Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Life is in flux BIG TIME these days. I want to keep in touch with all of my peeps. The Internet is this beautiful thing. I can move to a brand new city and still stay in easy, near-daily contact with the people I love. When I feel connected to the people in my life that matter, I am unstoppable!

Meeting Jon Stewart

By Abby at 1:09 pm on Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I didn’t have tickets, but I wanted them. I knew I couldn’t afford full price. My friends and I were on the lookout for cheap deals. On Thursday, I actually bought some from a woman on Craigslist, but she bailed out after her boyfriend “gave them away to a friend at work”. I was PISSED! I went online and ranted about this situation. Long story short, some tickets that had been won by someone as part of a giveaway were given back, and because of my sob story, they were offered to me. I was ecstatic, and in order to get from Dedham to the Wang Center, I was RACING! I can’t believe I managed to track down Kristopher, and we all ended up making it for the 7pm show. By “all”, I must add that my friend Anna already had a ticket that she’d bought ages ago, and she happened to be sitting very close by to the seats I got.

The gig was excellent, and I’ll probably say more about that eventually, but since today is the day I start to study for this massive licensure exam, I’ll keep it short. Hell, maybe I can rope Kristopher into writing that part out.

After the gig, we stood in the upper lobby and watched the fans file out through the opulent lobby. You can tell that we’d had a mighty fine time… especially because I’m talking in my silly, excited voice. I try to sound dignified, but it just doesn’t suit me!

We headed to Dunkin’ Donuts for “dinner” (the wait at the nearby restaurants were long… plus, we are all pretty broke), then off to karaoke. We were supposed to head to Somerville to see Hugh’s band, Muck and the Mires, perform at their CD launch party. However, I was feeling kind of shitty, Somerville is far, there was a $9 cover, there were 3 other bands so we didn’t think we’d get to talk to Hugh, and we’d heard that there was going to be a marriage proposal on stage between some acquaintences of ours that night at karaoke, so we decided to stay (even though we’d said goodbye and left the venue already). We walked back in, sang some more, and watched as all the proposal friends arrived. I sang “Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun because it was playing at Dunkin’ Donuts, and I was inspired, and man… what could be more goofy fun?! I also did “She Sells Sanctuary”, which is always fun. Kristopher did “Devil Went Down to Georgia” (w00t!) and “Sit on My Face” from Monty Python. I think we each got in about 5 songs that night! It was empty before all the proposal revelers showed up.

The proposal was adorable. So fun! It happened much later than we’d expected, but it was worth the wait.

We then scuttled off to catch the last train leaving the New England Medical Center. As we were approaching the stop, I look up, and there’s Jon Stewart standing on the sidewalk. I think there was one person with him, plus two “handlers”. I said to him, “Hey, you’re Jon Stewart!” (A flippin’ Ph.D., and that was what I came up with.) And he said, “Yes, I am.” Something like that… I’m no good at recounting things like this.

I was very cautious at first, not knowing if it was cool to approach him, since not many people were around. I said something like, “Um… would it be OK if I did a little gawking?” And the female handler said it would be fine. He was right there and heard my goofiness. Because frankly, that was what I wanted to do. I felt a little silly about it, but you know, I love him. Jon Stewart was clearly expecting to meet a few fans, but we’d caught him just as he walked out the back door of the Wang Center. Being a geographical idiot, I hadn’t thought about the fact that we were essentially standing at the back of the Wang Center, and his second show had just ended.

Signing Autographs

He was great. Very accomodating. When I said we’d gone to his earlier show then to karaoke, he said that it was better that way (going to the earlier show) since if he completely sucked, there was still time to have a real evening out. I told him that he didn’t remotely suck and that we really enjoyed ourselves. I also said that I watched his show “constantly” and that my mother was going to be VERY jealous that I’d met him.

A short time after that, there was a little squeal, and then about 10 20-something women ran up. We backed up and made space for the newcomers. Not to make a REALLY bad pun, but he was a “stand up” guy.

It was definitely a nice little bit of serendipity on the sidewalk Friday night.

