Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #301 - Celebrity

Episode Date: January 29, 2016

Mark shares stories of his interactions with celebrities and as a Magic celebrity.

I'm pulling in my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, so today I'm going to talk about an interesting aspect that's become part of my job. Not a big part, but a tiny part, which is celebrity. So when I first signed up for this job many years ago, I did not quite realize. So I wrote an article about this and I started by having a story. So let me start with my story. So I go to San Diego Comic-Con every year. And a big part of San Diego Comic-Con is going to panels and hearing people speak and usually you've got to wait in line. And I accept that as just being part of the process and I usually bring along my iPad or whatever

so that I can, usually I read comics, which I like to do while sitting in line at Comic-Con. But anyway, it allows me to pass the time because waiting around is something you do. So I'm in line for something and I've been sitting there for a while and I'm, I don't know, reading or playing a game, or doing something on my iPad, and someone walks up to me, and they say, hey,

oh my god, it's you, it's you, and I'm like, hi, and they go, oh, I just have to tell you, I'm a huge fan, I love all the work you do, I just, I'm so excited to meet you, and I'm like, well, thank you very much, you know, it's nice to meet you, and the guy is like, can I get an autograph? I'm like, oh, sure, no problem. And he, he pulls something out

and I sign it. And then he walks away and he comes back and he says, oh, wait a minute, I can't not get a picture. And so he says, can I,

can we please take a picture? And I'm like, oh, sure. So I turned to the guy next to me who'd been sitting in line with me for an hour or so and said to him, hey, could you take our picture? And I'm like, oh, sure. So I turned to the guy next to me who had been sitting in line with me for an hour or so and said to him, hey, could you take our picture? And the guy goes, sure. So he takes our picture,

and the guy shakes my hand, thank you so much, and he goes off. And then I sit back down, get my iPad again, and I go back to my reading, whatever, and there's just this pause, the guy next to me, and finally he goes, Who are you? And what I realized as I was telling the story is

that I had this very interesting celebrity in that I'm a big fish in a small pond, which means that if you know who I am, I'm a celebrity, but it's a very selective group. It is not... I don't have the kind of celebrity where I can't go to the grocery store without being bugged. But it is the kind of thing that if I show up at a Grand Prix,

I'm going to take a lot of pictures and sign a lot of cards. And so today I'm just going to talk a little bit about what it's like to be a celebrity. I've actually learned a lot about what it is to be a celebrity by being a magic celebrity, which once again, it's a big fish in a small pond. But in that small pond, I do really have a taste of what it's like to be a celebrity by being a magic celebrity, which, once again, it's a big fish in a small pond. But in that small pond, I do really have a taste of what it's like to be a celebrity. So today I'm going to talk about that. In general, it is fun. I think one of the nice things is being sort of a mini celebrity

means that I get to go places where I get to be the celebrity, and I get to sign autographs and take pictures, and people are excited to meet me. But most of my life isn't people doing that. Now, I can imagine if everywhere I go that was how I got treated, wow, it would get tiresome very fast. I think the reason it's kind of fun is it's in small doses, and it's mostly where I know, like,

pretty much it's going to be in a place where people expect me to be. A magic event or maybe a gaming event. Although the funny thing was last year I went to the GDC. I talked about this in my podcast. And apparently

there's a big overlap between people who like making games for a living and people who enjoy playing magic. The game that you get to be the game designer

to a certain extent. And so one of the things that's interesting is I was walking around GDC, I was just being constantly stopped. So there are places. Like, my celebrity applies to certain places. GDC apparently is one of them.

And, like, if I go to something like PAX, you know, if I go to geeky conventions, I often get noticed. SDCC, I often get noticed. Oh, in fact, here's one of my favorite SDCC stories, San Diego Comic-Con stories, is it's after the Comic-Con's closed, and we're walking down one of the main streets in San Diego, right outside

the conference. And as we walk, I see Brent Spiner walk by us. So I turn to the people walking with me, other Wizards people, and I say, oh, you guys see that? Brent Spiner just walked right by us. And then maybe a minute later, I hear somebody walking the other

way going, oh my gosh, you see that? Mark Rosewater just walked right by us. So it's, to be honest, I think my celebrity is at a low enough level that it is fun. It just doesn't happen that much. Although it is interesting, once upon a time, it only happened at magic

events, and it started to seep out into the real world. Usually what happens when I'm out, like, you know, not in a magic place, I'm just somewhere, is people will look at me, and then they will, every once in a while, keep looking, and then eventually they'll come up to me and they go,

I hate to bother you, are you Mark Rosewater? And then I always, yes, yes I am, and, you know, I hate to bother you. Are you Mark Rosewater? And then I always, yes, yes I am. And, you know, I offer to say hello or whatever. Oh, by the way, have you ever seen me in public? My little caveat here.

