Me and Bob!

Yes, I know it's been a long time since my last blog post. I just haven't had much in the way of new stuff to put up lately. However, I did have a rather exciting thing happen last Friday evening that I want to post about at this time. I finally got to meet one of my top favourite TV stars of all time: Bob Newhart! I've written of Bob several times on my blog, including this tribute.

Bob was here in Toronto last Friday appearing at Roy Thomson Hall. I only found out about his scheduled appearance last Monday, so I was fortunate to be able to get good seats on such short notice. I'd actually seen him in concert about 20 years ago, also at Roy Thomson Hall, and I'd been kicking myself ever since for not trying to meet him back then. This time I was determined to do it right. I ended up sending off a quick note to him, care of the venue, including a small image of my caricature of him. Thankfully, the folks at RTH passed it along to him and the result was my name ended up on the list of those who would be granted a backstage visit with him after the show.

It was an admittedly short meet and greet affair, where there were several small groups waiting to say "Hi Bob!", so there wasn't any time to really chat with him. But, still, it was enough for me to just finally get to meet one of my TV heroes in person and present him with a framed print of my caricature. Bob got a big kick out it and was gracious enough to pose for a photo with me and autograph an additional print for my growing collection.

The performance itself was very good, though it seemed a bit short at just over an hour of Bob himself, after a short warmup act by a songstress singing Vegas style standards (I feel bad for not catching her name!). He included one of his famous telephone routines (on a cell phone yet!), the one involving Sir Walter Raleigh reporting back to his superiors in England after being introduced to the concept of smoking cigarettes by the Native Americans. A good review of his show on Friday can be found here. He's really quite amazing and I'm just happy to see this comedy legend still touring and performing having recently hit the age of 80. Here's to you, Bob!