As promised, here’s the first celebrity post in a long, long time and the last post before I leave. Bon Voyage, peeps! I’m going to miss you. Good thing we’re in the more than capable hands of Michael Hulse! Thanks, Mikie-poo. Remember, no emails or Facebook messages until I get back, please! 🙂
Me: I guess we can call in the next one on the list, Luciano Pavarotti.
I posted his interview before this one. Dur.
Erik: No, he’s long winded.
Jamie laughs.
Me: I thought so. I knew that. What about Gregory Peck or Cary Grant then?
Jamie: Gregory Peck. Isn’t he that dancer?
Me: No, he’s that—oh I had such a crush on him—he’s an actor. For instance he was on “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Erik (looking at Jamie and laughing): You suck, Jamie!
Jamie laughs.
Me (chuckling): How about John Denver or John Ritter?
Jamie: Oh, he’s gone. He’s getting someone.
Me: Okay.
Jamie (giggling): “You suck!”
Me: So rude, that boy!
Jamie: But it’s true! I can half –these names sound familiar, but so many of them were before my time.
Way to make me feel like Methuseluh (sp?)
(Pause)
Jamie (cheerfully): Hi!
Me: Who’d we got?
Jamie (laughing boisterously): Oh, my god, that’s John Ritter!
Me: Oh, I love his work! “Three’s Company!”
John: That’s what I’m mostly known for.
Me: And then “Eight Simple Rules.”
John: Ah, you’re definitely a fan!
Me: Of course I am! I was so saddened by your passing. Such a funny man.
John: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Jamie: The ways he’s dressed, he looks like a professor. He’s got a little blazer on an khakis. Oh, he’s telling me he’s slimmed up a little bit. I think, um, he looks great. He’s clean-shaven.
Me: His physical comedy was just amazing. He was a master of physical comedy.
John (chuckling): Thank you.
Me: Oh, come on; you have to agree, right?
John: You know, I can’t complain. I had one of the best runs.
Jamie: Oh, my phone’s going to die. Don’t go anywhere, John!
John laughs.
Jamie: I’m on the couch and Erik and John are sitting on the chairs in my white room. John’s hair still has that feathered look to it.
Me: Oh, yeah, he had a great head of hair.
John: I had a great chest of hair too!
Jamie and I laugh.
Me: Now, John, I guess the first question I’d like to ask is what was you’re spiritual mission here on the earthly plane?
John (without hesitation): I know I was here for comic relief.
Me: Well, the world needs a lot more of that.
John: And I knew that from a young age. I couldn’t avoid being funny. In many ways it was wonderful. It did earn me a career, but in many ways it was difficult to handle, because I could be sincere. I could be deep. But the voice inside my head was (lifting his arms up) hysterical. It was really hard to get that voice to shut up.
Me: Aw. Were you here to learn anything, John?
John: Why come to Earth if you’re not going to learn anything?
Me: True.
John: I want to know what righteous bitch would think like that and go ahead and knock them off.
Me (giggling): John!
John: No, but seriously, I had a lot if struggles. I know that I was here to learn about relationships, and, like I said, I had a more difficult time being sincere. I’m an open man. I’m a very open man. I can tell you anything, but to convince you that it was very meaningful to me was something different. I know I was here, personally, to learn the joy and the strength of the union of people.
Jamie: He has one elbow up and kind of casually has hand signals. You know, I totally want to group him with Carl Sagan.
Me: Oh, really? Why, because he has a professorial look?
Jamie (giggling): Yeah, like different. (to John ) At least you’re laughing too. Good. (to me) He’s laughing at that. But when he did get deep then, he reminded me of that sincere, solemn Carl Sagan.
Me: Were you here to teach anything?
John: Well, as being a father, as being a son, a husband, all those roles require you to be a teacher. I think maybe you’re mentioning something broader. If I was here to teach anything, it was definitely about comic relief. Don’t take yourself so seriously. You can’t!
Me: Do you think you accomplished all that for the most part?
Jamie (chuckling): He likes that: “For the most part.” He says, “I’ll take that one.”
John: I’d like to think I was on the path to perfection, but I don’t think I would have ever achieved it well.
Me: Do you think it was your destiny to die so young?
John (taking a deep breath): No, I really think there were a lot of other elements at play. There were a lot of unseen, unknown factors, and we just have to accept that these elements led to a purpose. What was that purpose of me dying young? Not that I like to see the suffering of my family and friends. That was one thing I couldn’t handle well in my own life, but maybe it was to give my family an opportunity to feel what that is in order to have a fuller life.
Me: So your family, through their suffering, would have a fuller life?
John: Yes, but when you say it, it sounds really shitty.
Me (in a sad voice): Yeah, I know all too well what that feels like.
(Long pause)
John: I took a lot of the brunt—a really didn’t let the people I love experience suffering that I think they should have. I don’t like to see it; I don’t like it around. I’d rather absorb it like light to night. And in my absence, it gives those people a chance to have a full spectrum life.
Me: Ah. I see.
Jamie: He’s sad.
Me: Aw. What sort of insights did you gain in crossing over, John?
John: You don’t get superhuman powers.
Jamie giggles.
Me: Oh, dang it. I was rally counting on that.
John laughs.
John: Also, the size of your wallet definitely doesn’t matter, and I found that I loved deeper than I ever thought I was capable of. I felt so lucky that I could finally recognize that.
Me: Aw. Did you recognize that before you passed?
John: No, that was after. It helped me feel that I achieved something that I often saw in other people but believed I didn’t have.
Me: How wonderful.
(Pause)
Me: Can you share another life that may have influenced your life as John Ritter?
John: The one where I was John Ritter. That did a lot for me.
Jamie and I laugh.
Jamie: He’s just cracking up.
Jamie: Okay, he’s showing me being born a midget. A boy midget. He lived to be about thirty, early thirties. He traveled with the circus. It looks like he’s in Europe, not America. Apparently he was a particularly small midget.
John: Yeah, and my left arm was a nub.
Jamie (laughing): The way he said it was really funny. I don’t really mean to laugh like that.
John: And believe it or not, the people who were ooing and ahing –I never thought it was because of what I looked like. I knew I was different. I just thought it was because I was so damn funny, because I would try to perform. I had a routine, and it was wonderful. I knew then that I wanted to see—was I really that funny? Did I have what it took? So, I wanted that life where I could create that joy and that laughter without my appearance being in the way. I wanted to be an average Joe. I think I achieved that very well. I think I’m pretty much the average guy. So, I’d have to say that was the life that led me to kind of follow more into the silly path.
Me: Yeah! Okay, any messages or advice for the world, for humanity, John?
John: I’d have to stick with what I said before. Don’t take yourself so seriously.
Me: So many people do.
John: What a nightmare.
Me: Oh, god. Erik, what about you? Do you have any questions for Mr. Ritter?
(Long pause)
Jamie (to Erik): Inappropriate, Erik.
Me: Uh oh.
Jamie: I’ll tell you what he said. He goes, “Have you ever done any cocaine? Like other famous comedians, did you rely on drugs to keep you up and running?” It’s what Erik wanted to know personally.
Me: That’s okay. I don’t have to make that public.
John: It’s okay. The answer is XX.
Me: I won’t put it on there. Don’t worry. Thank you so much, Mr. Ritter.
John: You’re welcome.
Jamie: He’s shaking hands with Erik.
Sorry this was so short. At the time, I was worried about the fact that I had so many famous people on my list and not enough sessions or money and not a long enough lifespan to spend a lot of time on each. I could have asked so much more!