I, I mean, if I'm with my family, obviously, you know, don't take too long. But I'm always happy to greet fans. I'm always happy to sign things, take pictures.

You know, I mean, part of my job is this comes with my job. And I, like I said, the neat thing about my job is, this comes with my job, and I, like I said, the neat thing about my celebrity right now, is it happens in small enough doses, that it is enjoyable,

mostly enjoyable, and so, please, please, please, if you see me, I won't bite, I always try to be very polite to fans,

I try to be polite in general, to be honest, but I especially try to be polite to fans, but anyway, what happened is, someone will see me, they'll come up to me, and they'll say, are you Margo's water? And I think they know polite in general, to be honest. But I especially try to be polite to fans. But anyway, what happened is someone will see me, they'll come up to me, and they're like, are you Margo's water? And I think they know I'm me, but that's somehow the question. That's the question people always ask when they first come up to me,

you know, out in the real public. And then, oh, the interesting thing, by the way, is once upon a time I used to get recognized by how I looked, because my pictures on my article, and I'll show up in photographs and stuff. But ever since I started doing this podcast, I now get recognized by my voice

because people who listen to my podcast know my voice, which I'm told is quite distinctive. Yeah, for some reason, whenever someone used to me before my podcast was popular,

they always would say, oh, you're shorter than I expected and your voice is higher than I expected. So apparently what people expected me in the early days was a tall, husky-voiced man, but that is not who I am. So, but anyway, and my kids, my kids get tickled things. My kids, I think once again it doesn't happen very much, but my kids in love, my little junior celebrity, that they think it's hilarious. And I think it's fun for them to see their dad.

It is kind of cool. I once, on a couple occasions, I've taken my kids with me to a magic event where I pop in. And that's where it goes crazy. A magic event, especially a magic event that is not in Seattle. A non-Seattle magic event. In Seattle, people are a little more used to seeing me. I've shown up to enough Seattle events.

I think seeing me is not quite the... But if I ever go someplace like... My family had a little reunion in Portland one year in which the Grand Prix in Portland was there. And my cousin, not my cousin, sorry, my nephew, my sister's son, is really into magic. He plays magic. And so he was very eager to go with me to the Grand Prix.

And it was literally like I walked in to the time I left was just constant, you know, interacting with fans, which is awesome. Once again, I will never be unhappy to interact with fans. But it was really, it definitely gave me, I get a little taste of, like, what real celebrities like when I'm at a magic event.

Like, what, like, someone who's actually famous in the real world, like, it just happens to them constantly. And like I said, if it happens to you small enough,

it is something where I think it is fun in small doses, and I really would get why it would is fun in small doses, and I really would get why it would be annoying in large doses. Okay, so what is the dark side of celebrity? Because getting recognized and signing autographs and taking pictures, that's actually pretty fun.

Although one thing I will say, when someone meets me, a little comment for people who ever meet me, people get really nervous when they meet me, and they will lose, like, are you my girlfriend? Yes. I love magic. They'll say something really, really, and then one of the things I try to do is ask questions and sort of get them to open up a little bit. It's interesting how nervous people get when they meet me,

especially people who have never, ever met me before. The first time they've ever met me. Some people will get very nervous, which when they meet me, especially people who have never, ever met me before. It's the first time they've ever met me. Some people will get very nervous, which is interesting to me. I never thought I'd make people that nervous, but I don't think it's me. I just think it's kind of, there is something about meeting celebrities

of someone who you, I don't know of, and just for the first time. But the thing I always, that's fun when I meet somebody is just, you know, if you have a question, you've always wondered. Like, I always wondered about something. It's just, you know, if you have a question, you've always wondered. Like, I always wondered why something.

It's a perfect opportunity. Like, I remember, I wrote an article where I, called Celebrity, where what I did was I talked about my being a celebrity

and then I had stories of me meeting celebrities. And one of my favorites is I met Jim Henson because I, when I was a runner in Hollywood, a production assistant, I worked on a show called 50 Years of Television, I think it was called. I think television was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

And so it had a whole bunch of, it was basically a clip show from the 50 Years of Television, but it had a celebrity host doing all the intros. And one of the hosts were Kermit and Piggy. So obviously, Jim Henson. And Jim Henson was one of my idols, so I was really excited to meet Jim Henson. Frank Oz was there, too. I also met Frank Oz.

The funny thing was, I was so excited to meet Jim Henson, and not as excited to meet Frank Oz, only because I was so excited to meet Jim Henson. And what happened was, they had brought a photographer in so that people could bring their kids in so that people could take their picture with Kermit.

