Random Celebrity Photos! Vol. Four: Anthony Anderson

A Natural Gift for Useless Skills

Since I'm hoping to get some screen time on the WGN Morning News tomorrow I thought I'd share some screen shots from the last time I was on the program. This was a couple of years back and I was there to do a plate-spinning demonstration.

Jeff Hoover, the producer of the program, has always loved vaudeville and the history of The Bozo Show. It seems a perfect fit that he works at the station where The Bozo Show aired for 40 years and was kind enough to feature my lunacy at least six times.

Jeff has always thought that a great segment would be to have as many acts that were once on The Bozo Show to come in and add a little fun to the program from time to time and that's where I came in.

On this particular day, actor/comedian, Anthony Anderson was also to be on the show promoting his now defunct WB sitcom, "All About the Andersons". Anthony's career has really taken off in recent days and now that he's been cleared of some charges of wrong-doing it seems much more comfortable to talk about meeting him and "working" with him.

Anthony is a funny guy and was well-liked around the set. He provided a morning show with exactly the kind of entertaining guest you want at 6 AM and he seemingly took over the WGN studios with some lunacy of his own. He even agreed to play along and try his hand at spinning plates and some other juggling techniques during my two 30-second "bumps" prior to my segment.

Being a hell of a good teacher I was able to get Mr. Anderson to master the rather useless skill of plate-spinning in no time and as so many Hollywood scripts like to say, hilarity ensued. We broke many plates, we entertained the crowd, we plugged our respective projects. I got some good video to use for future promo and he got the thrill of being able to say he spun plates on national TV. I'm sitting here and he's making movies and getting great reviews for his work on "The Shield". Seems about right. I'm sure he still talks about his plate-spinning debut to this day. It has to be right up there with making "Kangaroo Jack".