What would you do if you met...?

LOG · Sep 9, 2009

I recently learned that George R.R. Martin will be attending a convention at the same time I will. Not sure what to say if I actually meet him...

Anyway, what would you say/do if you met a famous person?

Romantic Heretic · Sep 9, 2009

Last (sort of) famous person I met we had a long talk about a book of his I had read. I also found out he really dug ichthyosaurs.

Cassiopeia · Sep 9, 2009

It would depend on who I met.

Gregg · Sep 9, 2009

Be polite - just like when you meet anybody else.

Sweetleaf · Sep 9, 2009

If it was someone I was a big fan of, Like Dean Koontz or Raymond Feist, I would probably get starstruck and make a complete dick of myself.

backslashbaby · Sep 9, 2009

Just like anyone you meet, really. Except that they aren't surprised if you talk about their work on your own for smalltalk because they know they're famous

But talk about the work, you know? Or just a brief compliment. Don't act weird at all [unless you're weird with everyone I guess

].

-- unless the famous person is Ralph Lauren. Him, please be a d!ck to. He'll sure as hell be a d!ck to you

Cassiopeia · Sep 9, 2009

I think it depends on who that person is. There are actors I won't approach. We've got tons of them here and it just seems invasive to me to go up to them...but that's just me. If I was in a group and they were introduced, I'd shake their hand and say hello, nice to meet you and then promptly shut up.

Well that is unless they are Brian Wimmer, I've met him and sat and had drinks with him and a couple other people back in 98 and I didn't seem too shy back then.

thethinker42 · Sep 9, 2009

I've met several celebrities. Linda Evans, Diamond Rio (the whole band), Harry Anderson (Night Court), a few baseball players, Gloria Steinem, several regular cast members of The X-Files (Mitch Pileggi, Tom Braidwood, Chris Carter, a few others), etc. Just chatted with them like normal people, managed to avoid getting too starstruck. I like to think I'd be able to do that with most celebrities if I ever met them, but I'm reasonably certain I'd make a complete ass of myself if the celebrity in question had the surname "Leto"...

Cassiopeia · Sep 9, 2009

We are naming names?

George Clooney, Brian Wimmer, Marie Osmond, Ed O'Neill, Royce And Rickson Gracie, Robert Redford.

backslashbaby · Sep 9, 2009

Fun.

I'm only naming the biggest a$$hole

Actually, I'd name the nice ones, but most are very nice. Neutral at least.

Silent Rob · Sep 10, 2009

I'd invite them to kiss the ring.

spamwarrior · Sep 10, 2009

Emma Watson attends school near me. If I met her, I'd probably talk to her like a normal person. Walk up to her, shake her hand, introduce me. I've never watched any of her movies, but I'd be feeling very starstruck inside... which would probably help me talk to her like a normal person. Funny, right?

If I met someone I adored, i'd probably make a fool of myself.

JimmyB27 · Sep 10, 2009

Hide, probably.

Silent Rob · Sep 10, 2009

spamwarrior said:
Emma Watson attends school near me. If I met her, I'd probably talk to her like a normal person. Walk up to her, shake her hand, introduce me.

If I met her, I'd talk to her like a normal person...

...until I got close enough to capture her in the sorting hat and deliver her up to the one who cannot be named.

Mwah ha ha ha.

Wayne K · Sep 10, 2009

I don't get fuzzy when I meet celebrities. I have 14 people in my two memoirs who have their own Wiki pages, and I'll tell you this: Most of them are self involved and boring. There are exceptions, but believe me, not many.

MsGneiss · Sep 10, 2009

It totally depends on the "type" of famous person. If I were to meet Henry Rollins, I'd flirt. If I were to meet Tom Lehrer I'd talk about his work in teaching and math as well as his brief song-writing career. When I met Neil Gaiman at the signing of "The Graveyard Book," I told him how much I enjoyed his stories, and how his Sandman is the reason I started reading comics. When I met Seymour Papert I asked him for a job. When I met Oliver Sacks, I asked about an error in one of his book.