And I was like, look, I don't mind if Kermit's in the picture, but I want a picture with Jim Henson. So if you go to Look Celebrity, my article,

there's a picture of me with Jim Henson, the picture I took that day. And I always wanted to ask Jim Henson a question. Because I said, if I ever meet Jim Henson,

I always have in mind a question I'd love to ask. If you're ever going to meet me, have a question that you'd love to ask. My question I asked Jim Henson a question. Because I said, if I ever meet Jim Henson, I always have in mind a question I'd love to ask. If you ever meet me, have a question you'd love to ask. My question I asked Jim Henson was,

in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, there is a cab driver and a cop that are kind of a buddy pair named Ernie and Bert. And it obviously

came up before Sesame Street because it's the 1930s. And so I said to him, oh, were Ernie and Bert named after Ernie and Bert from It's a Wonderful Life? And he said that he'd been

asked that a couple times and that nobody at Henson, you know, production, who makes, no one can remember, no one can remember that consciously being so because it could have been

a subconscious thing, but no one did it on purpose. Oh, the other interesting thing, by the way, about meeting Jim Henson is so when you meet them first, they have the puppets, the marionettes,

the Muppets on their hand and then they take them off and they put them in a little box and Kermit really goes from being all this full of life to being lifeless. It almost looks like Kermit died and they place him

in this little box that looks like a coffin. Very freaky. But anyway, so if you ever meet me, have a question. Obviously, I answer questions all the time on my blog, so I'm mighty used to answering questions. And if you have some personal things you've always

wanted to know, now's the time to ask. I can't always answer every question. I'll tell you if I can't answer it. There's some questions I'm just not allowed to answer. And there's some I don't know the answer to. But I will always try to answer your question to the best of my ability. Even if I have to tell you I can't answer that or I don't know the answer. Okay, so what is the dark side of celebrity?

I think the more interesting side of celebrity that's a little on the darker side is not in person. People are very nice in person. I'm not saying no one's ever been mean in person. But in general, what I discover is people are very nice in person. I'm not saying no one's ever been mean in person, but in general what I discover is people are very nice in person. On the Internet, not so nice, not quite as nice. I'm not sure where that accent came from. So one of the things I've learned is part of being a celebrity is you become a representative figure,

and that means there are people who will rally against you, who will not like you. And so there's a lot of, one thing I do, I'm open to this, is I will occasionally Google my name to see what people are saying about me and not everything is positive. You know, there's some famous, there's a guy once that famously wrote an article called Why I Hate Mark Rosewater it was followed up by an article called Why You Should Hate

Mark Rosewater oh here's a funny story with that one of my friends at work sometimes when she's bored will google people she knows and so she googled my name and she stumbled on these articles next time she saw me she was all aghast she goes, have you seen this?

this guy who writes these articles about how people are supposed to hate you and I'm like, yeah, I know he is I later would ask him out to lunch, that's his own story but it's part of the job I said, look, you know, people are going to vent part of being a public figure one of the things I talk about is

people need somebody to blame for things, and I'm just the low-hanging fruit. I'm the public figure, so blame me. And I would say 90% of the things I get blamed for, I have really nothing to do with. 10% I do have something to do with. But a lot of it is just people mad at something. They're mad at some digital component

or they're mad at some why a card isn't powerful enough or why a certain art was used or I don't know. All these things they get really mad about of which some of which I have little to do with and some of which I have nothing to do with. But the role of the

public face is, hey, I get compliments for things I didn't do. I get compliments for things I didn't do, I get insulted for things I didn't do. That comes with the territory. But there is a real, there is a dark side to celebrity in that it can bring out a real anger, because people don't know me,

you know what I'm saying? I mean, some people, I take that back, some people know me through my writing. They'll read my writing, listen to my podcast, and they'll get a sense of me. They don't know the real me as much as they know sort of the public me, but nonetheless. People can get really negative. In fact, I've been

saving mean tweets for, I think at some point we might do a reading of mean tweets like we do in Jimmy Kimmel. And there's some really mean tweets. There are people, like, for example, I've been compared, this is not just on Twitter, but I've been compared to Hitler three times. Three! Do people not know what Hitler did? I'm like, you know, I make a game, you know.

So, I think Hitler's the go-to. I'm mad and I want to compare him to the worst person I can think of. But, I mean, I've had many letters of people writing to me saying, dear Satan, or dear devil, or, and like in general, the funny thing is, normally when people interact with me directly, like even with email, most of the time they're very polite. But when they're talking about me, like I said, when I Google myself, there's all sorts of threads, You know,

the number of times I've read article threads, or not article threads, but bulletin board threads that are like, why do people hate Mark Rosewater? You know, and it is funny

in that a lot of, like one of the things I think is really important, I talk about this in my social media thing, is that one of the roles that I fill as spokesperson is to let people vent. I actually don't take it personally.

