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The 40-Year-Old Virgin From Utah Who Has Met Every Famous Person Ever

  • October 24, 2017
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The 40-Year-Old Virgin From Utah Who Has Met Every Famous Person Ever

Skippy Jessop is a Mormon from Orem, Utah. He has pictures with almost any “A” list celebrity that you could think of. Also Skippy has been on a number of television shows such as Celebrity Name Game and a guest on the Chelsea Lately show. He is likely the most famous non famous person in the whole state of Utah. A super humble guy who would give you the shirt off his back. A connoisseur of pop knowledge I caught up with the Virgin Diaries Alumnus to talk about how he developed his hobby of meeting celebrities.

 

How did you develop your interesting hobby of meeting celebrities? 

Kind of the way that I started my hobby was first I was in radio when I was fourteen cause a teacher of mine had a class assignment to interview someone and her favorite DJ’s in Utah were at Kiss FM 97 it was Fisher and Todd and so I was like I’ll suck up to the teacher by interviewing them and that was kind of fun cause they were like Utah famous and so it was fun to get the A and to kind of meet celebrities for the first time and then they liked me a lot so they had me be their radio gopher boy for a couple of years and then I got into radio and did that at my high school and then at a country radio station in Salt Lake called KBull 93 FM with the Outlaw Pat Garrett and that was fun cause at the radio station country music celebrities would come through. That was fun, I went on a Mormon mission, came home and got back into radio and worked for that same radio station group as a gopher boy but I got to set up meet and greets and when I was 22 and she was 18 I got to ask Britney Spears out on a date. I had this crazy experience at this young age that was super fun.

Then when I was 24 this tiny reality show came though town and if you search Skippy in Love on YouTube you can see this awkward five-minute long video but one of the people who worked on that set came to me two months afterwards and said they were filming this thing up at Sundance and we need some gophers to help do you know some friends? So I grabbed four friends and we were production assistants on it and I got to drive Ben and J.Lo around for ten minutes one day and it was just a crazy fun experience but we couldn’t get photos with them or of anyone. So I was like wow I didn’t realize all these people were up here in Utah once a year, I’m going to start doing this and so for the last fourteen years I’ve gone up to Sundance and have met celebrities. It’s just a really fun hobby. Its been even better because sometimes they even remember you and I’ve had some experiences were the celebrities have gone from being a celebrity that I was a fan of to we legitimately became friends.

What are some of your coolest celebrity experiences?

The coolest thing that ever happened was I met Dave Grohl up at Sundance about five years ago. I said “Hi Dave can I get a photo with you, and would you like a rape whistle.” He was like “rape whistle” and he was like “Oh, your that kid”. I’m like “what?” He was like “yeah you come up every year and meet celebrities.” And I’m like “yeah how’d you know.” Apparently he had seen some of my videos on YouTube, apparently anything Dave Grohl does he researches it a ton!! So when his documentary got into Sundance he looked up everything about Sundance he could including videos of me meeting celebrities on Main Street at Sundance. He knew who I was and a week after Sundance I got an email inviting me to be on the Chelsea Lately show because Dave Grohl was the guest host. Me and my friends got the chance to hang out with Dave Grohl and the guests of the show, Tenacious D backstage.

One of the other fun ones was becoming friends with the band Smashmouth by messaging them on Myspace. The band manager invited me to his wedding and I was the head usher and now I have celebrity friends in common with some of these people.The number one celebrity on my list is Oprah. If you think about what she was ten or fifteen years ago, I say that because if she likes you she could make your career. Dr. Phil and tons of authors owe their career to Oprah liking them. She also seemed like this larger than life person that had an eye for talent. She was this one worded woman that had control of the media universe. Its always been something awesome in my mind about her and she is the precursor for the second person on my list who is Ellen. Ellen is the person now who Oprah was then. Both seem like people you would love to know. Something so fun in that world they are in. It also would be great to meet Tom Cruise or Will Smith.

I watched your documentary Sundance Skippy and you seem to recognize every celebrity which is really impressive, you also were a winner on Celebrity Name Game so how did Skippy accumulate all this knowledge of pop culture?

One of the things I did constantly but don’t do as much now because the internet is so great for doing research, but I used to watch lots of TMZ.

Is there anytime you wouldn’t ask a celebrity for a picture?

There have been times when they are with their family or if you know they are in poor health. My general rule of thumb is if they are in a public place, I never go to hotels or restaurants to get pictures with celebrities.

