab some pizza with the actor Bobby Cannavale. I was home in NYC on winter break from drama school in LA and made a donation to a Syria relief fundraiser that offered the hangout as a prize. We got some slices in the West Village then sat in a park and talked about everything from acting to how one gets a girlfriend like Rose Byrne. It was a dream come true for me as he’s long been an actor I look up to. In fact, it was a particular performance of his in a Broadway play that convinced me to go to college specifically for acting. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to tell him that in person. He also did his part in persuading me to move back to NYC after graduation to start my career, which I wound up doing. I do not regret it for a second.”
Can I Keep You?
Universal Pictures
“Not a spend a day thing, actually even better. When I was nine, Devon Sawa came to my house! This was at the pinnacle of his stardom when he was young and hot and all over Teen Beat and Tiger Beat magazines. I had posters of him plastered all over my bedroom and watched “Casper” and “Now and Then” probably a million times. My two cousins and I were obsessed and in love with Devon Sawa.
It turns out my uncle went to high school with him and they were friends. He found out how obsessed we were and planned to bring him by my house the next time he was in town. And he did! Imagine your biggest celebrity crush when you’re only 9 years old coming over to your house! We all screamed like idiots when we saw him, and my uncle pulled up in a red convertible. He was so nice and just as cute in person. He sat with my uncle and my mom on our patio, drinking and just hanging out while we brought out poster after poster for him to sign and had our pictures taken with him.
Eventually, my mom told us to leave him alone and stop bringing out posters. When he was leaving, we cried and gave him roses and my one cousin asked him, ‘Can I keep you?’ (His famous line from Casper). He was all smiles and hugged us all goodbye and told my mom we were too adorable. Just a genuinely cool dude who was willing to let his buddy he probably hadn’t even seen in a while drag him to a modest townhouse out in the suburbs to make a couple kids’ days while he was probably pretty busy because his career was going great at the time. I’ll never ever forget that.”
A Real Power Trip
“In elementary school, I was one of the winners of a competition to ‘Spend the day at the State House.’ We got to go tour the State House, and then spend four hours, one on one, with a state senator. But instead of the being assigned to a state senator, I got assigned to the Lieutenant Governor who at the time was Joe Kernan.
It was the best day of my life. We hung out the entire four hours. He ordered me pizza, let me sit in his chair and watch Sponge Bob, talked about being a POW in Vietnam, let me see all of his war memorabilia, and then let me ride in his car as we went to get coffee and ice cream. On the way back, everyone told me how they essentially got relegated to sitting in the corner and watching their state senator/congressmen do office work. He eventually went on to be the Governor for a short time, and it still makes me happy thinking about that day.”
Sharing a Universe With Spider-Man’s Pal
“My buddy won a contest to meet Stan Lee last weekend. It was a breakfast, and he could bring one friend. I sat a foot away from him for about an hour and a half. We got to share stories about travel and we had one or two nerd questions for him. He is a really down to earth guy. 10/10 would do again.”
“The Most Down To Earth People You Could Ever Hope To Meet”
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“I won a charity auction on eBay to get to hang out with the Dropkick Murphy’s over St Patrick’s day weekend. It was for two people to go to all four weekend concerts, a breakfast at a bar, and a Bruins hockey game.
The first night we were given two all-access laminates and taken backstage to meet the band. They were all amazing and even though I was nervous, they did their best to make us feel at home, insisting we help ourselves to food and drinks backstage. When I told Ken about my plan to bring a different friend to each thing he said no need to do that and told their manager to bring me two more laminates so that all 4 of us could come to the shows. My friends and I had the time of our lives that weekend, from drinking more than they did to us all pilling in Ken’s car with his family after the hockey game and him giving us a ride to our hotel. They are just about the best most down to earth people you could ever hope to meet.”
Fun Time Singing With A Human Smile Emoji
Fox Searchlight Pictures
“I got to meet Drew Barrymore as part of her promotions for “Whip It,” the roller derby movie. She was on a national tour and I got to help arrange things with my roller derby team for a local screening and a select group of us to sing the 7th Inning Stretch at Wrigley Field with her. One of my teammates was Kristin Wiig’s body double in the film too.