I often, when people say really mean things, I'll read it aloud in the pit. Just because sometimes it's so over the, it's, people, it is funny the scope when people decide to get mean. That it is, on some level, it's, to me, comical. It's so over the top mean, I find it comical. I do try to find feedback in whatever people say.

And even in the harshest of things, I'm trying. Oh, here's one of the things that's really weird when people are mean. Is they'll write letters to me where they're really mean. Like the opening paragraph will be just mean, something really mean. And the second paragraph is how, and I'd like to work at Wizards.

So I'm going to give you a little job tip here. When you apply somewhere and you're trying to encourage people to maybe hire you, just a little tip. Don't insult them in the same letter.

I literally, for example, have gotten letters, Dear Satan. They start with Dear Satan and later in the letter it's like, I for example, have gotten letters, Dear Satan. They start with Dear Satan and later in the letter it's like, I would like a job at Wizards. So, you know,

I don't quite understand the dynamic of why someone would do that, but I've actually gotten quite a bit. And like I say, I try to, I try to,

you gotta get a thick skin. One of the things about doing, being a spokesperson, being a public figure is people are just going to say mean things. I mean, like I said, I get a little bit of sense, like, when I used to work in Hollywood, one of the things that I got to experience is there are certain magazines that are tabloids, right, that just write sensational articles.

That's what they do. You know, they don't just write normal articles. They're sensational articles. And a what they do. You know, they don't just write normal articles. They're sensational articles. And a lot of them are about celebrities. So the interesting thing in Hollywood was I would see articles written about people that I knew the celebrities, you know, and they would laugh about it.

And, you know, ha-ha, they said this or that. And what I found is they kind of had a sense of humor about it. Because if you didn't have a sense of humor about it, it would just eat away at you. And so I've taken the same kind of attitude of, I just can't, you know, it's one thing when someone who knows me personally to get really hateful and like, okay, what did I do? And I would try to, you know, see what happened, why they got so mad at me. But in sort of public stuff, it's like, well, people are going to vent. The other thing that's very interesting,

by the way, is people who are very mean online and when I meet them, they're very nice. Even though, on some level, they must understand.

Like, I, if you write stuff about me, odds are at some point I'm going to read it. I Google my name. I come across stuff. So,

but once again, I don't, I don't, I don't actually, interestingly, I, people are going to be critical. It's what I do. I don't actually hold grudges about it. I'm surprisingly pretty, pretty well-fared about people who want to be critical. Um, some of it, by the way, is I, I invite people to be critical in the sense that, look,

part of my job is to get better at my job. I want feedback. Um, if you have feedback, give me feedback. The only thing I ask is, and once again, not everybody does this, is I like people to be polite if they can, meaning I don't mind if people have issues or think I did something wrong or dislike something I did. I prefer, especially on my blog, I ask for this is, you know, you can politely ask. You don't have to be mean about it. on my blog, I ask for this, is you can politely ask. You don't have to be mean about it. And I mean, you can be blunt in your criticism.

You can be, you know, okay, dear Mauro, I have a question I want to ask you. I really dislike the gameplay of the recent set. I think it's one of your worst designs. How do you feel about it? Do you think it's one of your worst designs? I mean, that is not mean. That is, honest to God, they think

it's one of my worst designs. I've done a lot of designs. They're asking a question. The other thing I get a lot is the backhanded compliment where, like, I'll post a comic, you know, and someone finds it funny and they'll get, like, finally, a funny comic.

I'm like, you couldn't just say it was a funny comic. You have to, like, put it in context. I don't know. Anyways, what are we doing today? It is raining today. So we are, it might be a little extra long today. Today's one of those topics that I decided I would start on and I would just see where I go. Okay, let me tell you interesting stories about

celebrity stories for me. And then maybe let me tell you interesting stories about celebrity stories from me. And then maybe I'll tell you one or two me-meeting celebrity stories like I did in my article. In fact, okay, I'll tell you another one of me-meeting celebrity stories.

Okay, so I was a runner, a production assistant. So one of the jobs when you're a runner is you have to go to different lots and deliver things. And so what happens is basically you go to the front gate,

you go, I've got to deliver this, and then you sign in, and then they let you in. And then you have to go in the lot and find the thing. And some places I used to go all the time, so I knew exactly where they were. But every once in a while,

they'd send me someplace that I wasn't normally used to go. So one day I get a package to deliver to some bungalow at Warner Brothers. So Warner Brothers is in the Valley. I didn't go to Warner Brothers a lot. I mean, I knew of a lot. I'd been there, so I knew of a lot, but I didn't know the specific place. So I'm looking around. I'm just getting lost. And so somebody's coming.

