Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ed4444]

Joey Tempest (the Europe singer) used to pop into one of my friend's recording studios regularly. I never once made a final countdown joke but there were so so many times I wanted to.

[EFLtrainer]

[Lemonade]

Stood in line with Kid Rock to buy groceries in our town where there's only one grocery store. Thought he was a normal guy.

Did business with Dennis Edwards from the Temptations. He's a nice guy.

Does it count if they became famous after you knew them?

If that is the case, then Andre Rison and Bobby McAllister from the Green Bay Packers. They were fun to hang out with and fairly quiet because they got a lot of attention all the time.

met and did business with many news casters but they aren't known worldwide. They were all nice and down to earth.

Met a few other musicians like Keith Urban and they were a little quiet.

Met George Bush Sr..... I'm sorry to say

Met Gen. Colin Powell..... I was impressed with him.

[Leopold]

I met Marin Gore (keyboardist in DePeche Mode) last summer in Barcelona. He invited a friend and I up to his suite after running into him in elevator in the Hotel de Arts. He was there for Sonar a huge music fest. He was really nice a true gent. We used his room number for the Champagne brunch downstairs. We totally enjoyed the brunch.

[Gladiator]

Thought I'd get in before this interesting thread runs out of steam.

Attended a press conference for Blur in Vancouver in late '95 when their fame stock was on an upward surge. I was freelancing for an online music/arts 'zine (when the net was in its nascent state) and my colleague who had and continues to this day to have impressive media connections got me a press pass and told me to go along and get some questions in. The PC itself was a chaotic fiasco but I managed to ask Damon Albarn a few banal questions for quotes for the interview. My impressions: Daman Albarn was likeable and friendly and had a sense of humour while Alex James was a surly, foul mouthed narcissus with a mountainous ego.

Did some journalism work experience (free labour) for a newspaper in Richmond in the UK in the early '90s which was owned by the Dimbleby family. Richard and David are UK broadcasting institutions. Richard Dimbleby himself called up to the press room once and I answered the phone. "It's Richard", the extremely urbane but self assured voice announced. "Is Malcom (the editor) there?" "Er, Richard who?", I asked with my usual talent for putting my foot in it. "Richard Dimbleby", said the voice calmly. My impression: aloof and logical, but definitely no monster newspaper tycoon brat. I dare not think what Robert Maxwell or Rupert Murdoch would have said to me in those circumstances.

I once took a call from "our Henry (Cooper)" (first boxer to floor Mohammed Ali) while doing more media dogsbodying for a small PR company in the early '90s. This time I didn't fail to grasp his identity like Dimbleby and embarassment was avoided.

My father used to be best friends with 70's progressive rock keyboard virtuosio Vincent Crane of Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster fame before Vince tragically committed suicide in '89. We used to go round to his flat/converted recording studio in the early '80s and later my dad told me Dave Gilmour was upstairs jamming with Vince apparently. Vincent played with Dexy's Midnight Runners late in his career and I remember very vividly not only meeting but talking for a while with DMR frontman Kevin Rowland at Vince's funeral. My impression: I would like to make a point of saying he was a very nice bloke, contained not a molecule of 'Superstar' unapproachability (Alex James could have learned a thing or two though I grant you the context of meeting Kevin was a funeral wake, rather different to a press conference) and actually showed an interest in the life of the gawky, self conscious eighteen year old in front of him.

I was at Richmond train station in the early '90s again when talismanic eighties UK snooker ace Jimmy White walked in front of me in a hurry, just as he was at the snooker table. Impressions: tough to say, he was holding an early '90s mobile phone the size of a brick.

Finally, what right would this post have to exist if Korean brushes with fame didn't get a mention? I'll go for brevity here 'cos I quite understand if this long, snaking narrative is testing your patience and losing your attention.

I once saw native English speaking TEFL teacher public enemy No.1 MOON TAN YEOL (Yes, he of "English Cafe" Fame/shame/notoriety delete where applicable) with his family in a Shinchon diner. Didn't say anything to him but the temptation to go and chant "YOUR SHOW IS DREADFUL" twenty five times into his ear with musical accompaniment while clicking my fingers in time with the beat was strong. My impression: seemed decent enough dealing with the Korean folk asking him for autographs.

