Encounters of the Notoriety Kind

I have always been fascinated by the whole entertainment industry. Not just the idea of meeting celebrities but even all of the behind the scenes activities from filming movies and television. From time to time while I have been on the road, I have had the opportunity to be exposed to a portion of this either by pure chance or because I found myself seeking out these experiences. Here are a few tales of how I met some notable people from the entertainment industry while traveling both afar and even locally.

My wife and I took a trip down to Chester, NS, Canada one morning. It was one of those days where I just got up in the morning, decided I didn’t want to go to work, and wanted to go to Chester, NS. It’s not exactly a place that most people think of visiting but for me, and it was a place I wanted to revisit because of a particular TV show called Haven.

Haven was a science fiction program that ran on the Syfy channel from 2010 to 2015. It was originally based on a Stephen King novel called The Colorado Kid but eventually became it’s own story about strange things that happened in a town called Haven, Maine. The show was actually shot in Chester, NS and the surrounding area. I had wanted to go see some of the landmarks from the show but had never had the chance to get down there. That morning my wife and I got in the car and went for a drive.

We found the location for a fictitious bar called The Grey Gull and then eventually ended up finding the main building where all of the interior shots are filmed. As we drove around the parking lot looking at the trailers marked “Haven”, my wife starts tapping me on the arm yelling “IT’S PONY TAIL GUY!!!” and pointed towards the food truck in front of us. We parked the car, got out, and my wife wandered over to Lucas Bryant who plays Nathan on the show and asked for a photo.

He was an extremely nice guy, chatted with us for a few minutes, and then even yelled “Hey Balfour, get over here. These nice people want to take a picture.” He was yelling to Eric Balfour who plays Duke who did indeed come over and again also took a couple photos and chatted with us.

 For both me and Tamara, it made the day that much more memorable. To this day I still remind her of how she got all fan-girl on Eric the moment she spotted him from the car.

As luck would have it, I also had a chance to meet Lucas again when I went to the MCM Comicon in London in 2013. This time however I managed to finish the triad of the cast and meet the wonderful Emily Rose who played the main character of Audrey on Haven.

Both the cast of Warehouse 13 and Haven were at the same comic convention and as a fan of both shows, I made sure I got myself tickets to the event, and stayed a few extra days to be able to attend.

Warehouse 13, Haven, and Eureka are kind of the triad of sci-fi shows from the Syfy network that I am huge fans of. To this day I still rewatch those shows on a fairly regular basis. For Warehouse 13, Eddie McClintock, Saul Rubinek, and Kelly Hu were in attendance all whom I had the chance to meet and speak to. Eddie has got to me one of the most dedicated actors when it comes to his fans. When the WH13 panel was done, he went back to his autograph table and told people that if they hadn’t had a chance to come see him to come on by and get an autograph or take photos. He told this really funny, albeit very PG13 story to the audience about the “hairy gum” in his pocket during one of the shoots. If you ever want to know about it, ask me. Funny story but not necessarily appropriate for here. 🙂

I’ve had a couple of celebrity encounters during my excursions in and around NYC. As I wrote in my last blog entry, I had a funny encounter With Pauley Shore, and even had the chance to meet Phil Keoghan from The Amazing Race. I saw Penn Gillette and Henry Winkler (the fonz) while walking through Times Square. I didn’t even get the chance to say hi or anything they just literally walked right past me as I was wandering around the area.

My most recent NYC encounter was one that was completely unexpected and in a different setting entirely. I was in town for my company’s annual user conference which was being held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. Our “gala” party at the end of the week was actually held in Rockefeller Center. Many of us already felt kind of like celebrities with all of the tourists looking down at the area wondering what was going on. It was the second time I had been to a party there and it did feel kind of surreal to be partying in one of the most iconic places in the city.

One of the C-Level bosses came on and introduced our special guest. Alzheimers was the charity of choice for us this year and through social media, we had invited the actress Ashley Williams to attend as our special guest. Now many people wouldn’t know the name but I recognized it right away and immediately went to get a better view while she was doing her speech.

Ashley has been in a bunch of different movies and TV shows but is most known for her role as Ted’s girlfriend Victoria on How I Met Your Mother. I also knew that she had done a stint on Warehouse 13 as a recurring bad-gal in the third season of Warehouse 13. When I spotted her having a conversation with a fellow colleague, I quickly made my way over and had the chance to introduce myself. We struck up a conversation about her time on Warehouse 13. In a matter of a few seconds it didn’t feel like I was talking to someone I had seen on TV countless times and just some regular person. I asked for a photo for which she was more than happy to oblige and then thanked her for coming and went along my way.

I have to admit that when I got back to my hotel room, the first thing I did was watch a couple of How I Met Your Mother episodes with her in it. I was feeling a bit star struck.

During a trip to LA, I also had the opportunity to meet Wil Wheaton (of Star Trek Next Generation fame) and Felicia Day. I had bought Felicia’s book as it tells her story about growing up being obsessed with technology and video games and her “geek” life which really seemed to connect with me. Her and Wil gave a talk in LA about her book where she did a signing and I had a chance to bring her a little gift. In the book she talked about how she was a huge fan of Anne of Green Gables so I brought her a few little things from PEI since it’s relatively close to here.

During a completely different excursion to LA, my friend Gary and I were in town to see Faith No More play. We were out for a walk along Hollywood Blvd and just happened to turn our heads and spot a guy with long dreadlocks inside a restaurant. Within a second or two we both realized it was actually the drummer for Faith No More, Puffy (Mike) Bordin along with the guitar player Jon Hudson. We both popped inside the restaurant, had some food, introduced ourselves, and became overjoyed with the idea of meeting some of the guys from our all time favorite band.

A few years later during a trip to Toronto, I got to see the band play again during a tour to support their new album and I managed to get all five of the band members to sign a record I had brought with me. For myself, Mike Patton, the singer of Faith No More, was a huge part of my youth and a massive influence in my life. Although I handed him my record for him to sign, I was completely speechless and did not get a chance to ask for a photo as I just was far too nervous.

Traveling does have its perks in getting to see many things from many places, but sometimes the perks are less about the places you visit and more about the people you meet. In this case, I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few people I recognized from television, movies, and music. Here’s to hoping for more of those in the future.