So I walk up to the person and I say, excuse me. And I'm looking at my package. Excuse me. I'm trying to find bungalow 717. Do you know where 717 is? And then the person says, oh, yes. And they start describing how I could get there. And as they're describing how I could get there, I realize that voice, that's a familiar voice. So I look up, and I see Clint Eastwood is giving me directions how to find this bungalow.

And one of the things that you learn in Hollywood is I was trying when I meet celebrities not to, you know, just be nonchalant about it. And one of the fun things about working in Hollywood

is I met a lot of celebrities. You'll hear a few of the stories today. But anyway, I got directions from Clint Eastwood. That was very cool. And he was very nice.

Gave me, gave me fine directions. Um, I mean, I didn't interact very much with the directions, but I, that was my one, uh, face-to-face with Clint Eastwood. Um, okay. One of the times I got to be a celebrity, so this is one of my favorite stories, is, um, Laura and I and my daughter, Rachel, who was a baby. I mean, she was six months old or something. She was a baby.

Um, we were traveling home on an airplane, visiting family or something, and the person next to me was a couple. And I discover, so the way it worked was, for some reason, Laura and I were, oh, I think we were across the aisle from each other. So we couldn't get in the same row, but we were across the aisle. And I think Laura had Rachel. And then, because when you're a baby, usually it's on your lap. But I was right next to her, so I had the bag so I could hand her stuff and, you know, across the aisle.

But anyway, I was sitting next to this couple. And so one of the things I like to do on airplanes is chat with people I'm sitting next to. And at some point, they ask me what I do for a living. And airplanes is chat with people I'm sitting next to and at some point they ask me what I do for a living and I say oh I'm a game designer and they go oh well what game and I go Magic the Gathering and they're like no way and I'm like yeah and they go uh

what's your name and I'm like I'm Mark Rosewater you're Mark Rosewater because this is back when I didn't have a podcast yet to recognize my voice and I guess they didn't know my picture and so it turns out that they I didn't have a podcast yet to recognize my voice, and I guess they didn't know my picture. And so it turns out that they were Magic players. And more than they were Magic players, they had just gotten married.

They were coming to Seattle for their honeymoon. And they were very excited to meet me, and I said, Laura, do you mind if we take a small detour on the way home? And I said no. So when we got there, we went with them to get their rental car. And then they followed me to Wizards, and I gave them a tour of Wizards. I said, it's your honeymoon. You guys are magic fans. So we drove to Wizards, and we gave them a tour, which is, by the way, something I'm not supposed to do.

But no one was there, so shh. And anyway, it was for the honeymoon. I thought it was nice to give them this. So that was something that I don't have a lot of opportunities to go over and above as a celebrity, but when I have a few opportunities, that was really exciting for me. Okay, let me tell you another story of me meeting celebrities.

So one of the questions I get asked all the time is, who was my favorite celebrity? Who's the nicest celebrity I ever met? So I was working on Empty Nest at the time. Empty Nest was a sitcom. So I worked at Whit Thomas Productions. They made Golden Girls. They made Empty Nest.

They made, at the time, a show called Blossom, starring Mayim Bialik, who's now on Big Bang Theory. She was a kid at the time. Anyway, I was working on Empty Nest, which was a spin-off of Golden Girls. It starred Richard Mulligan as a widower who had three daughters, although only two of them were on the show, one of them you heard about. But anyway, one of my jobs as a runner on Empty Nest was when there would be guest hosts, usually we would go pick them up at the airport.

And for those that don't know, there's a special place that celebrities, there's a terminal that's a little, like a place that's a little more out of the beaten path that celebrities can go so that they're not in the main part of the airport. I think they're making a giant terminal at some point. But anyway, at the time, they had a little one. And so I went. So both I and my fellow production assistants, there were two productions on MTS.

We both went. And we had to pick up. Okay. This is horrible. When I'm about to do the big reveal, I didn't pick up um okay uh this is horrible when I'm about to do the big reveal and I blinked at his name uh

Phil um he was Saturday Night Live uh he was on the Simpsons why am I blinking at Phil's last name um

he was a super super funny guy uh I can't believe I'm blinking at his last name when you guys the audience all...

So he first came to claim the fame on Saturday Night Live. Then he was on News Radio. Phil Hartman. Ah, man, I forgot his name. Phil Hartman. He was on News Radio. He did a couple of voices on The Simpsons.

