Crazy semi-famous celeb customer!

[B&NGoddess]

eunice kennedy once rolled up. we had the credit card slip signed by her framed at one point.

dustin diamond, better known as screech from saved by the bell, comes in occasionally. and do not call him screech. you'd think you just sodomized his mom the way he reacts to that.

[ta2ooed1]

Not that I got to meet anybody but a friend from highschool went off to LA after graduation and his band was the opener for NIN during the downward spiral tour. I just about died since NIN is, was and will always be my number 1 fav band!

[AFpheonix]

I actually went to grade school with a kid whose legal first name, as given to him by his parents, was "Z". (For those non-Americans, it was not pronounced "Zed" but "Zee".) And that was what everyone called him, it being his name and all.

Why do parents do this to their children? What's wrong with a normal name? We have a customer who's name is Mle. Pronounced "Emily". Now, what was wrong with just naming her "Emily", rather than trying to be all nifty and then having the poor person go through life with people stumbling all over her name because it's spelled ridiculously?

[trunks2k]

\
When it's time to vote, which we do at the school, the volunteers make a huge production of them both having children that go to the school. Thanks, I all ready knew that and I'm still not going to vote for them.

I hope you mean volunteers for their respective campaigns, not the volunteers that run the voting place.

[Misanthropical]

My little guy goes to the same school as the children of our mayor and a local judge. The major and the judge are both huge jerks that think everyone should swoon at their feet.

The judge has a very sweet wife and daughter, but he is always on an ego trip. I refuse to vote for him because of his attitude. My little guy and his daughter have had a crush on each other since Kindergarten.

The major always wants his ego stroked and makes a huge production of going to the school, even if it's just to sign his child out for the day. I don't vote for him either.

When it's time to vote, which we do at the school, the volunteers make a huge production of them both having children that go to the school. Thanks, I all ready knew that and I'm still not going to vote for them.

[Jester]

The other was the magician Brian Gillis. We went to dinner at The Magic Castle as his guests twice. It's a very interesting place.

Yes, yes it is. I had one of my more amusing moments when I was there with my friends in '03. We had just seen our first act there, an excellent magician by the name of Cody Fischer. Afterwards, he was talking to various members of the audience, and I waited patiently to talk to him as well. After he was done with everyone else, I introduced myself and said I was a magician in Key West. His response floored me and my friends: "Oh, YOU'RE Jester! I was wondering about what you looked like!" Yes, a magician performing at the Magic Castle recognized little ole me (well, my name anyways), and that can never be anything but cool!

I have to say that Carol Channing and Barbra Eden are two of the sweetest women I ever met.

My laundry woman (who I call "my favorite woman on the island") looks amazingly like Barbara Eden. She is a lovely woman in her sixties that I absolutely adore. Of course, I always tell her she is far too young for me to ever do anything more than adore her--she is quite the firecracker, that one!


Back on topic, in the next month I am actually going to have to call a big time celebrity I don't know to discuss an umpcoming event we want him to do a little something something for. (We have mutual friends.) It should be an interesting conversation.

And no, I am not nervous at all. If I was able to speak coherently to My Personal Goddess (Nancy Wilson of my favorite band of all time, Heart) years ago, not to mention do magic tricks and dance with one of my favorite movie actresses more recently, talking to this dude or other famous people? No problem!

[South Texan]

I used to work at the ABC affiliate in my city, and we often had celebrities come through to promote some new movie or the touring show they were in. I have to say that Carol Channing and Barbra Eden are two of the sweetest women I ever met.

I got to put the microphone on a young, then unknown and extremely obnoxious and hyperactive Jim Carrey who came to promote the forgettable “Once Bitten”. He was just weird and incoherent. Everyone on the production crew disliked him.

