Holy Shit I Met Dan Aykroyd Last Night!

So of course, now having blogged for one year everything passes through the blog screen first. I woke up late...is that bloggable? No. Okay, do I have enough time for breakfast? Is that bloggable? That topic sounds more Open Run than Otisburg...

But of course meeting Dan Aykroyd is bloggable. Okay, now what should I say? Of course how I ended up meeting him...what we said...oh, a title. I've got to have a clever title. "Dan Aykroyd Says Hi": Sort of a sequel to my last "meeting a famous guy" blog on David Cross, hmmm, maybe a line from our conversation, or maybe "You never know who you'll run into...": If I were Garrison Keillor and I met Dan Aykroyd I'd call it that.

So I sit down to tell you all of my evening and what subconsciously flowed from mind to page? What came of my mind and was typed before I even tried to remember my titles? Holy Shit I Met Dan Aykroyd Tonight! Well that about sums the experience up.

Dan Aykroyd's one of the reasons I'm even writing about leaving Second City, where I teach, to write on my blog on a website for the comedy group I created 8 years ago after a Second City class!!!!!!!!!! We all watched SNL, we all asked how did they get there, we all found out what they had in common and we all headed for Chicago. I've always marveled at Dan Aykroyd's characters, my flickr account is named Pinth Garnell after Leonard Pinth-Garnell of "Bad Ballet" and "Bad Conceptual Art." And every character I played when I did my first sketch shows in Chicago were largely based on E. Buzz Miller.

So I run into Sean Cusick who starts the rumor mill, "Aykroyd's doing the set." Even if it never turned out to be true, that's one thing I love about the comedy community in Chicago, little rumors like that. I was a full four miles away from Second City when Mel Gibson did the improv set in 1998, but I still found out moments later. Love that, there's nothing quite like the comedy community gossip chain.

Well I stop by the set after my class anyway, so no sweat off my back, and sure enough, there's Austin Milbarge himself. Wow. I can quote every line he speaks in Spies Like Us and Ghostbusters, I saw Dragnet 15 times, and even saw The Couch Trip in theatres. Wow. I guess I never realized by Dan Aykroyd was high on my celebrities to meet list. It's so weird, he's so real. That's really Dan Aykroyd. Ray Stantz. Very cool.

There's some kid named Belushi in touring company now. Interesting.

So the set ends and I book out, and who books out right behind me? Dr. Detroit. I immediatley turn to shake his hand, "Dan, pleasure to meet you." "What're you riding?" E. Buzz Miller replies mistaking the subway bag in my right hand for a motorcycle helmet. "Oh, sorry, thought you had a helmet." "So what brings you by?" I ask, kind of wanting to hug him. "I'm on my way to Nevada, I got my own Amtrak car, some guys buy Lear Jets, I rent a train car." Irwin Mainway says it the most familiar voice imaginable, one I've heard for 25 years. Elwood exits the front of the The Second City seeing rain and takes a step back. I continue into the rain and turn back, "Thanks for bringing so many of us here" referring to The Second City. "It's a great place isn't it?" And that was it.

What the fuck do you say to famous people? I hate it. Certainly there's respectable behavior. I fawned the fuck all over Tim Kazurinsky when I met him at Second City, but I was 19. I never know how to act. I just act like they're anybody else except that I know who they are. But every one of them is so expecting you to pull out a gun.