Lance & Lipton

Today I pulled double duty with book signings.

Over lunch I went to B&N down the street and got an unpersonalized autographed book from Lance Bass (formerly of NSync).

Out of all the autograph sessions I've been to so far, this was the most impersonal. Books were passed to him and he nearly had it signed by the time you got there so there wasn't much time to say anything and barely enough to get a pic. I had it all planned that I was going to say something about him having been my mom's favorite NSync guy - yes, for those that don't know although I never got into NKOTB, I DID get into NSync and my ma and I went on a roadtrip to KC to see them perform at Arrowhead. It was quite the spectacle! Not only the concert but all the people and their homemade shirts and signs (we did not make shirts or signs - we were more observers...it was a GREAT environment to people watch!) A radio station even had this huge side building open and was handing out free pizza and pop. It was great!

Oh yeah...back to the autograph. So I get up there and all I get to say is - How much longer are you in Hairspray? (His hair is actually dyed dark for the role he's playing.) He told me January 6th. Then we posed for the pic and that was it. You could tell he was losing enthusiasm (I'm sure my mom comment wouldn't have been all that impressive, but still...) and having started reading his book while in line I wanted to reference his Troy Aikman experience. He said that when he was 12 he and about 20 other boys bothered Aikman for an autograph while he was getting his haircut. He said he will always remember how patient Aikman was and how he took time with each kid - even though he was being interrupted. He said that when fans would approach him he'd always try to remember the Troy experience - I was tempted to lean down and say "Remember Troy" before I stepped away but thought better of it...

Rehearsal was shorter than expected after work and that gave me enough time to head to another signing at the Lincoln Center B&N. This time it was for James Lipton and he wasn't just signing he was speaking, too. Admittedly, all I knew about Lipton was that he hosted Inside the Actor's Studio and he seemed pretty funny when he was on Conan O'Brien. He began the speaking part with a reading from the beginning of his book and then there was open discussion. This is what I learned while he spoke...

He told us we were the first group he had spoke to since the release of the book, so we were his guinea pigs.

After the signing he was going to have dinner with Tony Bennett and after continual praising the audition for how nice they were a B&N guy told Lipton he could only take a couple more questions and Lipton said - Tony can wait!

He said writing the book was a journey of self-discovery.

If he could interview any celeb from the past it would be Charlie Chaplin

Aside from Will Ferrell's impersonation he considered himself under the radar and believes that a good talkshow host should not be bigger than the person they are interviewing because the show is not about the host, it is about the guests.

When he was young he taught himself Latin and in turn decided to translate popular songs of the time into Latin and sing them. He shared an example with the audience that he said he also shared with Conan's audience...the Latin version of "Night & Day".

He starts each chapter with a quote. As he put it - Quoting my betters.

He would love to interview a former student on his show that has "made it big". People sitting around me mentioned Bradley Cooper's name as maybe being a possibility someday. (I've actually seen him sitting in the audience in older shows - tis true he was a student.)

Speaking of older shows...he said that the first season their set consisted of 2 chairs from a classroom and a table from the greenroom.


Afterwards everyone got in line for a signing and the gentleman two people ahead of me was going on and on about a musical that Lipton had written. (I think the guy was a bit touched and he had an actual dent in his balding skull. That probably didn't mean good things...) At first Lipton was very nice but the guy just kept standing there talking and you could tell Lipton was losing patience as he continued to sign others' books. The guy wouldn't leave - thus the other people couldn't get a word in with Lipton if they wanted to - including me. As I walked away an employee @ B&N thanked the gentleman for coming but asked that he move on. Who knew Lipton had such "interesting" fans?