"Can I buy you a pint?"
A friend of mine has a story about meeting Richard Harris in a pub and buying him a drink. It's a funny story and it's not mine to tell, but the thing I learned most from it is that rather than going up and gushing and being generally fanboyish to your heroes, if you want to say hallo then offering to buy them a drink by way of quiet thanks for their work/entertainment/heroism etc is usually appreciated.
Living as I do in central London, I sometimes run into famous people whilst out and about. Most are, of course, twats, but some are people whom I like and respect and who have entertained me enough over the years that I reckon I owe them a drink in return. So it is that several celebs including Dave Stewart, Ian Hislop, Dwight Schulz (another story I may tell, as it's one of my favourites) and John Cleese have had an unexpected drink bought for them by a cheerful stranger who didn't hang about. I reckon it's what I'd want people to do if I was famous.

Anyway.

He was standing outside the convention hall. He'd been surrounded all day by unwashed geeks who all wanted a piece of him and I figured that he probably didn't want disturbing. He was having a few quiet minutes and a cig to mellow out before going back in and so I hung back in a frenzy of indecision. I wanted to say hallo and offer him a drink, but he appeared so happy to be on his own for a bit.
This was someone whose work I'd been introduced to when I was seven years old. It was, at the time, a revelation and astonishingly his own work kept me entertained for the better part of twenty years until it was finally superceded. He'd been responsible for more late nights, more jokes, more laughter and probably more arguments than any other single influence in my entire life (Including booze. Maybe.). When I was small or even a teenager, every new product I saw with his name on it was a guaranteed doorway into other worlds.
In the end, I thought that the worse that could happen was that he'd say no, so I wandered nonchalantly over.
"'Scuse me?" I said. "Can I buy you a drink?"
This was plainly a line he hadn't heard yet and he looked at me, a little nonplussed.
"Why?", he asked.
"Because you've been entertaining me ever since I was seven, and I reckon I probably owe you one by way of a thank you."
He looked at me over his glasses. "No, you can't", he said. I started to turn away. "But I'll buy you one."

He was lovely. Friendly, avuncular, and obviously only too used to dealing with people like me who had a story or two to tell and a joke or an experience to share. He told me a few himself. It was great, and somewhere inside, my inner seven year old was dancing about with glee.

He died a couple of years later, which made me sad. But at least I got to say thank you and, in return, Gary Gygax bought me a pint.
(davywavy, Wed 11 Dec 2013, 13:34, 10 replies)

This is nice,
but you could have spared us all the lecture.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 11 Dec 2013, 15:09, closed)

You always leave a nasty after-taste.

( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Thu 12 Dec 2013, 6:31, closed)

Deffo gonna read all that shit.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Wed 11 Dec 2013, 15:37, closed)

it was probably refreshing for him not to be offered a 'bowl of Elven mead'
by someone dressed up as a wizard.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Wed 11 Dec 2013, 16:39, closed)

Nice story

(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Wed 11 Dec 2013, 16:54, closed)

I like this.

( Herb Alpert's Taxi Driver I have very beautiful lips, Wed 11 Dec 2013, 17:37, closed)

Do you think he invented D&D because...
...he needed some way to justify having a surname found carved into rock, deep within the mines of Moria?
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Wed 11 Dec 2013, 20:28, closed)

Tom Baker has been using this theory for years, ask anyone in the Coach and Horses.
May I buy you a drink? - punter
Yes. - Tom
Here you are, when you were playing Doctor Who - punter
Oh, do fuck off now! - Tom
( d.r._and_quinch when will you be famous?, Wed 11 Dec 2013, 21:26, closed)

Been there
done that.

This 1 I'm actually quite proud of (but marks my vintage I think!) - whilst propping up the bar of the Old Melbourne prior to a Severed Heads gig I recognised Tom Ellard (lead whatever-the-fuck-you-call-that
- programmer?).
I asked if I could buy him a beer as I told him how his music had awakened something in me at a time when little else could.
He was chuffed and had a quiet drink with me as we talked about gardening and the best ways to do homebrew from scratch.
(s0ckpuppet logging out to reply to you if you're not careful, Thu 12 Dec 2013, 5:21, closed)

+1 click

( The Great Architect is still waiting for his account to be deleted on, Thu 12 Dec 2013, 11:01, closed)