After the film screening, we were ushered out a secret back exit from the movie theatre to a parking lot where we stood in a circle and chatted with Drew while being filmed. She is very sweet and very small. She is like a human smile emoji. We then were put into large black SUVs with livery plates. We then SPED to Wrigley Field, where we took another back route up to a skybox fully catered with Chicago style hot dogs and drinks and Drew came in and hung with us again. She admitted she didn’t know all the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” so we all practiced it a few times together, and one of us taught her the extra Chicago Cubs version of it. It was very fun and surreal.
Then we all were led to the press box to stand right at the front where the crowd can see you, honestly to me this was the coolest part and I am not a baseball fan, and the announcer introduced her and us. We were packed in there like sardines and sang the song and then promptly left so the media could actually see the game again. We said goodbye to Drew somewhere along the way, and the rest of us were free to eat, drink, and enjoy the remainder of the game from the skybox.
I have no idea how the Cubs did that day, but it was 2009, so they probably lost.”
Wrestler Scares Kid Into Stone Cold Silence
“Back in ’99, I got a chance to go through the Make-A-Wish Foundation to meet Stone Cold Steve Austin, which to 7-year-old me was a big freakin’ deal.
Anyway, my family and I drove all the way from south Alabama to Greensboro, N.C. (I believe because my mom refused to fly), and got to hang out backstage with him before the show. The problem was I was so scared/starstruck that I refused to talk. He was awesome and signed a t-shirt and took pictures with me and my mom.”
Her Phone Flirting Worked Like A Boss!
“My mother won tickets to a Rick Springfield concert here in Orlando a few years ago. The venue wasn’t large and had standing room only, so we made sure to get there early, but so did a bunch of other attendees. We were about four people away from the stage, but it was still pretty close. My mom had brought an album of Rick’s she’s had since it came out in the ’80s. While we had no idea how to get it signed, we had it at the ready with a sharpie. At the time, I had an app on my phone which allows you to flash or scroll words on the screen, so with the album, I held it up flashing, ‘Hey Rick, Please sign?’ Rick Springfield walks out onto the stage, sees it (along with the other few posters and stuff there) and laughs, pointing between it and himself as if to say, ‘Look at the difference between the cover and me now!’
The concert goes on, we have the album still at the ready, but in the meantime, I decided to use the app to continue ‘chatting’ with Rick. I’m putting up song quotes, retorts to song lyrics, funny gabs, etc. And every time I change it, Rick squinted past the stage lighting to read my phone and sometimes has to laugh around his singing. It gets to the point that people notice him squinting, in front of me people turn around to read it, behind me people tap on my shoulder for me to turn the phone around for them to read it. At almost every concert, Rick played a song of his called ‘Human Touch,’ and he ventured out into the audience. We didn’t know if he was going to do it, but we hoped so. The time came, the song started, he got into the crowd and made a beeline right for mom and me! She had the album supported by her hands, I was gripping the top of the album so it didn’t get snatched, he signed it, and hugged my mom and me as he was passing through the audience. We put the album in a bag we brought and the concert continued on with me getting recommended lines to put on my phone to show Rick. It was a strange and funny thing, because I essentially used my phone to text flirt with Rick Springfield during his concert, just so I could get my mom his autograph. All in all, I’d say that Rick is a cool guy, just from that experience.”
Does He Remember The Flowers?
“I won a radio contest to have a semi-private concert with Jason Mraz. I got to request a song for him to play, he was 15 feet away from me sitting on a stool with his guitar. I’m pretty sure I requested ‘Sleep All Day’ or ‘Too Much Food.’
Afterward, if you were a contest winner you got to meet him, get an autograph and take a picture with him. His song ‘The Remedy’ was written about a friend who was fighting cancer. I asked him how his friend was doing, his face lit up and said he was doing well and was traveling with them on tour. I also gave him two sunflowers because in ‘The Remedy’ video he put a sunflower in a soldier’s weapon. I did this basically in hopes that when I told this story 13 years later, he would remember me and think I was awesome.”
