Unfortunately, when I saw Peewee Herman on the subway I was drunk.
I think I would have just liked to watch him, to observe how the people around him reacted to his presence (he was in full costume), but like a moron I shouted out his name, pointed and then started to do the Tequila dance. A baseball game had just gotten out and as a result, there were a bunch of drunk, young men on the car. When I started my little dance, many of them also joined in. There must have been about 10 of us doing it, all lurching about in different directions and bumping into people. It was an entirely unexpected and weirdly beautiful bit of theatre, and it seemed to entirely delight Peewee who squealed with pleasure and clenched his hands up near his face.
Smiling, he went from person to person shaking our hands, and then he posed for photographs with anybody who wanted one. I don’t know why, but I thought it would be un-cool to do that, so I just banged fists with him. I couldn’t believe how black, how fake, his hair was and how the make-up he had on made him look like some Kabuki actor.
Keeanu Reeves was almost too normal.
He just sat there flipping through a paper he’d found on the seat. However, the woman sitting next to him just about burst out of her skin. She took a casual glance at him when he first sat down, his celebrity not registering. She then did a double take, her eyes going wide. “Could it be?” At this point Reeves asked her if she minded if he looked at the paper that lay between them and upon hearing his voice she connected the dots and a smile began to animate her face. She immediately began to send text messages, as if this was the single most important thing that had or would ever happen in her life.
Meryl Streep glowed.
She was a splash of colour amidst the grind and drudgery of the train and she seemed to just radiate warmth. I think we were all too intimidated to do or say anything, even though she was smiling and making eye contact with everybody. After a minute or two had passed an older Asian woman who had been eyeing her spoke up.
“You not such great actress.”
Without missing a beat Streep said, “I know, there could hardly be a more over-rated creature on the planet.”
The older woman looked satisfied, “Is good you know. Bad when it go to your head.”