I also came across Pusan Icons midfielder and ex premier league footballer
[/b]Chris Marsden in Pusan TGI Friday in April 2004 (Kimchi Chigye obviously wasn't cutting it for Chris). Impression: friendly and approachable and didn't mind chatting with another Brit briefly.

That rounds things off. What a journey down memory lane that was! In conclusion, my life definitely became less interesting from the late '90s but what the hell?

[Rteacher]

In my brief - yet illustrious - career as a background character actor in Central Florida I got within close proximity of a number of celebrities. The most memorable was probably Anthony ("call me Tony") Hopkins, who was very friendly, modest and personable with the entire core group of extras filming an extended, grisly prison scene for the film Instinct. At one point, after wrapping a scene he went out of his way, while walking across the set, to shake my hand (no doubt out of professional courtesy for my masterfully convincing depiction of "pyscho" inmate...) Reportedly, he regularly attended AA meetings along with at least one other actor (George Dzundza) and some crew members on the set.

In the same movie, I also filmed a scene with Cuba Gooding Jr. The camera was set to initially focus on me (in the foreground) as Cuba's psychiatrist character was poised to enter the prison through the door (behind me) into a very tense , chaotic scenario. I was really pysched to deliver an intensely heavy performance ("wardrobe" let me keep my chanting beads and bag for special effect) but Cuba decided to play a practical joke and broke everyone up into howls of laughter by prancing into the scene in his underwear. (I had some trouble recapturing my original mood, and my role was ultimately trimmed down a lot in the final version; but the original outtake featuring "crazy me" was broadcast on Jay Leno's Tonight Show when Cuba appeared to promote the film. (The next day, when I was at an Orlando art show a prospective buyer recognized me from the Leno spot and bought one of my paintings...) Cuba Gooding Jr. also seemed very amiable and often played "rock-paper-scissors" with his stand-in, who happened to be his cousin (or nephew...)

The list of celebrities I've had close encounters with also includes Tom Hanks (and his wife Rita Wilson) (from the set of HBO's From the Earth to the Moon where I played a NASA VIP who was also astronaut Frank Borman's uncle) They were both very personable ( I had a midnite call time to be in an indoor scene with Rita , who played "Frank Borman's wife", and only a couple other extras were in the scene so I got a good close-up out of it...) Tom was the executive producer of the whole mini-series, and I was in the same smoke-filled "NASA VIP" room in the episode that he personally directed. At one point, he broke up into hearty laughter as a relatively new actor repeatedly blew his simple lines... I also saw him have an emotional meeting with Christopher Reeves who showed up on the set...

I had a less favorable impression of Bruce Willis, on the set of Armaggedon. He was very short in stature and appeared aloof with his ever-present signature smirk. I saw him up close when he was sitting on some vehicle right in the hangar with the space shuttle...Playing a still news photographer, I also got to literally "zoom- in" on a scene with Steve Buscemi and a Penthouse playmate of the year (attired in a "leopard" spandex body suit) as they rolled around together on the ground... (weird, but amusing )

There are at least a few more celebrities I have remembrances of including Adam Sandler, Henry Winkler and Kathy Bates from Waterboyand a few as yet "minor" stars from the kids TV series, Mortal Combat Konquest (Danial Bernhardt, Kristanna Loken , and Paolo Montalban...) Mercifully, I won't present any more details at this late hour...[/i]

[rapier]

[Callan]

I met a guy in a bar in the Seoul area. He said "If you know anything about Canadian politics then you would know my family". He was from Edmonton. I have relatives in the area so we started talking. He was thinking about getting into politics because he liked to debate. I thought this was much like a surgeon wanting to operate because he liked knives.
Things went from bad to worse and I very nearly went Lennie on him. I am a pretty subdued guy and this fellow is one of maybe a handful of people that just made my hackles rise. He seemed somewhat surprised when I told him that I couldn't talk with him anymore and I walked away.

I later learned that he had tried to get together with a friend of mine and spent decent amount of time crying and whining when she turned him down.

