Maestro (formerly Maestro Fresh Wes): We actually had Maestro perform on campus four or five times over the years that I had worked there. My first experience with him came in the 98/99 school year. I don't recall having much interaction with him at this point. Especially since he seemed quite preoccupied with the females on staff.
I remember laughing with co-workers as it seemed like Maestro was hitting on anyone with a vagina that walked passed him. I later learned from some of the girls that he was more direct than suave and often cut right to the point by simply asking if they wanted to come back to his hotel.
This first performance by Maestro would be a constant topic of conversation with staff and students a like over the next few years. The interesting part of the show was not so much his performances of “Drop the Needle” and “Let you Backbone Slide” but what happened at the end of the show.
Similar to what would transpire with Vanilla Ice years later Maestro began to freestyle. The crowd was really into it as he would take random suggestions and turn them into rhythms. After a short while of doing this Maestro started to ask members of the crowd to come up and join him. Sometimes the people who joined him on stage would choose a topic to rap about off the top of there head other times both the crowd member and Maestro would take a suggestion and have competing raps with the audience being the judge.
The last member of the crowd chosen to join Maestro on stage was Ryan who was our restaurants assistant kitchen manager. A five foot ten two hundred and ten pound white kid was not the first person you would expect to tear the house down on the mic but thats exactly what happened. I don't even remember what the chosen topic was but what I do remember is Maestro's face when the crowd unanimously chose Ryan as the winner. Maestro put on a smile but you could tell he was a little embarrassed by what had just happened.
In the times between Maestro's first and last visit to the establishment nothing really stood out. However, his final visit was pretty interesting well at least for me it was. His final visit to campus came in 2004 and what I found most interesting was how much he had change since 98/99.
This time around I got to sit in the dressing room with Maestro as his crew was off attending to setting up the equipment. I was checking in just ensure that he had everything he needed and was surprised to find him sitting a lone in the dressing room. He was reading what at first glance had looked like a text book.
I asked him if he needed anything as he poked his head up from his book and he responded with a smile and stating that he was doing well. I then asked what he was reading and we began a long discussion regarding the fact that he recently started to attend university and had hopes of one day becoming a film maker.
I told him of my recollection of his first performance there and how focused his was on the female staff. He laughed and talked a bit about his long term girlfriend and how much of a positive influence she had been on him.
I was genuinely surprised with how articulate and knowledgeable Maestro was and he certainly seemed like a good guy. The only negative that I saw after my discussion with him was upon the arrival of his crew back into the dressing room.
Its not that Maestro became rude when the dressing room filled but he almost immediately became distant. Any sign of the articulate, well spoken man that I had just enjoyed a prolonged discussion with was quickly gone. Thats not meant to be a racially insensitive statement as I'm know must of us act or talk different around strangers than we down in the comfort of our friends, it was just that the change was as quick as the snap of fingers and left an impression on me.
David Carridine: I didn't really get much time to spend with David as we had just brought him in to do an hour long question and answer session. The thing that stood out the most about him was his rider.
In case you don't know a rider is simply the list of demands or requirements that the talent issues when signing there contracts. I remember David's rider consisting of a vegetable platter, one liter of red wine and six shots of vodka.
Really not a weird rider unless you take into account that we had booked him for a noon Q&A session and the rider was to be prepared for eleven AM. I did get the chance to talk with David momentarily before noon. It was small talk really just about his time living in south western Ontario while filming Kung Fu the Legend Continues. My impression was simply the he seemed nice enough but pretty freaking odd and periodically while talking you got the feeling he was off in his own little world.
The only things really of interest in the Q&A were how David talked about being pretty much broke until Tarantino came along with Kill Bill. Obviously David expressed a lot of gratitude for the revival of his career. He talked about drugs flowing quite liberally at the cast parties( surprise, surprise) and said that Uma Thurman was an absolute doll. David also mention that there had been talks for the third installment of Kill Bill to be done ten years after the original and would likely be shot as a cartoon.
To me the most interesting thing that David said was when asked about working with Daryl Hannah. David's response was classic “Daryl Hannah is a c-unt!” He talked about how she wouldn't associate with anyone on the set, would stay in her trailer until she had a scene and then return to he trailer immediately after filming. He said the entire cast and crew became close and spent a lot of time together but Daryl wouldn't have anything to do with any of them.
The other funny thing about David was when some geeky students began to ask questions regarding some of his older work. The questions from these kids would make you think of comic book guy from the Simpson's just very outlandish stuff. David's responded to one of these questions with “man have you ever even seen a vagina? I mean you're surrounded by college girls and this is the crap you're thinking about.” Classic stuff! You can certainly see the toll a life time of partying took on him but all in all he was an interesting guy.