Sunday, December 2, 2007

Ray Romano Surprise Party

Ray Romano
Surprise Party for his 50th birthday

It is time for name-dropping and excuses to post this particular blog. What could attending a surprise birthday party have to do with travel? Not much, other than the difficulty of traveling in the famous Los Angeles traffic, and that was not fun. This is just an excuse to write about the funny events and people I met on Saturday night, December 1st.

It turns out my wife has been friends with Anna Romano for several years. They both have daughters the same age, who attend the same school, and became friends several years ago. Anna is a really neat lady with great values, easy to be with and has her feet grounded in reality, despite the circles she can run in.

With Ray it’s another story. He is far more talkative for his TV show than he is in person, except for people he knows really, really well, and I am not one of those. He seems rather shy, not outgoing. While I have been to dinner at his house, seen him repeatedly, had him at our house, I would bet dollars to donuts that he would not know my name to save his life.

Actually, I am really not much better. There are many people I have met several times and cannot remember their names. One of the reasons I call my children things like Guy, Sweetie, Baby, and Son is because I am terrible with names. I have called my daughter by my son’s name and vise versa. I have confused my grandson’s names with everything from my son’s name to any one of the three grandsons. The only thing I have not done, yet, is call one of the grandsons by a girl’s name, as there are no granddaughters.

Anyway, let’s get back to the Romano party and name-dropping. Anna did a great job of setting up the party; she really had Ray fooled. It took a full year to pull it off. A couple of months ago she had an invitation sent to Ray to attend a toy fundraiser for Christmas sponsored by Clint Eastwood, with special guest Rod Stewart. She got the permission from Clint and Rod to use their names for this surprise. Ray gets piles of invitations all the time, and most go into the trash. However, he knows Anna loves Rod Stewart, and Ray likes Clint Eastwood, so he brought home the invitation and asked Anna if she’d like to go. She said, “Sure, I’d love to go.” and the ball was rolling for the countdown to Ray’s surprise party.

A year earlier Ray said he didn’t want a surprise party for his birthday. He would figure any event near or in December would be an excuse for his party. He suspected a dinner party with writers from his show; a get together at Doris Robert’s house; or an invitation from Brad Garret could all be a ruse for his surprise party. She really got him with this invitation to a Clint Eastwood fundraiser. Ray spoke about how she really had him fooled and it was as funny as any Las Vegas standup routine.

The thrill for me was to meet Clint Eastwood. I am a big fan of his work, both as an actor and as a director. I admire him as a person and for the quality work that he does. I met Jason Alexander (from Seinfeld), Peter Bergman (Emmy winner from a daytime soap opera), played blackjack with Doris Roberts (she did really well), spoke for the first time with our neighbor Fred Willard (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Peter Guest movies and more) and had an encounter with Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm).

Meeting Larry David was a funny experience. My sister-in-law, Lisa, and my daughter are BIG fans of his show. They absolutely love it, but I cannot watch it. It is too over the top and he is just too obnoxious for me. I can take Hugh Laurie as Dr. House, but I cannot take Larry David. I don’t know why, but that’s just how it is. Maybe the difference is that “House” knows he is an asshole and people tell him that to his face. I don’t think Larry David is aware of how obnoxious he is. However, I can’t say this with any authority because I have not been able to get through more than one whole episode, and have tried it on at least four occasions.

Anyway, Larry was sitting at a table next to us, and Lisa said if he was there I should say hello to him for her. I walked over and asked if I could interrupt his conversation. He said, “Sure” and I proceeded to tell him my sister-in-law is a big fan of his. Unfortunately, as many in my family can attest, I am honest in my opinions, and I added that I am not able to watch his show. He asked me why and I said it was too over the top for me. He asked me what I meant and I tried to explain. Then he asked again, “What do you mean ‘over the top’?”

By now I felt like I was on his TV program and explained about the scene I watched where he was having lunch with a young Japanese man who’s father was a Kamikaze pilot and was now in a rest home. Larry was asking the young man how a Kamikaze pilot could be alive. “Did he just glance off a ship instead of killing himself?” His TV wife said his questions were offensive, but Larry said, “I’m just curious. I’m just asking some questions.” No, I say he was being a jerk. Despite the suggestions he was being offensive, he pursued with more rude questions. I couldn’t take it and turned it off. I felt embarrassed explaining this to Larry and said, “Don’t change a thing on account of me. People love your show.” And he said, “Don’t worry, I won’t.” I’m not sure if I am relieved.

All in all, it was a fun evening. Anna brought in a band from New York that Ray loves. He would go to the club next door after his stand up routine and stick around to listen to this band. There were plenty of things to keep the guests busy; three food stations, a beignet stand (like powdered donuts from New Orleans), gelato, candy, practice golf, photo guest book, dancing to the band, roulette and blackjack tables.

Rennie