Has anyone here met Mo Rocca? He came to my college once a year ago and did a show/ lecture (edutainment/ book tour?). Anyway, people who were buying his book could stand in line and get his autograph. I wasn't buying anything, but my friend was in line for an autograph, and since I was her ride, I went right up the line with her. --I didn't even know who he was at the time...just had heard he was funny, so I went. [spent most of the 90's without a TV at all and still, even now, without cable.]
Anyway, I was happy to stand in line for this reason: He had mentioned "Atlantic Monthly" as one of his favorite magazines. I had a WHOLE BUNCH of them stacking up unread because my dad was continuing to send me a subscription even though I was not in a position to be reading them at the time. [Good magazine, I just wasn't able to get to them.] --I'd been looking for a long time for a good way to not just get rid of them but share 'em, with someone who would appreciate them.
...So, I'm thinking, Hey, cool...I can ask Mo Rocca if he'd like to get these, since they're several issues just tossed aside unread. Perfect condition. One less thing to pay for, right? So, anyway, we get up there, and he's sitting at the table autographing book covers--and while he's autographing the people's books to the right of me, I'm launching into my proposed idea for him to take the mags off my hands. He politely explains that he does his reading online. I'm like, All right...cool.
Then after he signs my friend's book, he says to me, "Where do you want me to sign?" looking up at me expectantly. It caught me off guard, 'cause I really hadn't gone up there with the idea of getting an autograph in mind. I said, "Oh! Well...I really didn't think about that! ...I'm sorry--I don't actually have a book." He sees my program and says, "That's all right. I'll sign this." He starts writing, and--me being a neatnick, I have to restrain myself from saying, "Hey, not on the front...! I was planning on keeping that." I told myself, It's an autograph, so that makes it okay.
Instead, I just said out loud the other thing I was thinking : "I was just trying to get rid of some magazines!" He jerked his head up quick--in time to see my perky, but mildly disinterested, shrug. His expression was one of having been floored! It was like...that was the funniest thing he had ever heard, and "I can't believe she just said that!" --His mouth was dropped...and he laughed!
At the time, I shrugged it off. [I'm just thinking, "Eh...it's an autograph. ...No idea who this guy is, but he's somebody--'cause he's here--and his show was good.] So, I'm okay with it...even if he did write all across the front of my program. And I'm feeling pretty good that, even if I didn't get rid of any magazines, at least I made somebody laugh.
So then I go home and get on the Internet and find out just WHO that somebody is...and now I'm feeling REALLY GOOD that I made 'somebody' laugh!!! LOL Then, a few weeks or months after that, I see him on the Tonight Show for the first time. [He made me laugh.] And I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, thinking, Pretty good...I made this guy laugh. So now every time I see Mo Rocca pulling his zany stuff on air somewhere, I'm thinking, Damn! [smug smile] I made Mo Rocca laugh!
Don't ask me why I shared that. I was just remembering it a few days ago, and went on MySpace just to see. Sure enough, he's on there--and the pic with his most natural face is also his most recently logged-in post. In the general interests category, he wrote, "I enjoy my job as a commentator on VH1, as well as going on book tours to make little girls happy."
--Not that I think that he wrote that little blurb for me...but I am petite...and he did post that profile a month before I met him--and his last log-in was only a few months ago.... I thought to myself, "He could have edited it to say that...after he met me...." --Just the thought of it was enough to make me laugh!
To this day, Mo Rocca continues to make me laugh. But I got him first.
