Anthony Bourdain was doing a bunch of live shows. We were friends, and he wanted to try to do a smaller show - like 700 people - but said his managers kept pushing him to do stadiums. (The likelihood of Tony Bourdain filling a stadium in real life is pretty much zero, but clearly his hero status in my eyes carries through in my dreamworld).
So I finally got a smaller show together for him - it was for a Chinese audience. I sat in the audience wearing a red college sweatshirt. The person next to me asked, is that where Bourdain went to college? And I said yeah, it seemed like an appropriate thing to wear. (In real life Tony went to the Culinary Institute of America, hardly the kind of school that would have "fan" attire, but again... some people like football stars, I like food writers)
There was a vertical banner hanging from the rafters on the side of the stage welcoming Tony in Chinese, along with some great "Engrish." Tony came onto the stage to cheers and roaring applause. My dad was serving as translator. Only when the act started, it seemed like my dad was more in the spotlight than Bourdain.
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