Meet and Greet with an Idle
It was a day that was weeks of build-up, then a threat to the day, then much rejoice.
Monty Python legend Eric Idle was in the country doing a stage tour in various parts of the southern hemisphere for a few weeks, followed by being the big name star for the Sydney Just For Laughs show at the Opera House.
Just before I shut down my Twitter account, Idle posted a tweet about a free book signing for his Spamalot Diaries at George Street Dymocks in the city on a Friday. Since I missed out on his stage show this time last year because someone caught the spicy cough, I thought I wasn’t going to miss him this time round. I booked my free spot, and told Dad to do the same.
Fast forward to the week of the signing, the trains were threatening a 3 day shutdown to the NSW Government. If their demands were not made, they’d take out the comfy chair and soft cushion. So on Wednesday, Dad and I considered the day a write-off and we won’t be able to attend. Until… Thursday evening, news rang out that the shutdown was cancelled and trains will run as normal. There was much rejoicing.
On Friday, I went into the office to work, then met up with Dad and my nephew. We walked to the Dymocks five minutes away, and thinking we had our spots reserved – there was a massive line within the store.
That’s fine – everyone is here for the same reason.. it’ll go fast. Then I realised people had the book in their hands with a receipt. You had to buy the book beforehand… DUH! So I ran to the counter and got Dad and myself a book each. A staff member was walking around to people in the line with books in their hand to write their names on a post-it note to make it easier for Eric to sign away. I was ready to meet.
Turns out we were in line for one whole hour, gradually moving to the front. We got there in the end, and I let Dad meet him first. We were on a time limit due to the amount of people in line, but Dad made a joke about him and Eric going to the same barber (grey hair etc). Then he moved on. I was next.
I’m going to brag – I’ve been extremely lucky to meet many high profile personalities due to my career, but meeting Eric – I froze and went quiet.
The assistant passed my book to Eric, who said “Are you Matthew?”
I went quiet and stared past him.
“Matthew? You’re Matthew aren’t you? Are you OK?”
I snapped out of it and said in a soft voice “..ooh yes. I am Matthew. Sorry!” and awkwardly smiled. I watched him sign away, and I stumbled to get my phone out to take a selfie. Then I realised we were told earlier that he wasn’t going to do photos. But Eric’s other assistant gave me the nod to do it but one photo only.
Thanks to my nephew, he was around as a backup to take photos on his phone.
I loosened up a bit after the photo, gave a quick thank you, then left… shaking off the nervous energy. As we walked down George Street, Dad’s face was grinning ear to ear.
My signed book will sit beautifully next to my autographed Michael Palin diaries (I didn’t meet him, but these got ordered via his site).
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