The People You Know

I have a lot of talented friends.

It's really always been like that. When I was young, like in elementary school, my best friend was the super-athletic jocky kid. The same kid in fact that ended up being QB at our 4A high school and eventually going on to play at university.

In high school, my best friends were the star actor/singers/dancers. The best of these, Miss Ashley, was the star of her undergrad program, and got her Masters from Yale. AKA -- the girl is freakin' talented.

And that trend continues in my life -- I get to watch my best friend Scotty on TV like 4 or 5 times a month -- that's hella cool. And then there's my other friend, Natalie...

So, when I met Natalie, I knew the girl could sing. She was performing that night at Curtain Call (which is like the closing act on Musical Mondays at Splash) so right off the bat I got to hear her wail out a little Wicked and Rent. AND she closed her set with Katie Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" which was like my favorite song at the moment. Scotty was friends with her prior to that night, so introduced me...

Cut to a month later. We've hung out a few times. We were out and about and helping friends win the lotteries to RENT and [TOS]. So we're standing there at the RENT lottery, and her name gets called for tickets. Now normally when someones name is called, there's a smattering of golf claps from the crowd, and maybe a couple "whoops" from that person's friends. Well, when Natalie gets called, all of these people were cheering and like whispering as she walked to the front.

Weird...

None of the rest of us were called, so we wait. And wait. And wait. I finally see that she's got this little group standing around her, and I think "oh, she ran into someone she knows..."

Um, not so much.

See, what I didn't know about my friend Nat then is that she's got a little following... She gets stopped regularly from people who are fans... Fans that know her from YouTube.

F'reals. Did you know there were YouTube celebs? Cuz I sure didn't before this!

At first I thought it was hilarious. Like I just couldn't get my head around the reality of being a home-video star (that sounds dirty... lol)

But she's seriously phenomenal. For example, I give you this:



Chills, right? I know...

Anyway, I was just thinking about how glad I am that she and I are friends and thought I'd give her a little shoutout. If you want to listen to more of her wailing her socks off, go here -- more videos and musical samplings... Seriously, if you've got downtime, give her a listen. You won't be disappointed!