But anyway, so we went to pick him up. So one of the things you have to understand about celebrities is, in general, production systems are below man on the totem pole. And so we're not treated particularly all that nice. And so a lot of people ignore us. At best, usually they're just neutral toward us. But Phil Hartman was just super sweet, really nice. While we were driving back, he was asking our opinion about sort of tell about the show and the people.

And like he was really listening to us. And then whenever I would see him around the lot, because, you know, I was delivering things, he would say, hey, Mark, how you doing? Like he remembered my name. Now, I know that may not sound like something, but being that there were cast members on Empty Nest who did not know my name, people who I brought lunch to every other day, basically, who did not know my name, maybe they recognized my face, but they didn't know my name.

Some of them did, but they didn't know my name. And guest star Phil Hartman knew my name. He was, like I said, I dealt with a lot of stars in my time in Hollywood. And some of them were nice. A lot of them were not nice. Some of them were neutral. But Phil Hartman was by far, by far the nicest.

And it's funny. Of my stories today, both Jim Henson and Phil Hartman died prematurely. Jim Henson died a couple months, like a few months after I met him. Maybe even six weeks after I met him. I was working on a hidden camera show where it was a pilot for a show where people would call in and want to do pranks on their friends or family, and then we would help them and film it. And I walked in, and there was news that Jim Henson had died, and I was in denial. I was like, I don't believe you.

Because he died of, like, pneumonia or something. Like, he was sick and just didn Jim Henson had died and I was in denial. I was like, I don't believe you. Because he died of pneumonia. He was sick and just didn't go to the doctor and he died and it just didn't even sound real to me. Phil Hartman, obviously even more tragically,

he was killed by his wife. But anyway, two of the nicest celebrities I ever met came to really not happy endings and so that was really, both of those were hard

for me to hear. Other celebrity stuff? Yeah, one of the things that's interesting when I'm the celebrity is it's very funny how I recognize times where I met somebody and got a little tongue-tied and when they met me and we're very tongue-tied.

But it's, I don't know, it's, like I said, I really do enjoy interacting with people, so I cannot stress enough that if you meet me, you know, one of the things I've learned very hard is I try to ask questions of people when they meet me, because sometimes they have trouble, and I'll ask questions, and I'll try to get information out of them. And I, one of the things that's fun of meeting fans is, like, the reason I answer so many questions online is I like interacting with the fans. I love interacting with the fans in public. If you, by the way, have never met someone who's just so excited to meet you, it's an

awesome, awesome feeling. So I will never, I'm always happy to meet people. Okay, let me tell more celebrity stories. I will never. I'm always happy to meet people. Okay, let me tell more celebrity stories. Okay. So I was working at Witt Thomas Productions, I believe.

And so they were doing a movie with Richard Gere. And so some of the, Witt and Thomas, I assume, were meeting at Richard Gere's house. And so one of the roles of a runner is you get meals for people so they wanted pizza and so I got this here's Richard Gere's address go pick up two pepperoni pizzas

whatever they wanted and so I pick him up and I travel I go to his house, ring the doorbell who answers? Richard Gere! Hi Richard Gere, Hi, Richard Gere. Here's your pizza. He invites me in. And I put down the pizza.

And then he says to the other people, he goes, would you mind, can I send him to get some beer? And they go, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he goes, he gives me some money. I think he went to give me some money. And then the producer's like, no, no, no, we can cover it. And then they said, okay, go get it. I didn't remember what kind of beer it was, but I ran down. So I delivered pizza to Richard Gere, and I got beer for Richard Gere.

Not a lot of celebrities will say you can buy beer for them. I did. One of the things that was neat is, one of the things that happens in L.A., for those that never lived in L.A., is you often will interact with celebrities, and your first gut when you see them in public is, and I now understand why people ask me if I'm me, is you'll see somebody, and they look a lot like the celebrity that you know, but you're kind of in denial that it's them. because it's like, well, I mean, I know that looks like, you know, I don't pick a celebrity. I know that looks like Celebrity X, but what's the chance of me seeing Celebrity X?

And then you live in L.A. long enough, you're like, no, that's probably, if they look like Celebrity X, they're probably Celebrity X. So here's another time where I got to serve food to a celebrity. So my girlfriend at the time was part of a Shakespearean they're putting on a Shakespeare play um in the park and she was part of the production staff and so opening night um I went to see the play and so she um they were doing the thing where they were doing root beer floats for opening night and so I got roped into being one of the root beer float makers. That's hard to say. Root beer float makers.

