# Celebrities You Saw Before They Made it Big **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 3, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333 "2012-08-03T18:55:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/101 "2012-08-11T04:27:55Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And I accidentally walked in on Alan Greenspan, in Ayn Rand’s bathroom. That broke parts of my brain that I didn’t know I had. Were you a door buster, or was he a “poo with the door half open because he makes it know when he “dumps his assets”?” > [@panache45](#): > > I met Madonna a couple of times (her brother lived in my building). No, you met her once, and then saw her a few times after that. Upon further thought it is possible to meet Madonna more than once. One can meet her when she was an American and separately when she was a British person. Her Italian heritage is given no thought these days because, I guess they don’t have “sexy skeletons” in Italian culture. ---
**Author:** ![oreally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ab992/32.png) [@oreally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oreally)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/102 "2012-08-11T12:19:45Z")
Or because she looks as about as Italian as Don Rickles. 🙂 Also it’s not part of her “schtick” so nobody is really interested. Actually is anyone even interested in her at all anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/103 "2012-08-11T12:57:56Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > No, you met her once, and then saw her a few times after that. > . ‘Meet’ has enough meanings that his/her usage is perfectly acceptable… ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/104 "2012-08-11T13:46:08Z")
When I was just out of high school, I was in a basement/garage band. We played a few community center gigs before going our separate ways. Years later, I got in touch with a former band mate & asked if he was still pickin’. He said he was in a country band & invited me to one of their practices. I followed his directions & found myself in some dude’s basement listening to my friend’s band covering Hank Williams Jr. & George Jones songs. Their singer was very good. He eventually left the band & moved to Nashville. His name was Alan Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/105 "2012-08-11T13:58:59Z")
Jenny McCarthy was the counter girl at the local grocery store when I was growing up, so there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/106 "2012-08-12T05:02:01Z")
I have a much better “AFTER they made it big” story: When Jeremy Gelbwaks left/was booted from **The Partridge Family** , his family crossed the country and he wound up at my elementary school (and eventually, my class) in Reston, VA. Kind of a douche, but I sucked up to him right away. I was not alone in that sad regard. My dad, a crusty old civil servant in the late 60s, was sent to what they called “Executive Charm School” in Berkeley with a bunch of similarly-placed federal and military types. Being square establishment types, they were naturally curious about all the “counterculture” stuff going on across the bay in San Francisco, so they went to see a comedy group called “The Committee.” Dad wasn’t impressed. His most enduring memory was hearing a bad rendition of the song “Higher and Higher” by the then-unknown… …Valerie Harper. This story had a lot more punch when he told it thirty-odd years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/107 "2012-08-12T13:49:37Z")
As for “AFTER they made it big” encounters: Rodney Dangerfield said I was a funny guy. John Travolta winked at me and said I looked really good in my gabardine suit and fedora. Chubby Checker asked me to play in his band. David Bowie gave me hugs and kisses. Salma Hayek’s dog peed on me. I injected Mötley Crüe singer Danny Joe Brown a few times before he died. Before his last concert, I told Elvis he was a no-talent imposter. Burt Reynolds picked up my mother, then hugged and kissed her in front of my father. Ringo Starr and Steven Hawking told my brother that he was too big to sit next to them. ---
**Author:** ![oreally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ab992/32.png) [@oreally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oreally)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/108 "2012-08-12T16:15:15Z")
:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/109 "2012-08-13T13:39:26Z")
Dave Bowie, on the tour (Spiders from Mars) that turned him from a one hit wonder into a superstar. We nearly didn’t bother going, and the venue was 95% empty. They closed down the balcony area to make it look more full. When D.B. came on he blew our socks off, and actually fell off of the stage, though he tried to pretend that it was part of the act and carried on with the song on ground level with the audience. It cost as I recall, about 50p in todays money, not long after people were paying many pounds to see a small dot in the distance repeated on tv screens closer to the watcher. And we nearly didn’t bother going. One small gripe I want to get out of my system while we’re on the subject, D.B. is a great admirer of Jim Bowie, and so named himself after him. So his name is pronounced the same way, not as in the bow of a ship as many pretentious tossers say it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/110 "2012-08-13T13:55:55Z")
