Men are from Mars and so is Veronica (Monday, October 09, 2006)

Here is another interesting story that happened to me recently. Again, I was working at Miceli's, it was last Saturday night and it was busy. On busy Fridays and Saturdays I;
-play a lot of drums
-seat a lot of folks
-talk to customers
-keep an eye on the floor in general.

Suffice to say that I'm a significant presence. People often ask me when it will be MY turn to sing. I wish I had a better answer but I try and retain my dignity by saying something overly defensive like, "well, I play piano, trumpet and drums, I'm a writer and an actor and I toss a mean pizza pie but, I cannot sing. I wish I could. I really do. But I feel it would be an insult to these artists, (the singing waiters) who have studied voice their whole lives, if I were to hack through some Sinatra standard. So no, I do not sing, BUT, I DO play drums here." Some speech eerily close to that. Hey, when you work in a restaurant and interact with masses of people on a daily basis, you get asked the same questions over and over. So it only makes sense to have solid plug-in answers. _In the middle of the evening I overheard James the cashier comment, "hey, Veronica Mars is on table 82."_This is significant not because I follow Veronica Mars or have even EVER watched Veronica Mars. It is significant because of the following back-story.
Back round April of this year (06) I attended an event to raise awareness for the children's crisis in Northern Uganda. The event was held by the group Invisible Children, an organization founded by three mid twenties guy from San Diego, two of which I know from USC, one of which is my little brother in my fraternity, Alpha Gamma Omega. The event entailed tens of thousands of people literally sleeping over-night, outdoors, on this certain night, all over the US and in other countries. It was symbolic in that it mimed what Northern Ugandan children have to go through every night. It was called the Global Night Commute and I strongly urge you to look it and the Invisible Children group up. They are worth you while.
The event was very successful at garnering media attention and there were a handful of news crews in Santa Monica with us. Because I was planning on being there for the entirety of the night I decided to meet some folks. As I was walking around I happened to overhear a guy and a girl talking about actor stuff. Ever being the curious one on tips and opinions regarding the business I turned around and said, "are you two actors?" They both replied in the affirmative with which I followed, "that's great because I'm looking for theatrical rep (agents for film/tv) right now and I'm curious about your opinion. Are either one of you represented?" The fella said he was not but the girl said she was. When I inquired by whom she was repped, she replied matter of factly, "William Morris."
I don't suppose you have to know much about entertainment or agencies to be familiar with the name William Morris. I mean, the first time I heard of The William Morris Agency was when I was a child watching I love Lucy. Suffice to say they are HUGE. And if they are repping you then you have got something good going on. I replied with enthusiasm and asked where she was from, where she went to school, you know, chit chat. She seemed really nice and friendly and she was obviously really cute, so, not wanting to over stay my welcome, I bid them adieu and good evening and departed to meet some more folks.
On the way to doing that I ran into a few of my buddies and excitedly told them, "hey, I just met this really cute girl. She over there in the red coat with the cute hat and the blond hair." And as if it was a competition they all clamored, "dude, that's Veronica Mars", that's Kristin Bell", "she has her own show", "she's super famous", "she's gorgeous", "she's here to talk to the media about the cause" and so forth. And truly, the first thing I thought of was this unattractive and obnoxious girl I knew in the second grade named Kristin Bell. I had never heard of Veronica Mars, I had never heard of Kristin Bell, but I HAD just talked with her and I thought she was cool and cute. I found it entertaining.
So, now that you're caught up, we go back to Miceli's and you see the scenario I was in when being informed about table 82 and said celebrity. That's when I began to map out my plan so as to have an interaction with her. First, whenever I sat anybody near her and her parents I,_-made sure she could see my face_-sounded like a sincere and amiable fella(which I undoubtedly am)_-perhaps threw out something charming/humorous (also am)_-I NEVER looked at her_-perhaps twice I passed by and cleared a few plates from the surrounding tables_-I made sure to do my "Matré d" talking thing with a table or two around them so as not to seem out of the ordinary.
AND, the neat part was that she could see me playing drums, so I felt like a cool musician. Finally, as their meal came to an end, I walked by and kinda peaked over at them and said real familiar like, "hi there, how was everything tonight? How was your food? How was the entertainment? Did you get dessert?" Stuff like that, not all in rapid fire succession but just casually.
As I did this I mostly made eye contact with her parents just so as to treat her like a normal human being and not a celebrity. Not that she was acting like a celebrity or anything, I just think most people who are recognizable and who still act human enjoy when someone treats them normally.
But THEN, I pulled out my fake but sly double take and paused my conversation on her and said, "...weren't you, weren't you at the Invisible Children thing..." "YES!" she sincerely exclaimed. "THAT'S where I know you from. I was trying to place you all night." "I'm Kristin", "I'm Charlie" we exchanged with a handshake. "Yes I know, BUT, I didn't know that then" I humorously replied inferring that our interaction late that night in April was genuine and human void of any celebrity cognizance.
We went on to talk about her parents and their stay out here for the weekend and funny enough I told her the story about Casey and the head shot (see previous blog). I don't know why in the world I would tell her that but I don't think she found me creepy. It was a really nice conversation filled with anecdotes about me at USC, her being on billboards and all sorts of fun things. I was really impressed with how I was keeping my cool which was a challenge in part because of her celebrity but mostly because I found her really attractive and really sweet. When I realized that I WAS keeping it cool, I began to LOOSE my cool.
So I ended the conversation with an invitation to come back and say hello and wished her parents a safe flight. I hope she does. I'd like to take her out.