In the summer of 1985, I was grabbed to take some water back to an actor who was at the station to promote a miniseries called “North and South”. I was grabbed because I was a straight male and would not fawn all over the actor. I had to fight through a small mob of female secretaries who were trying to get a peek through the door of a back office to deliver the glass of water to what appeared to be a very handsome and very hung over guy I later learned was named Patrick Swayze. At the time I had no idea of who he was. When the cameras turned on, however, he gave no hint of his hangover and was very charming to the news anchors interviewing him.

[Casino Jockey]

this isn't mine but a friends from another forum

Toni Collette walks into our Apple Centre and lucky me was right near the door. She explains that she can't open documents that her friendds are sending her via email. I check out her PowerBook G3 and see that they're Word Documents...and she doesn't have MS Office installed.

The next ten minutes are spent explaining that she can either go through several steps to convert each one to AppleWorks or buy MS Office. Toni insists that her Windows-using friends can open them, and complains that Mac's can't. I try to explain that they must have MS Word installed, but she says her circle of script-writing buddies would have told her if that was the case. Her whole attitude was 'look-you-lowly-retail-worker-i'm-right-and-you're-an-idiot'.

In the meantime everyone else in the store is going about their business while trying not to gawk.

Eventually Toni succumbs to my suggestion that she buys MS Office for $995 (we were a rip-off).

"How much is it?" she asks...
"Nine-Ninety Five" I say.
"OK, can you set it up for me?"

Eager to get this over with I take her credit card, bust open the package and start the installation process for her, while I go ring up the purchase. I come back, give her the invoice and check that installation is going OK. Suddenly Toni is off again saying

"A thousand dollars! You said it was only ten dollars!"
"No I said Nine Ninety Five. As in Nine Hundred and Ninety Five" I say as I realised this just got worse.
"Well I'm not paying a thousand bucks just to open documents I should be able to already!"
"I can credit your card of course but I have to uninstall the program."
"Well that doesn't help me does it?"

The next 10 minutes are spent going around in circles: you can download a program to convert them to AppleWorks, but you have to convert them back before you send them to your friends. That's a waste of time. You can buy Office. That's too expensive.

Eventually she walks out with a copy of Office installed and $995 poorer.
Colleagues are only interested if I got her autograph.

Have never paid to see a Toni Collette movie since.

[cloudiko]

Actually yes, I have had a couple of famous people come into my old place of employment. It was a four star resturant out in the middle of nowhere, but apparently it attracted the attention of one of MTV's Veejays...I don't remember who he was, actually. However, one of my coworkers was fumbling all over herself and ended up crying in front of the guy just to get his autograph. I didn't get it.
Why couldn't somebody worth seeing come in, like Alton Brown? Dangit.

[bigjimaz]

You know, don't you, that Patsy Cline died in the early 1960s?

March 5, 1963 to be exact.

[Reyneth]

Rachel Ray was there a couple years ago and she decided she was tired and left with 500 people still waiting. One more reason why I don't like Rachel Ray. Glad I wasn't working there at the time.

She was at "my" store last fall. And is rumored to be coming back. I'm far from thrilled. She insisted upon a secure, private entrance and pathway to the balcony where we have large signings - not a big deal, no problem. What does she do? Walks in the *main* door. The crowds cause her to start a good 20 minutes late - which she does not stay after to make up.

Also, she kept saying "Photogirl, take a photo of these people...."
Ummm, I'm not working FOR you, I am taking photos for the bookstore. I have no obligation to the customers - if I wanted to, I could, but it's a huge hassle and not worth it. Her bossing me around like that resulted in me having to sort through 50+ emails after the event and finding everyone's photo to email them - all for nothing. I'm putting my foot down if she tries that one next time.

I'm not a fan either, can you tell?

I am very jealous you have had Emeril and Mario! I'm dying for Alton Brown to come (he came to another local location a few years ago, which has now closed) because I love his show. Word is he was fabulous - got there early, walked up behind the PR person setting up the display and "So who is this guy, some big shot or something?" She recognized him and played along - "Nah, a nobody but you know how things go...." LOL He got a big kick out of that.

