Brian Kernighan. Got the chance to have lunch with him!
Did he make you manually allocate all the space for food in your stomach before you started to eat?
I spotted Tom Hardy rushing through a London train a few years ago. I gave him a nod and he gave me the ‘don’t tell anyone I’m here’ look. My Mum was next to me and pretty upset she didn’t notice him, because she thinks he’s a pretty handsome guy!
Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and many other novels.
I got a great story out of the meeting as I was there for a signing and brought two t-shirts from chuckpalahiuk.net.
The guy who ran the website wrote a screenplay and Chuck allowed him to sell the shirts and run a contest to fund the project. First prize?
You get a character named after you in Chuck’s next book.
I get to the front of the line and reveal that my paper bag has t-shirts in it.
Now Chuck knows the stakes and he asks me my name.
“Pronell Mordini.”
“I hope you lose.”
It’s better with my real name, which is really clumsy. And I did lose but got a story from it.
Work at an airport if you want to meet famous people. I’ve chatted with a ton. But my favorites were Jerry and Meara Stiller. Insanely cute couple, sweet and funny.
Steve Irwin. Sandra Bullock. The boys from Powderfinger. Dean Martin. Probably others.
Used to work in a theatre, and I came round a corner at work one day and almost ran straight into Susan Sarandon. Tim Robbins stood there looking unimpressed, as I apologised :-)
Adam Savage
Just some random politicians. Governors and senators, never anyone higher than that.
Oh, and John Oliver!
I sold a copy of Golden Sun to Venus Williams once.
I’ve skated and hung out with a lot of pro skaters over the years at various demos, but the one who is probably most universally recognized is Bam Margera.
It’s either him or Ben Bernanke, the ex federal reserve chair.
I drove the bus driver for Slipknot back to his bus.
I also partied with Pretty Lights and Griz in a campsite but didnt know it at the time. Super chill people.
Probably Randy Bachman. A friend and I were drunk walking at night and he was just hanging outside a venue so we chatted and got pictures.
Sting and Bill Gates
I yelled WANKER at Boris Johnson in person.
Randall Munroe… at a chili cook-off.