I actually have no idea who this guy is, but he is related to some politician in Alberta. The thought of him becoming a politician makes my skin crawl.

[keithinkorea]

I've met a few famous people. Number one in fame stakes is probably Robert Plant, he's a really nice bloke and doesn't mind talking to his fans, he's also one of the tallest people I've ever met. I've met most of the members of the folk band fairport convention and they vary from amazingly friendly to aloof and arrogant, the nicest one was Martin Allcock who was a really cool down to earth guy..

My personal favourites are Danny John-Jules 'Cat' from 'Red Dwarf, he was a really funny guy and me and a few friends met him in a pub in Somerset. It was a BBC end of shoot party and basically a free bar. We weren't invited but we'd been in the pub earlier and it was basically a beer free for all . The production manager would put a grand behind the bar, it would last half an hour and then he'd disappear and come back a few minutes with another great stack of cash. It was a great party. Celebrities love to party.

I met Allan Holdsworth once and he was a brilliant guy, he even bought me a pint. I'd seen him play earlier in the night and we talked for a good half hour about guitar and Mesa Boogie amps.

[brento1138]

Memoirs of staring like an idiot.

-- Harrison Ford --: Vancouver BC



I was with a couple of my friends, walking along a small street in upscale Yaletown Vancouver, when I saw across the street from us, four men dressed in neat black business-suits. One of them was Harrison Ford. I said, "Hey, it's Harrison Ford." A friend said, "Nah, that's not Harri--- wait, there's nobody else that could be..." So, the three of us stood there like idiots, watching Indiana Jones / Han Solo getting into a sleek black car. And the funny thing was, he stared at us the whole time, almost nervously, continuously glancing back and forth at us, maybe because we were staring at him like idiots. Nobody else in his little group took any notice of us...

-- Johnny Depp --: Paris, France



Believe it or not, this guy actually takes the subway in Paris, France. I know you find it hard to believe, but for some reason, this is one of those actors who seems to be "with the people" or something. He looked a bit more unkept than he does in this picture though... like a very regular person. Surprisingly, he was all by himself on the subway. Myself and about 4 friends took notice of him, and stared at him like idiots, saying, "wow, that's Johnny Depp." Then, I felt a bit bad at ruining his sense of anonymity. He got off at the next stop. Seemed shy.

-- Mr. Dressup --: Vancouver, BC



Heh, does this count? Famous maybe only in Canada, all the kids watched that show back in the day. I was a kid, my Dad knew him, and got us to visit him backstage and he talked to us for a while. Seemed kind of like an old grandfather, nice guy. Again, I was just a kid, and couldn't generate much conversation, wondering why this guy existed out of my TV. Again, I stared like an idiot.

-- Pavel & Valeri Bure --: Kelowna, BC



At the time, Pavel was at the peak of his fame. And man, he didn't seem like a nice guy at all. Seemed a tad uptight and angry. His brother, in stark contrast, was extremely friendly and talked to me for a while.

[kathycanuck]

No pic, but Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman when they were still together.
On Vancouver Island, they were salmon fishing; Tom was great, super friendly, Kidman was an arrogant b.....

[The Great Toad]

[mysteriousdeltarays]

I've met a lot of famous people but this is my favorite story.

I met a guy in maybe 1982 on a subway in Nagoya, Japan wearing a wedding dress and elaborite makeup etc. In those days there weren't many people around.

I went up to him and asked him his name. He said "Boy George", I shook his hand and told him "I'm Boy Tom". I didn't know who he was until the next day when all the freshman girls at the college started semi-fainting.

[pegpig]

[Keepongoing]

I took Penny Heynes and Patricia Beard to lunch when in Hong Kong. In 1997 she was the winner of two gold medals in Atlanta Olympics had had broke world records for her category.

We had a mutual friend who asked her to look me up when she got to Hong Kong and we had lunch together with the SIlver Medal winner, Patriciia Beard. While we were eating there were many other Oylmpians there as we ate in the hotel where the teams were staying; forgot why they were all in Hong Kong and I can not find a good picture.

She seemed like a very amiable and humble person. She was then attending university n the States.