[Andara Bledin]

So, he became your ex when Danzig stabbed him through the face with a dagger made from the bones of children and emptied his blood into a golden chalice, right?

Actually, I've heard he's like the nicest guy in the world in real-life.

Yeah. My ex said he just pulled out is drivers license and asked if that was good enough, smiling the whole time. I think he was kind of happy that people actually check on that stuff.

You know, don't you, that Patsy Cline died in the early 1960s?

Um... ok, I guess it wasn't her. I know it was someone in the country scene, but I don't follow country at all, so I'm really, really bad with their names.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

BookstoreEscapee - what would it cost to get a signed copy of one of Sylvia Browne's books??? Adventures of a Psychic would be preferable, but any would really do.

Well, if the store happens to have any signed copies in stock it doesn't cost anything extra. She was there at least 4 years ago, now. She was doing a reading/signing, had several "requirements" (such as she had to have iced tea, not water, I believe) and her entire thing lasted about 20 minutes. I was at register and saw people starting to leave, and I asked the MOD, is she done reading already? and he said, "She's done, period." Shortest author event I've ever seen. Most authors will sign extra copies for the store so that they can display autographed copies.

If you go to bn.com, you can search for events, you might be able to find out if she'll be signing at any stores (though in my quick search just now she didn't come up). At the bottom of the homepage, look for "About B&N" and in there look for the Store Locator. There are options to search for stores and for events by store or author. You might try her own webpage. Maybe you can order autographed copies from there, or at least find out what events she's doing.

On a related note, I do have a picture with Emeril. He stayed until after 11, signed every single customer's book, and then took a picture with the staff after we closed. (That was my first big event, about a month after I started working there in 97, and it was PACKED.) The manager had copies made for all of us. He was very cool. Giada was just there last week (this week?), the second time she's been there. I stopped in the first time she was there. I didn't talk to her but watched her signing books for a few minutes, and she was just sooo nice, all smiles and chatting with the customers, and stayed for a few hours until everyone got their books signed. Rachel Ray was there a couple years ago and she decided she was tired and left with 500 people still waiting. One more reason why I don't like Rachel Ray. Glad I wasn't working there at the time.

My dad's ex-brother-in-law won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry back in 1996. He did a talk at Lucent where my dad worked, and people he worked with were so impressed my dad knew him. He put one of the flyers on his bulletin board with the family pics and stuff, and people would say, You know him?! and my dad would kinda wave it off and say, Oh, yeah, he was the best man at my wedding... (Sadly, he passed away last year. I never met him; he and my aunt had been divorced as long as I can remember and also lived in Texas.)

[Reyneth]

Not counting the celebs who came in for book signings (and Store1 gets some big ones - they just had Giada DeLaurentiis; they've had John Edward a few times, Sylvia Browne, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batalli, Chris Bohjalian (sp?), the list goes on...)

I take photos at a local bookstore for signings and met Giada - she's a sweetheart, isn't she?
I've met way more celebs doing the booksignings than I can even remember (Clay Aiken, Cal Ripken, Ron Jeremy, Chis Paolini, Candace Bushnell.....etc) - some are cool, some (EVOO and Yummo, anyone?) - notsomuchatall.
I once waited on Jim Thome (Clev Indians player, recently switched teams IIRC) at my camera store and didn't even know who he was. All of my male coworkers were green with envy. He was very nice, too!

[IlovemyGeek]

When I was in college I worked at the Margaritaville store during the grand opening. I was down in the tunnels on my first day getting dinner and I got really lost. I asked someone for directions back, he told me to follow that guy up there he's the owner. I ended up sharing the elevator with Jimmy Buffet. Super nice guy. I was 19 at the time and kinda shy and he was like how are you. I was like oh its my first day and I got lost in the tunnels, he said it happened to him all the time. He ended up playing an impromtu concert that night. It was pretty cool.