I sat backstage and had a beer with Richard Chamberlain, Paul Newman, and Princess Grace.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I was a backstage kid. I was in the wings looking out.
I didn't even drink until I was in college. While other people were out partying, I'd be home watching the Tony Awards and Bob Fosse movies... I so badly wanted to be part of the club.
My dad was a theater actor, so I would follow him backstage. And my mom was a casting director. The moment I heard the applause and realized it would get me out of school, I was hooked.
I had to go and sing with the musical director of the film, Simon Lee, who is just incredible, and it went great. I sang with him about five things, things we'd worked on. And then I went to sing for Andrew Lloyd Weber.
The most memorable performance was my appearance in concert in Carnegie Hall. The first standup to do so.
But it was great, we sit in the same dressing room where, like, Johnny Cash sat and Willie Nelson and all those guys. That was in itself something amazing - I was on the same space these guys stood on, ya know?
My wife and I got to go onstage at a Flaming Lips concert at Webster Hall once. We dressed up like Scientology aliens and danced around. We had a shootout onstage with Santa Claus.
I was in a play with Julia Roberts and Paul Newman and Tony Randall.
You should never meet your heroes. Paul Newman... I was so excited about meeting him, but he turned up in shell suit bottoms, slippers, and a jumper. He was just so worn out and old, he wanted to go home.
I was going out for absolutely everything that was in Backstage.