The other day, I bought a bus ticket from a Port Authority vending machine. When I reached into the bin to fish out the ticket and the receipt, I found a second receipt. The person who used this machine before me was… Jennifer Lopez. I was two minutes late from meeting her… buying a bus ticket to New Jersey. Who knew? I guess she takes public transportation.
Of course, that isn’t really her. And even if I did meet her, I wouldn’t tell anyone about it. Well, I may write about it here, and I would tell my wife, but that’s about it. That goes for most of the celebrities, not just Jennifer Lopez. I wouldn’t tell anyone because I don’t want to be the type of person that gets excited over seeing someone famous. But truthfully, I am that type of person. If I saw Tom Hanks getting into his limo in New York, that would be pretty interesting. I would want to share this interesting thing that happened in my life. But I don’t want my life to get more interesting just because I saw someone who has no idea I exist. And as much as I would like to say, “hey, guess who I saw in New York?”, I envision myself saying that, and I don’t like it. I guess it’s a pride thing.
However, if I saw someone who wasn’t all that famous, someone who is known by a certain group of fans, I would say hello. Someone like a local underground musician. In my case, it would be comedians. I would approach comedians who have not yet hit big time. Comedians performing in local clubs, comedians on the road, comedians who’ve been on Comedy Central. But once that comedian goes into acting, that’s probably where I draw the line.
Bottom line is, I don’t want my encounter with a celebrity to be a one-way street. I want to approach someone who would appreciate the attention. That’s also where pride comes in – I don’t want to acknowledge you unless you are going to appreciate the acknowledgement.fa
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