This is the part where I say I saw the fiddler from Dave Matthews Band in Athens in the early 90s. The rest of the band didn’t show, and neither did the other bands that were supposed to show except for the opening act – Gypsy Train, and they only had one album worth of material ready so they played the exact same set three times in a row. At the start of the third set the fiddler appeared and he actually made the music a lot better, but not good enough to listen to for a third time, so we left. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/111 "2012-08-13T13:56:18Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Many moons ago, I lived in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, within walking distance to several of the clubs I frequented. My BFF and I used to troll around downtown checking out bands like it was our job. (Well, in my case, it sometimes was. I often reviewed shows and/or new albums for a local music rag and sometimes actually got paid for it.) Anyway, there were two clubs downtown that seemed to rotate this one band back and forth between them just about every weekend. One week, they would be at Squeeze, and the next weekend, they’d be at The Edge. I saw them several times before the first album came out. They were always followed around by an entourage of punked out girls in schoolgirl outfits, all carrying aluminum lunch boxes as purses. Once, my BFF and I sat and had a beer with this guy named Brian. Tall, skinny, geeky looking dorky guy, who was quite nice, but a little weird. Turned out to be **Marilyn Manson**. I was never that big a fan of Marilyn Manson, but that Brian Warner fellow was nice and decent enough. DId you ever get to the Agora Ballroom in Hallandale during the early 80’s to see the The Kids? Met 16yo Johnny Depp from that band, in front of Lums on Hollywood Blvd and 441. Guitar player sweet, quiet, nice smile, bummer that I was with my boyfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/112 "2012-08-13T14:06:59Z")
I hardly ever see bands before they make it big, of course partly because most bands don’t make it big. But often it’s because they don’t tour unless they are big. For instance, I was a fan of Fountains of Wayne ever since their debut album, but I didn’t get a chance to see them in concert until after they’d released _Welcome Interstate Managers_ which of course had Stacey’s Mom. I’d say they weren’t “celebrities” before this, because the local record store didn’t even stock Welcome Interstate Managers when it came out (perhaps not expecting Stacey’s Mom to be a big hit.) ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/113 "2012-08-13T14:19:02Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Dave Bowie, on the tour (Spiders from Mars) that turned him from a one hit wonder into a superstar. > > We nearly didn’t bother going, and the venue was 95% empty. > > They closed down the balcony area to make it look more full. > > When D.B. came on he blew our socks off, and actually fell off of the stage, though he tried to pretend that it was part of the act and carried on with the song on ground level with the audience. I agree, David Bowie used to put on great shows (maybe he still does?). The encounter I referenced above took place at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia during his Diamond Dogs tour in '74. In those days, I was working summers as a stage hand at various venues, including the Tower, so I got to meet him. I asked him to autograph a concert program for me and he signed it, \*“To Tibby, Hugs and Kisses, Bowie.” \*I was thrilled to have his autograph, but too embarrassed to show my friends what he wrote (not that there’s anything wrong with that). ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/114 "2012-08-13T15:48:20Z")
I saw Penn and Teller at an Equity Waiver theater in Hollywood back in the early 80s. I believe they were mostly doing the college circuit in those days and the only reason I saw them was because I knew the theater manager. She recommended the show highly. They were as weird and wild then as they are now. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/115 "2012-08-13T16:02:28Z")
Oh, I thought of some others, but mostly they were because of where I grew up. I knew a fair number of kids of celebrities that then went on to claim fame of their own. Probably the most famous of the lot are Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Martin Sheen was a frequent customer of the business that gave me my high school job so I met them a time or two when they were just punk kids. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/116 "2012-08-13T16:22:36Z")
> [@Mister\_Owl](#): > > I saw Penn and Teller at an Equity Waiver theater in Hollywood back in the early 80s. I believe they were mostly doing the college circuit in those days and the only reason I saw them was because I knew the theater manager. She recommended the show highly. They were as weird and wild then as they are now. I guess by around 1989 or so Penn and Teller would have been considered “big”, right? No matter. I had heard something then about how Teller always carried an ink pen with him, usually tucked into his watch band. I thought nothing of it until I saw him back then in the old _Biograph_ theater in Georgetown, Washington DC, waiting to get in line for the next film showing. Sure enough, there it was, extending from his wrist back up his forearm. Fascinating, no? Yeah, well, it’s all I got. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/117 "2012-08-13T19:11:17Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > I agree, David Bowie used to put on great shows (maybe he still does?). > > The encounter I referenced above took place at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia during his Diamond Dogs tour in '74. In those days, I was working summers as a stage hand at various venues, including the Tower, so I got to meet him. I asked him to autograph a concert program for me and he signed it, \*“To Tibby, Hugs and Kisses, Bowie.” \*I was thrilled to have his autograph, but too embarrassed to show my friends what he wrote (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Wow, you lucky git ! A slight trace of envy from this side of the pond ! ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333/118 "2012-08-13T20:22:17Z")
My wife’s grade school music teacher was none other than Dennis DeYoung, long before Styx made it big. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-saw-before-they-made-it-big/630333.md?page=5)