Since you are such an excellent tastemaker, who are some of the bands and musicians that Skippy is listening to nowadays?

A few years back I got into this band called The Format which broke up and then the lead singer formed this band called Fun which had the song called “Some Nights” which was really popular. Nate Ruess and then his bandmates from Fun were Jack Antonoff from the band Steel Train and now he’s the lead singer of the band Bleachers and then Andrew Dost was in this band Antathallo and now he does lots of stuff working with musicians. I also listen to Ingrid Michaelson, she had a keyboardist named Ian Axel who had a solo CD and then he formed a group with this guy named Chad King, and the band is called A Great Big World. Locally we have Matt Lewis and the Medicine, Cory Mon and the Starlight Gospel, Imagine Dragons, and my favorite band of all time is the Barenaked Ladies.

Follow Skippy

Twitter: @iamskippy

Instagram: @iamskippy

Ryan Glover is a contributing writer for https://www.audiofuzz.com Follow him on Twitter @RyanDavisGlover, “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your Google network #Knowgloveknowlove, #Knowyourartist
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Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan is an accomplished promoter, event planner, producer, activist, counselor, poet and blogger. Within the course of two and a half years Chris Ryan has worked with some of NYC's most established promoters/event planners, been named 2007′s GaySocialite of the year, granted a promoter of the year award from NYC's most famous gay establishment, Splash. He's worked in some of NYC's top venues including; Avalon, Capitale, Cipriani, Cielo, Pacha, Element, Le Poisson Rouge, XL, G Lounge, Plumm, Hilton Hotel, Indigo Hotel, Spirit, Myst/Quo, Splash, The Ritz, Vlada, Roseland Ballroom, Heaven, etc. In 2008, Chris Ryan has begun to unveil some of the most innovative & unique parties New York City has ever seen. The Fusion events "fuse" together all disciplines of art into an event that remains diverse yet cohesive at the same time. ChrisRyanNYC.com won best gay promotions website from NYC Event Patrons in 2008 & he was granted an award from the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Gov. Patterson & Michelle Clunie (QAF) saluting him for his hard work in nightlife. Chris Ryan has also begun working with many renown companies, including; doctors, lawyers, physicians, modeling agencies & more. Chris Ryan has been responsible for wide-scale promotions for all these companies & generating tremendous business. Chris Ryan has even started to become National with events taking place in LA & Miami this year. In May of 2009 Chris Ryan received the very prestigious honor of being named a "40 Under 40″ Gays in America by the Advocate Magazine. He also created three successful parties that generated over 1,500 patrons each. In January of 2010 Chris Ryan was featured as one of the top promoters to look out for in Noize Magazine Chris Ryan joined forces with legendary promoter/event producer, Lee Chappell and created one of the most talked about events of all 2010, Desire @ Capitale. Chris Ryan and Lee featured one of the most outstanding artists NYC has ever seen, "Oh Land." Her performance coupled with an exquisite and unforgettable set design added to this extravagant event that held over 1,000 patrons in one of NYC's most successful PRIDE events! Chris Ryan then joined forces with legendary Pacha promoter, Rob Fernandez in addition to Jake Resnicow and Tommy Marinelli to bring one of the largest and most successful parties worldwide to NYC, MATINEE. The event on Governor's Island saw over 2,000+ attendees and one of the most ambitious productions ever. In 2011 Chris Ryan started Emerge Music Promotions with business partner Darren Melchiorre. Emerge Music promotions began signing artists with plans to develop and market the artists to the community at large. Emerge Music promotions has big events planned for 2012 and 2013. Chris Ryan debuted the IMAGE events which took place on top of two of NYC's most beautiful rooftop venues, Rare View and Indigo Hotel. The events were blogged everywhere and featured the fashion designs of several clothing designers, artists and photographers. Chris Ryan felt that fashion and art should be displayed at every event and attracted the likes of Malan Breton, Calvin Klein and even Katy Perry. Chris Ryan began an extremely successful event which incorporated the concept of a house party into a nightclub atmosphere. The event Twist'D at G Lounge has been one of the most talked about events in NYC and allows it's audience to play nearly-naked Twister, beer pong, flip cup & more with other attendees. Chris Ryan was granted an excellence in volunteering award from AVP (Anti-Violence Project) for all his efforts in supporting the organization. 2013 has a very promising landscape on the horizon and Chris Ryan is complacent in saying "you haven't seen anything yet!"

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