I finally made it to one of Andy Cohen’s book signings!  While I was in San Francisco, a few weeks ago, I tried to recruit some of my friends to go see him at the Castro Theater but my friends were convinced he would think I was stalking him. As If!  Well, I suppose this was a somewhat fair assumption since I constantly tweet him, talk at him when I see him in my neighborhood, and have also attended one of his Watch What Happens Live! tapings (click on link to see my post about it).

Despite my friends thinking that I would be stalking him I still went to his book signing at The Strand Wednesday night.  Let’s be real here: if anyone can appreciate a good stalking it would be Andy Cohen., the man loves a celebrity sighting as much as I do.

I sort of knew what to expect from him in person considering I have seen him a few times in action and of course he was as quirky as ever.  He showed up wearing the same shirt he wore on his book cover which I astutely pointed out (when I first meet someone I give them the up and down and decide if I like them based on what they’re wearing).  Fortunately, he heard my comment about his shirt matching his book cover and picked up his book and said “Ya I am wearing the same shirt, so queer right?”  Queer indeed.  I actually was wearing a top the same color (I may or may not have been trying to match the color scheme of his book) so we were basically matchy matchy.

His outfit was a blue polo shirt, tan khaki pants and flip-flops! Flip flops. Hmmmm.  I was not sure how to take this.  Albeit it was a hot and muggy day in NYC but flip-flops to a book signing?!  Well that’s Andy Cohen for you.  So he took the stage to chat about his book a little and wish The Strand a Happy 85th Birthday.  He mentioned a couple of anecdotes that were his favorite from his book Most Talkative:

1.  When he first arrived in NYC, as an intern at CBS, he rented a room from a guy who worked as a flight attended at TWA.  While his roommate was out of town he got into his ‘dirty video’ collection and of course the VHS got stuck in the VCR (VHS, VCR-are these even acronyms that people understand anymore?!) leading him to confess to his roommate he snooped through his stuff.  Now I know what you’re all thinking: his roommate worked at TWA-throwback! Ha.

2.  Andy also recounted seeing Andy Warhol on the street on his first day in NYC and now looking back he can’t help but think that Mr. Warhol, if he were still alive today, would be doing paintings of The Real Housewives like Vicki Gunvalson.  I have to say it:  sorry Andy, that’s a stretch!  Lisa Vanderpump I would give you; she’s practically British royalty.

Andy’s road to where he is now has certainly been a mixture of hard work, adventure, missteps, and embarrassment but he must have done something right along the way: he revolutionized lifestyle reality TV and now, as a result: I’m addicted.  I think this article’s title may or may not explain my feelings regarding Bravo shows: “A Bravo Addicts Wet Dream.”

Anyhow, I went to his book signing for with a few goals:  a chance to chat with Andy, take a pic with him, and give him my card.  All three of which I did!  I can only hope I made some sort of impression!  Andy: ping me to discuss my eight episode arc.

Also as an added twist: Jerry O’Connell was there.  Of course I took a picture with him.