I think you have to gage what you know about the person you are meeting, and balance that along with your feelings about their life and work.

cray · Sep 10, 2009

i would scream, dance around like i had ants in my pants and say 'oh my god, oh my god' a lot.

scarletpeaches · Sep 10, 2009

I have met famous people. I'm related to some. Like Lori, if their surname was "Leto" or "Farrell" I'd make a complete cock-knocker of myself, but I think it'd be worth it just to breathe the same oxygen as them.

LorelieBrown · Sep 10, 2009

When I met Anne Rice (way back when I was in high school, and she was still cool), I told her that I'd apparently met her before, but didn't remember it (True. My godfather swears we met her when we lived in SF in the 80s). She found that hilarious.

Only other famous people I've met have been romance writers at convention, where I'm trying to comport myself professionally. Or at least like I didn't just have five margaritas down at the bar.

DeleyanLee · Sep 10, 2009

Having done programming for many years for fairly sizeable (at the time) SF/F cons, I've talked to lots of great and iconic authors, editors and agents, both to invite them as guests and brainstorming panel ideas that they'd like to do. Sometimes I developed a friendship with them, sometimes it was just con business, and sometimes they remembered me at subsequent cons.

They're really just people. Some are serious asshats, but many of them are just normal people doing a job they enjoy.

If you get a chance to meet them, start with a normal "Hi" and try to melt into any conversation they might be having at the time. Get a feel for their personality and see if you can get a feel for if they'll tolerate a lot of fan-gushing (not all of them can or want to--it's a grand way to be remembered in a BAD way). Basically treat them like a normal people--like you would want to be treated if approached by a stranger at a con--if you just happen to run into them.

If you're approaching them in a more organized way, say a book-signing, then they've got to be expecting some level of fan-gushing. Again, watch to see their mood and reactions to the people ahead of you and gauge your own reaction to them appropriately if you want to make a positive impression for approaching them later.

KellyAssauer · Sep 10, 2009

Oh, I'm sure I'd behave myself. You know, start by thanking them for accepting my invitation and for coming over, give them the short tour of the house, and just generally hang out and have fun. People are people, famous or not famous, some are nice, others not so, and I'd try to keep the 'not so's' off the list.

CaroGirl · Sep 10, 2009

My advice is be yourself. Not sure I could follow it if faced with someone of whom I'm a fangirl. But I'd try.

Sophia · Sep 10, 2009

JJM said:
I recently learned that George R.R. Martin will be attending a convention at the same time I will. Not sure what to say if I actually meet him...

Anyway, what would you say/do if you met a famous person?

Well, I can tell you what I said when I met George R. R. Martin.

It was at his signing at the Glasgow Worldcon in 2005. I told how much I liked Fevre Dream, his vampire novel set in the deep South, and he said that he liked that one, too, and told me about how he came to write it and the research he did. He's a very, very nice person.

I think generally, I would tell them what I feel about them and what they do. It is usually along the lines of enjoying their work very much, or admiring the way they write, or being grateful for the specific way they've inspired me. Just something simple, genuine and personal to me, even if it's something that would also be those things for many other people.

Mr Flibble · Sep 10, 2009

Depends who it is. There are certain people who'd be handcuffed to my bed within ooh seconds.

Anyone else. Hmm. I'd probably gibber a bit and then just talk to them like people.

Unless they're politicians. That's when I go for my secret stash of rotten fruit.

Priene · Sep 10, 2009

IdiotsRUs said:
There are certain people who'd be handcuffed to my bed within ooh seconds.

Typical policeman.

What would you do if you met...?

Lagrangian

uncoerced

Otherwise Occupied

Life is good

Momentary lapse of reason

~~~~*~~~~

Otherwise Occupied

Abnormal Romance Author

Otherwise Occupied

~~~~*~~~~

Riff-Raff

rewriting.

Hoopy frood

Riff-Raff

Superior Life form

Got the hang of it, here

Writing Anarchist

The Anti-Magdalene

Living the dream

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Out to lunch

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