Me & Jon Stewart

I wish I were more photogenic. I’m not saying I’m unattractive as a person, but my camera anxiety means that I always end up making these goofy faces. If only I could have gotten it together for this one. For some reason, the picture of Jon Stewart actually looks a little cross-eyed on the version posted on my blog. He wasn’t, and if you look at the original, it doesn’t look like that at all. Weird. Guess noone is immune.

Signing Autographs
Kristopher Gets His Turn

Oh well, it was still very cool to meet him. And totally by chance. On further speculation, it occurred to me that he is one of the only famous people I would be really interested in meeting. The other ones I thought of right away were Billy Bragg and Janeane Garofolo. These are egos that don’t seem to need too much feeding. They seem to know who they are, have strong opinions, and they are smart, engaging, and funny. Meeting someone like that is always something I want, even with that weird “I know much more about you than you know about me” aspect of celebrity, which I find to be fairly offputting – in either direction.

Filed under: Boston,Video9 Comments »

9 Comments

1
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Comment by Kristin m

October 10, 2006 @ 1:25 pm

You don’t look bad in your photo. JS looks HAWT!!

We missed you at Muck & the Mires, though. They were great. And playing at the Middle East with Gang Green on Nov. 11. Hugh’s photo finally added to their website, btw:

2
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Comment by kristopher

October 10, 2006 @ 1:30 pm

The show was truly excellent. He definitely did some political jokes, but he also did some old school Jon Stewart stand up which was awesome. His microphone stand broke during the act and threw his rhythm off a little so when he realized he wasn’t going to have enough time to finish his set he just let the audience shout out stuff for him to talk about. He’s a true professional stand-up. It was nice to see him sans the suit just doing his thing, but it’ll be great to see him back on the Daily Show too.

All in all I’m really glad the fates conspired in my favor on Friday.

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Comment by Craig Newmark

October 10, 2006 @ 1:37 pm

Hey, congratulations, glad you met him!

Craig

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Comment by Abby

October 10, 2006 @ 2:54 pm

Kristin – I was looking the other day. I will definitely check back to see Hugh in the lineup.

Kristopher – thanks for recapping. I might add even more when I get a minute.

Craig – Wow! Thanks for the comment. I use “your list” all the time! I’m going to count that as another little celeb moment, if you don’t mind.

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Comment by kristopher

October 10, 2006 @ 5:13 pm

Wow a celebrity commented on a post about meeting a celebrity. How Meta is that?

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Comment by Nanu

October 11, 2006 @ 11:16 am

Wow, I am so jealous!

Check this link, talks abt a study conducted by Julia Fox at IU (not sure if you met her)

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/10/jon_stewart_mos.html

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Comment by Abby

October 11, 2006 @ 9:49 pm

Very cool. I actually downloaded the Quicktime file and uploaded to YouTube to share with all the world! I’m definitely “one of those people” they keep talking about who gets their only news from “fake” news. I just can’t tolerate the “real” news.

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Comment by jane

October 14, 2006 @ 6:39 pm

JS does look “HAWT!!” to quote Kristin. And you look fine — you look as though you’ve just met a hot, intelligent, charismatic celebrity and you’re simultaneously shy, overwhelmed and proud…

Didn’t get your gmail chat until after you’d logged off — just made my new bed with clean sheets! is what I would’ve replied. The little pleasures in life; after being deprived of them, their resumption seems like magic.

Otherwise, furiously emailing “contacts” for the bpdnews piece.

Last night was hella fun — can’t wait to read about it!

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Comment by Abby

October 15, 2006 @ 10:37 am

“[Y]ou look as though you’ve just met a hot, intelligent, charismatic celebrity and you’re simultaneously shy, overwhelmed and proud…”

Well… Congratulations on your new bed. If I could type in accents, I’d make the word “bed” sound all New Zealand-y fo you.

So much pressure. Not sure when I’ll get around to writing, because I have a pumpkin to carve and brunch to eat, but don’t worry. Hang around with me long enough, and you’ll end up on the blog… especially if you want to.

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