And so what happened was people would come up to me, and this is people who had seen the Shakespearean play, and they would come up to me, and I'd scoop out ice cream, and I'd put root beer in. And we might even have a choice of ice cream. I forget. But pretty much I had little containers. I'd scoop the ice cream. I'd put root beer in, and I'd you know, little containers. I scoop the ice cream. I put root beer in

and I hand them the thing. Pretty easy. So, who walks up to me? Keanu Reeves walks up to me. And he is a big Shakespeare fan, for those who don't know. So, I made some small... We talked about the play, I think. I don't remember exactly what we talked about. But I think we talked a little about Shakespeare.

He's a big fan of Shakespeare. We were watching a Shakespeare play. And I know a little bit about Shakespeare. And so, I'm serving his root beer. And he and I a little about Shakespeare. He's a big fan of Shakespeare. We were watching a Shakespeare play, and I know a little bit about Shakespeare. And so I'm serving him his root beer, and he and I are chatting about Shakespeare. That's some of my favorite memories, by the way, of my interaction with celebrities, are ones in which there was a moment where we just had kind of a unique moment. Oh, here's another fun one, is I was at Costco. This is here in Issaquah. So the Issaquah Costco where I live is

Issaquah is the corporate headquarters. So Kirkland, which is also a city in a suburb of Seattle, is where the first, that's probably the Kirkland brand, you go to Costco. But Issaquah is where the headquarters are. So the Issaquah branch is really nice because

it's right by headquarters. And so when your CEO is walking in probably every other day. Anyway, so they have a lot of book signings they do there. So one day I'm in the thing and I'm walking by and there's a guy sitting at a table and it's Ken Jennings. For those who don't know, he holds the record for the most consecutive Jeopardy wins. He's a very famous trivia buff person. And he'd written a book. And so I started chatting with him. And I asked if I could take a picture with him because I said I wanted to post it on my Twitter

because when I meet other celebrities, they get real excited when I post pictures on Twitter or Tumblr. And so he said, well, what do you do? And I explained I was the head designer for Magic. And he goes, oh, my goodness, my son plays Magic. And his son was like, he goes, look, it's the Head to Side of Magic. And he knew who I was. He was very excited to meet me. So Ken Jennings and I were talking.

So the shirt I had on at the time was I had this Superman shirt, but instead of the letter S, it's a Hebrew letter S. I call it my Super Jew shirt. And so he commented on my shirt. And so we got on the topic of Jewish superheroes. Like the Thing from Fantastic Four is Jewish. Kitty Pryde from Shadowcat from X-Men is Jewish. So we started talking about Jewish superheroes. And what I realized is I knew more on the topic of Jewish superheroes than Ken Jennings,

which might be the only topic that I know more of than Ken Jennings. But it was very fun. And anyway, one of my favorite things when I meet celebrities, I love when I have this little moment where I can talk with them. So what I realize when I meet people is I try to make sure if I can, like rather than just be a generic, hey, how are you, try to find something that's unique about them that I can have a conversation with them that I've never had with anybody else.

Just because what I realize is I remember the moments that I've met with celebrities. So people remember the moments with me. Oh, that's another dynamic that's very interesting is when I meet somebody and then I've met with celebrities. I know people remember the moments with me. Oh, that's another dynamic that's very interesting is when I meet somebody and then they've met me before, but to their mind, I mean, they know exactly when they met me before and I meet a lot of people and so I don't remember. That's another weird dynamic where I'll meet somebody and they go, Oh, yeah, I met you back at, you know, Pro Tour, blah, blah, blah,

or Grand Prix, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, we talked for two minutes and you said this and that. And I try where I can. I've met a lot of people, so if I don't always remember exactly, I mean, my memory's decent. And if you and I had talked about something unique, there's a greater chance, like, oh, we talked about such and such, and that's the only time I ever talked about it,

I have a better chance of remembering. But anyway, I apologize if I meet you and then don't realize that I met you. I meet a lot of people I'm decent with faces but I just interact with so many different people that it is hard and some of them

briefly it's hard for me to remember everybody that I've interacted with I'm almost to work I'm trying to think of any other any other stories

of me being a celebrity I forgot to check my article let's see oh here's another one another one I did in the article. So when I was in college, I was in an improv troupe.

And one of the people in the improv troupe was a guy named Alex. Oh, not Alex. Stuart. Stuart Winter. And he wrote a comic strip where Alex was the main character. For those of you who are confused, Stuart was Alex.

Anyway, Stuart was a stand-up comic. He did stand-up comedy. He went to open mic nights and stuff, and so a bunch of us went with him, and we started doing stand-up too. And so during college, I did a bunch of stand-up, and a little bit when I first got to L.A.

