Billy Crystal is not so funny in person

I met The big guy this last Friday when I delivered and installed a drawing he had bought from the gallery.

As the penthouse elevator door opened ever so cautiously, he peeked around and his face appeared. Very weird to be peering into the face of an American Icon. "Mr. Saturday Night" was standing right in from of me. Harry, from "When Harry met Sally" was right there. I said "hi." He welcomed me in. I unwrapped the piece to install and began helping him pick just the right place for it. Weird!

So, we discussed where it might look best, I held it up for him to see, he finally decided, I had him mark the wall for the height of the piece, and then I began to install this crappy drawing for Billy. Then he had me hang two more pieces. He said,"induldge me..." and I hung the other pieces. His wife came home and then immediately had me hang another piece - note that I was only there to deliver and install one piece. I ended up hanging four total. The other piece was a Peter Max. Quite the artist;-)

Anyway, I finished and was on my way out and I said to Billy,"It was a pleasure meeting you." He said,"Bye Gerald." What's missing here? No tip. The guy had me hang three other pieces not from the gallery and he didn't tip me. He just glanced up from his computer(a Powerbook) and said "bye". I pushed for the elevator to come and got out of there. On the way back to the gallery I felt like the whole experience was wrong. It wasn't cool to meet Billy Crystal because it destroyed my image of the man. I never thought of him as a saint or anything, just as a decent man who might tip a guy for indulging him.

On a side note, I ran into a girl in the elevator on the way down and she asked me if I was a designer. I should've said"yes". I am an idiot. She was freakin' hot, too! What can I say? I am a monkey.