Friday, August 29, 2008
Mr. Phil Giroux of The Tom Green Show
The Works of Phil Giroux, Part 37: "MTV Is Number One!" (August 2003).
Well, this is another one of my famous "post something months or years after it happens" posts. As anyone who knows me (or of me) is aware, I'm a huge Tom Green fan. Now for true Tom Green fans, this means being a fan of his shows' co-hosts, too. Glenn Humplik, Phil Giroux and Derek Harvie are all hilarious cats with Phil probably being the funniest (see THE TOM GREEN SHOW's "Bear vs. Cougar" argument or the segment where Tom exploits Phil's fear of copper by dumping hundreds of pennies in his lap... sorry, I found no YouTube links).
So anyway, back in August of '03, I was cruising Phil's website, ingeniously dubbed his "computer internet site", and what do I see? Another one of his wonderfully primitive paintings on eBay. You see, Mr. Giroux is a world famous acclaimed painter and had been painting these childish looking, hilarious paintings for a while and selling them via eBay. His latest masterpiece, aptly titled "MTV is Number One!", was now ripe for the bidding. So I threw my hat into the ring and a few days later claimed it. Mr. Guy-Rocks and I exchanged a few e-mails, he wrote on THE BRICE KENNEDY SHOW's guestbook and these days, "MTV Is Number One!" hangs proudly in my office next to my edit station. I keep saying that if I ever do another episode of THE BRICE KENNEDY SHOW, "MTV Is Number One!" will be the focus and who knows? Maybe Phil Giroux himself could even be a part of it.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Brice Meets Bill Clinton, Lands New Job
Brice Kennedy and President Bill Clinton at Woodburn Circle (May 2008).
Okay, the new job has nothing to do with the president. Sue me for sensationalizing. Nonetheless, the 42nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton III, fulfilled a life long wish by meeting his favourite actor, Brice Kennedy, on the campus of West Virginia University where he was otherwise actively stumping on behalf of the presidential campaign of his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton.
So yeah, I got to see and meet President Clinton! He came to WVU's Woodburn Circle in May and along with mom, Cara and friend Matt (who was in from Illinois and slept in his car in the Mountainlair parking garage just to see him), I was front row to watch the nation's first black president wow the crowd with his memorable and inspiring speech... oh wait, wrong "first black president".
Nevertheless, and all jokes aside, it really was something special. After an hour long speech, he began to make his way through the crowd. Mom and sis reached out and touched his hand, Matt got a brief hug from him (damn parking garage slumber story exploiter!) and I got my chance to shake his hand and exchange a few words. I was five feet from the former most powerful man on the planet and just couldn't settle for touching his cufflinks. So, after he retracted his hand for a split second, I jutted out mine at full arm's length to meet him in "how do you do"-like fashion and he obliged. While exchanging a hearty handshake, I told President Clinton that this country needs to get back to the prosperity we enjoyed in the 90's. He thanked me and continued to schmooze his way through the thousand-plus crowd, dazzling as many folks as he could before making his exit.
It was a memorable day, despite standing for two hours in the rain waiting for the event to start and despite some pudgy, cigarette smoking loudmouth who insisted on spouting his political views in the most obnoxious way possible to an audience of a thousand (yet also, zero). Nonetheless, the day ruled. Bill Danoff, co-writer of the West Virginia anthem "Take Me Home, Country Roads", was on hand to lead the crowd in a rousing rendition of said classic and to sing a few politically-charged protest songs. And then there was the nice girl who held my umbrella over me whilst I scarfed down a McDonald's Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit. Now, that's Americana. A couple of weeks later, my family and I went to Fairmont State University for Hillary's rally but the crowd was a little bigger, we were a little later and she was little farther away our seats. While taking nothing away from Senator Clinton, it was far more memorable to have an up close and personal with President Clinton on a day I won't soon forget.
In other news... I got a new job! No longer am I one of the countless minions of the evil empire of the University of West Virginia. Now, instead of "helping" college students interpret their confusing itemized account statements on behalf of the worthless diploma-granting, money-making racket passing itself off as an educational institution, I'm helping people who really need it. These days, I'm putting smiles on the faces of patients at Mon General Hospital by using my superior comedic skills and intellect to wow them in their time of sick. Oh, and I also help them fill out a few forms on occasion. Of course, technically, I wasn't a WVU henchman since it was a temporary position (thank god) but still, I'm grateful to be in a position to actually make some kind of a positive impact. In short, and in case you haven't guessed, I hate WVU. Of course, as these stories tend to go, I'll soon hate Mon General too, but at least I'll have some fulfillment rather than guilt in a day job. I mean, I'm not helping out capitalism by producing TV commercials for local businesses anymore. I'm also not helping a university collect even more money to squander on erecting ugly buildings and overpaying their jackasses in suits but hey, putting a smile on a patient's face to help make their journey as painless as possible... I can live with that.
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