But anyway, the place I chose to do stand-up in Boston was in a place called Catch a Rising Star, which was in the, what I, the place I chose to stand up in, um, Boston was in a place called Catch a Rising Star, which was in Cambridge where Harvard is and Harvard Yard. Um, and so, um, the schtick that I came up with, I decided I wanted a schtick was I did lists. Um, and so I would pull lists from all over places and it was like, I talked about how in, um, 50 ways to leave Lover, they actually only use six. Here's the 44 they don't mention or the top 10 pet peeves of the average Enterprise crew member or, I don't know, all sorts of lists.

And after my first time at his stand with Kitchen Rising Star, this comedian who was, stand of a kitchen rising star, this comedian who was, the way it works at open mic night is that the open mic night is for new comedians to break in, and for established comedians just to try new material. It's a safe place for them to sort of try stuff out. And so, really,

open mic night is people who've come for, I mean, it's much, open mic night is cheaper than normal nights. And so people are coming for a little cheaper comedy usually on like Monday nights and then the comics and so when I came

off the stage one comic came up to me and the sense I got was he was someone who was you know more of a regular wasn't doing open mic

and he gave me some tips and then every time I go up and I come off not always but a lot of times he'd come off

and give me tips on stuff and sometimes he noticed that I did something he had said and you know so I had this little rapport and this little comic

was helping me you know one of the normal comics who was helping me and so anyway I always remember this comic just because it was

real nice to me and it's something like it's interesting how often you remember people that are just are nice to you at a time that

you just it's helpful for someone to be nice to you you always remember people that are just nice to you at a time that it's helpful for someone to be nice to you. You always remember people that are nice to you. I don't think you actually forget people that are nice to you. Anyway, so that person was Louis C.K. So who was the person that helped me when I was first breaking in doing stand-up, giving me helpful notes? It was Louis C.K.

And the funny thing was, I always kept an eye on him, and he was on a lot of writing staffs, and so his name was kind of out there. He really didn't break it big for many, many, many years. So it was the kind of thing where I'd watch writing staffs, and his name would go by, and, oh, hey, Louis C.K. I like Louis C.K. So that's my Louis C.K. story. Any other quick stories before I get to work? Let's see.

I did. I told the Richard Gere story. I told the Jim Henson story. I told the Phil Hartman story. I told the Clint Eastwood story. I told the Ke Henson story. I told the Phil Hartman story. I told the Clint Eastwood story. I told the Keanu Reeves story. One of the games I used to play when I worked in Hollywood with my cousins is I would have them name a celebrity and then I'd tell if I'd met them or not.

And back when I worked in Hollywood, usually about one in four, I at least had some, I mean, I might have just seen them, but I had some story, even if just like I was eating at the deli. Oh, by the way, if you ever, if you ever live in LA and you want to see stars, the place that I had the highest rate of seeing stars was in the valley, what's the deli name?

There's a famous, famous deli in the valley. I'm blanking on the name of the deli. But it's, in the valley there's a, it's like, look up delis in the valley. It's a very old deli. But I saw more celebrities in that deli. It's just a big deli, and it's just a great place to eat.

Anyway, that's the number one spot for spotted celebrities. Anyway, let me wrap this up by saying mostly my point of today is just talking about there's just different aspects of what I do. And this was not an aspect I expect. I didn't really ever start working at Wizards. Like, I didn't start working at Wizards expecting to be a spokesperson. I kind of came by it, like I said,

for those that don't know, I just, back in the day there was Usenet, which was like a bulletin board. And I would go on and answer questions and stuff on there. And then I started writing for the Duelist and then I started doing a column called Insider Trading. And I just... Through the Duelist and through

Usenet and stuff, I just started becoming the person that talked for Wizards, and then became more official when the website started, and I started doing my articles and stuff. And then I kind of naturally navigated into the role. I mean, it's a role I was comfortable with, but it wasn't something planned. And as Magic has gotten big, I mean, it started a role I was comfortable with, but it wasn't something planned. And as magic has gotten big,

I mean, it started big and it's just gotten bigger. It's just interesting. It's like, you know, it is... I have so many stories of where I was just someplace, you know,

I was at the movie buying popcorn or I was riding the ferry or whatever. I'm just doing things and people stop me. And like I said, my kids are tickled pink by it.

And like I said, luckily I'm a small enough celebrity that it is fun. It is always a positive experience stop me. And like I said, my kids are tickled pink by it. And like I said, luckily I'm a small enough celebrity that it is fun. It is always a positive experience for me because it's not like I can't get a moment's peace. I can understand why real celebrities have a problem

where they can't ever go out in public without someone stopping them. I don't have that. So like I said, feel free if you see me to stop. I'm always happy to sign an autograph, answer a question, take a picture.

But anyway, guys, that is my tales of my celebrity. Like I said, it was raining today, so you got a little extra bonus. So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed today's podcast, but I'm now parking my parking space. So you all know what that means. Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic.

See you guys next time.