My White House Easter Egg Roll Nightmare

The year was 2007 and I was invited along with a number of my friends to perform at the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll. Along with the group of magicians were a number of celebrities. The wonderful thing about the W.H. Easter Egg Roll is ALL of the performers are treated the same. We get catered meals and a private area so it's very possible that you might be sitting with a celebrity.

I had heard that the very famous Hannah Montana was there at the event. Keep in mind this is 2007 and she was a big star on the Disney Channel. I had heard her name countless times but couldn't honestly say that I had watched her show. After we had all finished performing, we decided to go around and get photos taken with the various celebrities. I really only wanted a photo with Hannah Montana as I thought that would be a cool thing to feature on my webpage and in my newsletter.

Joe Jonas and Ken Scott

So along with a couple fellow performers, we decide to track down the various celebrities. First we come upon some guy who I thought was a friend of one of my friends. He was somebodies brother apparently. So my buddy Ken Scott says, "Hey take my picture!" so I do. I don't think anything of it. I had no idea who the guy was. I don't have teenage daughters that would have tipped me off to who this was. But now I know that he was one of the JONAS Brothers! Lost opportunity #1.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but we actually had a celebrity magician among our group. The very famous Mac King, who is a Las Vegas Entertainer and also has appeared on TV many many times. So naturally it would stand to reason to have my picture taken with Mac, right? Well, er um, I didn't do that either. I did get a group photo with Mac, but I never had a one on one photo with him. In fact, the only one in our group that had a personal photo with Mac was Ralph Metzler....and that is a story all in itself!

Ralph the Great and Steven Baldwin

Speaking of Ralph, he was actually out on his own hunting down celebrities and ended up with a photo  with the First Lady and with actor Steven Baldwin. I didn't even know he was at the event, but he had been invited to do one of the celebrity book readings.

Comedian Adam Ace and Mr. McFreely

Because this is an event mainly for children, there were a number of 'kidshow celebrities'. One of them, who I vaguely recalled was Mr. McFreely from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. He was a nice man and I took photos of him with several of my friends. But I was determined to find Hannah!

So the hunt is on! But we were stopped temporarily as my friends say "HEY, there is Miley Cyrus, let's get our picture with her!" All I can think is, "OMG, you guys, quit wasting time!" So I quickly snap a photo of each of my friends with this girl Miley Cyrus. Miley walks away and I say "Ok, NOW can we find Hannah Montana?". My buddies look at me and say "We just did!" WHAT?????????? Yes, you read that right. I had NO idea that Miley was Hannah. It was 2007 and I never watched the show, I had no clue! We ate lunch with her earlier and I didn't know that's who it was.

Miley/Hannah and James Munton

So in case you are wondering if the day was a complete disaster for me, no it was not. I did not give up the hunt to have my photo with a celebrity. It was a long search and not an easy one. The celebs pretty much kept to one of the catered tents when they weren't on the grounds of the White House and they were surrounded by tons of government workers who frankly should have been WORKING!

But finally, towards the end of the day, I found a celebrity who was more than willing to have his photo with me. So to my friends who were NO help with the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana photograph, eat your hearts out!!!!

Carnegie & SHREK