CONFESS!!! Who was the first famous person you ever met

[dogknob]

25. The Dalai Lama

This woman who had some pull and a crush on me got me a gig working at the VIP reception for his speech at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House several years ago. There was a small reception in the mezzanine boxes where people like Sharon Stone got to spend a few minutes with him before his speech.

All of the staff received a memo upon showing up for work; under no circumstances were we to attempt to communicate with or even make eye contact with His Holiness.

We had a pretty chill gig, tray passing drinks and h'ors d'oeuvres. Becuase the mezzanine level had no kitchen, we were staging everything on the back stairwell. While we were waiting, Ms. Stone had some sort of wardrobe malfunction and I donated some of my large collection of safety pins to one of her handmaidens.

The Dalai Lama arrived while she was fixing her dress in one of the boxes. She ended up missing the whole thing. The aftermath was a show all by itself.

We weren't allowed on the floor during the actual reception, so about a dozen of us were crammed together on the back stairs, waiting for him to leave, presumably exiting the way he came in.

Suddenly the doors flew open and a stream of Buddhist monks and Secret Service agents made for the stairs. I was just inside the door, wedged between a giant hotbox and a table with trays of smoked salmon canapes. The Dalai Lama came in, stopped about a foot from me, and proceeded to gawk at all the food.

One of the irritated SS asked "Would you like something to eat, your Holiness?," at which point he bent low over the salmon and began waving his hand over it. He then straightened up, turned to me, looked me directly in the eye and said...

"Goood Smell!"

...followed by some loud laughing.

That was the night I became a San Francisco catering legend.