Jules wrote:What an interesting read! Glad you had such a lovely time!
If you could meet someone who means much to you, today, who would you choose?
That is a good question which leads me to another experience that happened 7 years ago.
My mom was always telling me things like I should submit my name or talent to tv shows to see if I had a "talent" to get on a show and that weirder things had happened. I dropped out of High School to be home Schooled due to my many medical issues and since it was light and the academics and stronger on social skills that I didn't have due to my Asperger Syndrome
My mom said that The Tonight Show With Jay Leno was my pragmatic language class. I was watching the show and saw that they were doing a segment called Teenage Wasteland where they had teenagers doing weird "Talents". I decided to secretly take my mom's advice and I submitted a "talent" to the Tonight Show website. Now I wasn't expecting what was to come 3 days later. The talent I submitted was that I could take my underwear off without taking my shorts off. I got a reply to it saying that they wanted us to send them a video of it and they said they weren't guaranteeing I would get on but that I had gotten something a lot of people didn't get which was a reply.
We had to borrow a video camera and they filmed the talent of mine. We mailed the tape off and then about a week later I got a phone call from California saying they wanted to have me on the show to participate in a segment called Does that Impress Ed Asner. My dad thought it might be a kid doing one of their cruel pranks like some have done in the past saying I won a trip to Disney and I needed to show them some effing respect. But it was no prank and they emailed me the plane tickets for my dad and I and off we went. Ironically we stayed at the same hotel that we were at in 2003 meeting Roy Disney so I got to see some of the bellhops again and they recognized me right away. The day came and they sent a limo to the hotel and picked me up and this other guy who was also on the same segment and he was really kind.
When we got to NBC we were shown to my dressing room though my dad wouldn't let me eat anything because it might stain my shirt. They came in to put on the microphone and the backstage producers and stage people came to tell me that in the rehearsal Jay wouldn't be there because they want this to be as authentic as possible so he's not expecting what is actually going to happen as the same with Ed Asner. During rehearsal I saw my dad in the audience and I froze so during the real thing they put him up higher the in audience and I did perfectly fine. I did the talent with success but Ed Asner's face looked like he was getting irritated and said that it was the most stupefying performance he had seen since FEMA. (Katrina happened 2 weeks earlier) He said that he was impressed because my underwear was squeaky clean and therefore he was impressed. They played the striptease music during the whole thing which I was quietly laughing at while concentrating doing the talent. A day later we were flew back home.
I kept getting recognized everywhere. I heard people watched it in Spanish Class and various parts of the following days. I even heard they played it at the local small movie theaters that fits three screens. I got recognized for about the next 4 years and it was a various amount and sorts of people. Some guy from Indiana recognized me at a gas station in Saint Louis.
Apparently my next door neighbor didn't know about it but happened to be watching it and the neighbor said that it looks like Michael from next door and when they said it was me the neighbor was shocked. There was this one lady who was like a second grandma to me said she didn't hear about it until she watched by chance and that if she wouldn't have seen it she would have bopped me for not telling her.
In a way that was my second Make A Wish in a way and it's another experience I will never forget. Here's more pictures of both trips
A better picture of Roy Disney signing my book
A fire hydrant on the Disney Lot where Pluto took a bathroom break apparently
A door to the one of the Disney Vaults
A better picture of the Snow White film Reel inside The Disney Vault
The Seven Dwarfs Building aka The Michael D Eisner Building
One of the ranch style building on The Disney Lot.
Behind these posters are the Disney Vaults. There is a window underneath each poster because if there was ever an earthquake and the films exploded due to they have a component of TNT in them, it would just blow that window instead of the whole building
This is the Universal Cinema on the Universal City Walk. This was taken in 2003
This is in 2005 when I was on Leno.
One of the Bellhops that was from both trips. This was taken in 2005
This is the sign that directs to the green room backstage
This is the door to my Dressing Room
I'm standing next to Jay Leno's car
I'm standing in the backlot parking lot.
I'm getting a microphone on
I'm on stage
In the process of doing my talent
Ed Asner's face is priceless
Ta Da!!
Finding out if he's impressed. He's impressed because my underwear were squeaky clean
Here is my dad and I after the show getting our picture taken with Jay.
I had him also sign a color me beanie baby which is basically a bear you can write on. Kevin Eubanks who was the Tonight Show band leader and John Melendez who was the voice for The Tonight Show also signed it.
I'll post more pictures later because my camera died.
If I were to meet a third person ever it might be either Steve Harvey or get a 3 day stay at Disneyland because there was so much more I wanted to do and it would be a park hopper this time.