A Simple Look Turns Him Into A Frozen Statue
“I somehow won a contest to meet the cast of Spider-Man 3 (I think it was on a promotional site for the video game). It wasn’t an all day thing but we were supposed to be able to meet them backstage for a bit, take pictures, etc. I remember sitting down next to a guy and watching him play Spider-Man 3 on PS3. He was complaining about not being able to kill random people on the street to some PR guy from Activision. At one point he turned and looked at me and I realized it was James Franco.
I never ever thought I’d be the kind of person who would be star struck but it goes a bit beyond that. I froze in place and was unable to do or say anything. He may have said hello but it’s all a blur. It was a completely involuntary reaction and I’m not sure how long the exchange lasted but I think he got uncomfortable and turned around. He left pretty shortly after that. Over the years, I’ve learned that I can’t see a famous person in real life without shutting down. Even obscure D list people or reality TV people. I saw some lady from Survivor in a Costco once and I turned into a human statue until she left the aisle. I do wonder if James Franco remembers getting stared into submission by a creepy fat dude in NYC though.”
Special Attention Makes Her The Envy Of Every Girl
“When I was 15, I got an invitation to spend an hour with my favorite band, Staind, before a show. I started a small fan site for the band and the night before the concert I got an email telling me to turn up at X time and place and bring some sort of ID. I was babysitting that night and happened to check my email there and almost woke the kid up screaming with excitement. I went the next day and a group of six of us got led to a back room in the venue and soon the band walked in, we got to spend an hour just hanging around talking. They signed a bunch of stuff for us and we all got a photo with them.
Afterward, they let us into the main concert area before the opened the door, so we all got to stand right at the front on the barrier. During the show, the singer was singing while looking right at me, and kept leaning over to grab my hand, passed me his used guitar picks and did pretty much everything he could to make that night super special for me. Every girl in that place wanted to kill me that night as most had a crush on him. My mother also loved the band so she was at the concert with me and also came backstage. She had whispered into the singer’s ear telling him that I had been struggling with depression for years (diagnosed at age four) and used the band’s music to help and thanked him for writing it. He spent the whole night spoiling me to try and help. It had me on an upper for months afterward and was pretty much the best thing anyone could have done for me.”
The Visit Lead 15 Seconds Of Movie Fame
“I ended up running over Bruce Willis, and it was the absolute best experience of my life.
If you ever get a Make-a-Wish, ask to meet Kevin Smith. I was a bald, chemo-ey mess, my dad contacted Make-a-Wish. They came out and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to meet Kevin Smith, and within a week our tickets were bought for us and our trip was planned. Usually, it takes weeks/months for celebrities to get back to Make-a-Wish.
Kevin had us whisked out to New York to meet him on the set of Cop Out. He met me with the biggest bear hug of my life. He was the nicest, sweetest, most genuine celebrity I could ever imagine. I spent the entire day on set. I met Tracy Morgan, Bruce Willis, man-handled all the equipment they would let me touch, and in the middle of it all Kevin says, ‘Hey, you wanna be in a movie?’
‘Yeah, I wanna be in a movie.’
‘Okay, I’m gonna have you run over Bruce Willis.’
‘Thanks, Kevin Smith.’
So if you watch ‘Cop Out,’ I’m the student driver that runs over Bruce under the El-Train. At the end of it all, he invited us back to his penthouse overlooking the Statue of Liberty and let us see the rough cut of Cop Out. I spent all day and night with him. My life has been miserable in comparison ever since.”
Turns Out This Band Isn’t As Lame As People Think
“My best friend won a game of Blackjack and got to see a Nickelback concert in Vegas. I was fortunate to be invited. He could take five people total. Each had a room plus cash to gamble with. We did the setup time with the band to play Blackjack…which was just awkward…but they were extremely nice about it. The backstage passes were fun…getting to see all the goings on behind the scene…hung out with the crew/roadies.
People give them crap, but they put on a good show. The after party was really fantastic — free drinks and you could just stand there and talk to them and a few other celebrities such as Carrot Top. We spent around eight hours or so with them…and I can tell you I have never been so wasted in my life. It was a great time.”