In honor of our own Hoju Koolander's near miss with being famous while sharing a stage with a future Fergie, let's hear about your own claims to fame. Chances are you are not as cool as him.

Check out his article with photo proof and video links here:

http://www.retro-daze.org/site/article/id/264

So let's hear it. Did you almost become famous? Did you rub elbows with someone famous? What famous people have you met? Do you have a claim to fame?







Now I have met a gaggle of famous people at Comic Con and maybe I will divulge that greatness later. I have even talked to some famous people on the phone, I'll save it for another time. Here is the time I met a famous person in an unexpected place.

The year was 1995. The big date plan was to take the girls skiing for the day. The problem, the girls didn't know how. So instead of thrashing the slopes, cruising the black diamonds, and wrecking horribly and becoming a yard sale spread out all along the moguls (glove here, ski there, hat with head attached, etc.] with my buddy, we ended up on the bunny slope teaching the girls how to do the pizza slice snow plow breaking method. Not all was lost however as Fate was about to intervene to save the day.

I kept staring at this guy learning to snowboard, run after run thinking that he was so familiar but couldn't place him. Then it came to me. Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa. I quickly conferred with my buddy. "Yeah, maybe. Could be him." I was positive. I had seen dozens of cheesy martial arts movies. Standing before us was one of the best bad assed bad guys in the business.



I had seen him in a half dozen movies and T.V. shows. He was the main bad guy Yakuza boss in Showdown in Little Tokyo against Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee and Dolph Lundgren. He was the main bad guy end boss Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. He was the bad guy in Rising Sun against Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. He was in American Me. He was right in front of me.

I went up to him and said, "Hey man, sorry to bother you. I gotta know. Are you the guy..." "Yeah I'm the guy. I'm Cary nice to meet you". He responded cutting off my awkwardness and extending his hand for a shake. After elbowing my buddy, "See I told you so." we geeked out for a few minutes with Cary going over all of our favorite roles of his. He was surprised I had seen him in so many things. He laughed when I brought up Space Rangers having watched it with my dad before it was cancelled (sort of a Star Trek, Star Wars take off). He was an alien named Zylyn that went berserk and killed everyone when he took off this neck collar thing.



He was way cool to entertain a couple of high school kids for a few minutes. Guy was awesome, way down to earth. He told us about some of his upcoming projects. He said he was in town shooting something for HBO and was learning how to snowboard in the down time. He chuckled, "I didn't think I would get recognized, but I don't mind." He was wearing a helmet and goggles by the way. The dude was super cool. The girls were cold so we bailed to the lodge to get hot cocoa for them and a chili cheese bread bowl for us. We waved our goodbyes and the day was saved.

Let's hear about your brush with fame, the famous, notoriety, or infamy.

I got an autograph from pro wrestler Ric Flair. Woooooooo!!!!!!!!! I met a few other wrestlers too.

I also shook hands with American Idol winner Phillip Phillips  He used to live close to where I'm from.

Last week at my gym TNA wrestling was in town and this huge guy was working out. I talked to him and turns out he was big in India and just got signed to TNA wrestling. So if he ever gets popular I can say I met him.

In Kindergarten or 1st grade these people came to our school doing auditions for what I believe (This is a very hazy memory) was a commercial for tater tots. I remember being interviewed which is interesting because I had no desire to be in the commercial at all. I was pretty shy and that was that. Then sometime later I saw a commercial for tater tots and I swear I recognized the kid from school.

Oh, and I met the boxer Butterbean at a restaurant in Panama City.

Not a claim to fame, but an amusing story...

In the early 90's, following the Reds success at the World Series and the hype over the Reds pitching trio of Rob Dibble, Randy Meyers, and Norm Charlton (The Nasty Boys), a friend and I attended one of the games.

We were at the stadium early, and saw a few players out practicing on the field. One of them was Norm Charlton. So my friend and I went down to the field level seats, right next to the dugout (along with some other fans) and waited for them to proceed back into the dugout so we could ask for autographs.

Norm Charlton came up to our little group of fans, all of us clamoring for his autograph. My booklet and my friends booklet were right in his face, but he reached past all of us and grabbed the bag of a woman behind us. As it went past, I saw autographs from Pete Rose, Eric Davis, and more all over it.

Norm signed the bag, handed it back, and left. Needless to say, my friend and I were no longer Norm Charlton fans after that. We often joked about that day. Whenever we would be somewhere and felt like we weren't be well served, we would ponder whether or not floating a bag full of famous autographs around would get us instant service.

thecrow174 wrote :

I got an autograph from pro wrestler Ric Flair. Woooooooo!!!!!!!!! I met a few other wrestlers too.

I also shook hands with American Idol winner Phillip Phillips  He used to live close to where I'm from.
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Did you get the autograph at a match?

NLogan wrote :

thecrow174 wrote :

I got an autograph from pro wrestler Ric Flair. Woooooooo!!!!!!!!! I met a few other wrestlers too.

I also shook hands with American Idol winner Phillip Phillips  He used to live close to where I'm from.
-end quote

Did you get the autograph at a match? -end quote

At Wal-Mart.

I've have a few run ins mostly with famous internet producers and voice actors. But I've met Jason David Frank of MMPR fame and even Chuck Norris, Scott Mcneil (Voiced Piccolo in dbz), Doug Walker (Nostalgia Critic), TGOmega (Popular Toy reviewer), Scotty 2 hotty (Wrestler), The lead singer of Trapt, Autographs from an upcoming band The Last Place You Look.

As you all know, I've interviewed a lot of celebrities for both RetroJunk and Pop Geeks, and I'm friends with quite a few of them on Facebook as well. As for personal claims to fame, I had a poem published in a poetry anthology either shortly before or after I turned 18 (I forget which). I've also managed to collect quite a few autographs as well. It would take a long time to list all of them, but I will say that most of them are personalized. The few that aren't include a few purchased on eBay and the Tilda Swinton autograph I purchased at Disney's Hollywood Studios earlier this year.

thecrow174 wrote :

At Wal-Mart.

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Nice. 

ThatDudeintheHoodie wrote :
But I've met Jason David Frank of MMPR fame and even Chuck Norris, Scott Mcneil (Voiced Piccolo in dbz), Doug Walker (Nostalgia Critic), TGOmega (Popular Toy reviewer), Scotty 2 hotty (Wrestler), The lead singer of Trapt, Autographs from an upcoming band The Last Place You Look.
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I want to hear the Chuck Norris story.