The Weekend I Met My Idols

And on Saturday, October 13th
I met a few of my biggest idols in life.
I even met some idols I didn't even know I idolized,
but I do now.
And now I'm going to stop using the word idol for the rest of this post
because it's starting to sound silly to me as I've said it too much.
Idol idol idol...

Let's start with the comedian first. The guy who happens to be one of my favorite SNL alumnus.
Will Forte.
You might know him as MacGruber.

I know I do.

I had a twenty minutes conversation with Mr. Forte on Saturday night. 

No biggy.

We talked about The Second City (although he's from the Groundlings in LA, which is very similar.)

We talked about SNL. And about our mutual friend, Kristen Wiig, obvi.

And as I was talking with Will, the entire time I was thinking, 

"Holy shit this guy is so nice. Not movie star-ish at all."

And yet I struggled to keep a straight face because no matter how hard I tried,

I just continued to imagine him saying,

"GILLLLLLLLY!"

Like throughout our entire conversation. It got pretty distracting.

"Gilllllllllllly."

Maybe sometime I'll do a vlog and show you all my Gilly voice. Probs not though.

And then I found myself in a conversation with an older gentlemen named Albert from Chicago.

Like Will, he was also incredibly friendly.

Naturally we talked all about our love for the city. And the food. 

And everything else great in my neck of the woods.

He casually mentioned that he now he lives in LA and is a producer. 

Have you heard of a little film called Little Miss Sunshine?

Because he produced this film. Along with a shit ton of other amazing stuff.

So yes, Albert is my idol now as well.

Because Little Miss Sunshine is one of my all time favorites.

And thanks to the bottle of champagne I drank before meeting my idols,

I told Albert this. I think my actual words were,

"I don't want this to sound corny, but Little Miss Sunshine is the reason I started writing screen plays."

And I was sincere as hell when I meant it. I was also tipsy as hell. But that's neither here nor there.

And finally, it was time to meet the native Nebraska man who inspires people like myself

to hold onto the hope that maybe you don't have to be from LA or NY to have a career in the movie industry.

Maybe if you really love what you're doing, and you know deep down that it's what you're supposed to be doing, it might actually work out..

Maybe.

Meet Alexander Payne.

He writes, he directs, he basically makes films that are amazing. Simply amazing.

And he's from Nebraska.

You might have heard of some of his work. Like...

And he is one of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever met.

Have you ever spoke with someone who is doing everything in life that you dream of doing?

Who is the person that you aspire to be?

Who is doing something that he is so passionate about (and good at) that it's obvious he can't help but just radiant happiness?

It's kinda surreal. And it's also incredibly motivating. 

Once upon a time I wanted to write movies.

So I started to read books about the screen writing. And then I read every screen play I could get my hands on. 

Then I finally started to write.... Two years later I sent off my finished scripts to people.

 And then the rejections/obstacles came.

So I stopped. 

But I think it's time to start again.

I've always been a dreamer, damn it. And even though it kinda sucks to want something so bad, 

that is seemingly so unattainable.

It's also kinda fun.

So yeah, that is the weekend I met my idols,
and decided to start dreaming again.

Long story short: Payne and his crew are filming a movie in my lovely little hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska. So no, I don't usually hang out with directors and producers on the weekends. Although I'd like to start doing it a little more often...