Friday, December 30, 2016

In Memorium


As we get ready to close the books on 2016, I'm thinking back about all the people I've met this year. Among those who stand out in my mind are the celebrities who were kind enough to take the time to have a conversation and show interest in my blog. Not the least of whom was Alan Thicke. I had the pleasure of meeting him just about four weeks before his untimely death. I told him about this blog thinking he would just say something like oh that's nice and move on. But he actually took it to the next level and showed a genuine interest in what I was doing, asking for more details etc. After I told him all about the blog and its focus, his response was "That's a really cool concept". By taking the time to want to more about what I was doing with this showed me that Alan Thicke had a genuine interest in people. That meant a lot to me, after all I was just another person he met along the way.

When I told him I wanted to blog about what he had been up to lately in his career, he was more than happy to fill me in. His face lit up as he told me about his character in the Netflix series "Fuller House" and that season three of "Unusually Thicke", with Tanya and Carter, was already in the can. The proud father in him came out as he asked me not to forget about mentioning Robin Thicke's newest single "One Shot" featuring Juicy J. 

While I was saddened to hear about his passing, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that I am happy that I at least had the opportunity to meet and speak with him. 


2016 also saw the unfortunate passing of another celebrity icon, Debbie Reynolds. I had the pleasure of shaking her hand over a decade ago, after one of her live performances in the Chicago area. She was both surprised and happy that a young person actually knew about her and her work. As I was the before in a room full of afters. With a gleam in her eye and a smile on her face she said "My you're a little one". I was only ten years old at the time but she was one of my acting idols. So, needless to say meeting her meant a lot to me. After her performance that day she was also kind enough to autograph a picture for me. As I got a little older, I checked out her other movie work and that was the spark that caused me to get involved in acting in community theatre.   

As I say rest in peace to both of them, I cannot even begin to explain how happy I am to have crossed paths with these two legends, even though our meetings were very brief.



Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Dishes May Be Done, But Keith Coogan Is Still Going!


As a kid Disney movies are a staple in your daily agenda. One of my all time favorites that still chokes me up to this day is "The Fox and the Hound". Little did I know that I would eventually have the pleasure of meeting the very talented voice actor behind Young Tod, Keith Coogan. You may also remember Keith from some of your favorite movies from the 80's and 90's. Including but not limited to "Adventures in Babysitting", "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead", and "Toy Soldiers". Since then Keith has been in many T.V shows like "The Comeback Kids" and "TMI Hollywood". You can also expect to see him in the movie "Limelight" in the new year. 

Check out the trailer for Limelight here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4158316/?ref_=nv_sr_2  

Not only is Keith an amazing actor but he also directs! His latest project is a play called "Stay Tuned". It has been running since December 14th at Theatre 68 in North Hollywood. If you haven't caught it yet you still have a little time, its run ends tomorrow. It is a Christmas mash-up of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and Orson Welles' "War of The Worlds", performed like a radio play. What a great way to spend Christmas Eve Eve!

For more on what Keith has been up to, check out his website here: http://keithcooganonline.com/  

He is also on Twitter: @keithcoogan