CELEBRITY TALES.......AS I REMEMBER THEM: CARL SAGAN

When one spends as much time in radio as I did, one gets to meet, interview and, occasionally, hang out with some pretty impressive people. It doesn't take very long to realize that the bulk of your “famous” guests are just normal folk......like the rest of us. Should they choose to wear pants, they will probably put them on the same way as we all do.....one leg at a time. They, often times, don't really want to be there any more than you do. But, every once in a while, if you're lucky, you'll get to meet and spend time with someone who inspires practically everyone who knows their name. This is a story about one such meeting, with a man whose inspiration gave us the wherewithal to “blast through the millions of miles from Earth to far-flung stars and brave the dangers of cosmic frontiers safeguarding the cause of universal peace in the age of the conquest of space,” if I may be so bold as to paraphrase Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. It was a phone call I was never expecting. It was 1991, I was new in Dallas and looking for a good gym where I could stay in shape. The Jewish Community Center, which had an amazing gym, was a few short blocks from my apartment. So....I joined. Now, I'm not a particularly pious guy. I was raised going to synagogue on the High Holidays and after my bar mitzvah at the age of 13, I never set foot in one again. I needed a good gym and I had found one and the fact that it was part of the JCC couldn't have been more convenient because I worked out religiously. I was in between marriages, knew nobody and found the JCC to also be a nice source for meeting some new people. I worked out daily and decided to expand my horizons so, I joined a singles volleyball league, which I soon learned wasn't really a league....it was a weekly volleyball game that served as a pre internet “Jdate” or “eHarmony.com.” I liked to play volleyball. I never dated anyone from the “league” but I met a few cool and interesting people, one of whom was the woman who ran the game and booked all of the speakers who would appear at the Center throughout the year. During the course of one of our conversations, the fact came up that I was on the radio. Sometimes, when people hear that, they have certain expectations. There have been occasions, for example, when, at a party, someone would, inevitably, say, “Hey, why don't you get up and announce the next song,” to which I have responded, “If you go into the kitchen and flip the burgers, then, I'LL go to work.” Not the kindest reaction but, relatively effective. “The phone call” came one evening, shortly after I had finished dinner. It was the from the volleyball coordinator/events booking lady from the Jewish Community Center. They had a special event coming up and, knowing I was in radio, wondered if I would do the introduction of their special guest.........for free. Having raised 5 kids, “for free” is, generally, not an option. The equation is simple: I work for you = you pay me. “Who is the special guest,” I asked before “putting my foot down” and refusing to work gratis. The woman answered, “Carl Sagan.” Before I could even take a breath, “I'm in!” came out of my mouth. I didn't even have to think about it. Carl Sagan? Even if I had a paying gig that night, I would have canceled and I would have been able to come up with “billions and billions” of reasons why I couldn't work. The evening of the event came and I was more nervous than I have ever been about going up on a stage to make an introduction. I had done it dozens of times for some pretty big names, but this was friggin' Carl Sagan. One of the most amazing minds of the 20th century. He was an astronomer, an astrophysicist, a cosmologist and author. He was the guy who made science popular. I was just a DJ. I was the guy who talked ABOUT guys like Carl Sagan. His wife Ann Druyen accompanied him. Another brilliant mind who, as an author and producer, specializing in shows about cosmology and popular science was partly responsible for her husbands PBS series “Cosmos.” I was in awe and trying not to drool. We sat down, backstage at the JCC, in a lovely version of the “green room” and began to chat. You would think that sitting, talking with one the smartest guys who ever graced the planet would elicit an intelligent question or two about any number of things that make us all inquisitive. “Are we alone in the cosmos?” “Where did intelligent life begin?” “What about that little existence of god thing? Although, his atheism kind of answered that question before I could even think to ask it. But, that wasn't where the conversation was going organically. Since we were in the Jewish Community Center, we began with the topic of cultural Judaism, but we were finding we had a number of things in common and, as “just a couple of guys” with Brooklyn roots, we quickly shifted to “chocolate egg creams” and “stickball.” We determined that New York bagels were the best anywhere and it was because of the water. We discovered that we both had a love of boxing because, as younger men.....make that boys.....we would sit with our dads and either listen to the fights on the radio or watch the early TV broadcasts of some of the all time greats. Before we knew it, two hours had gone by and I was being ushered out onstage to introduce the man who, for the next several hours, would proceed to dazzle the audience with his knowledge and he would do it in such away that the rest of us....those without PhD's in subjects we can't pronounce …would understand. It was like having a conversation with one of the guys. The kind of guy you would want on your stickball team. The kind of guy you want to watch the fights with and maybe go out and have a bagel and an egg cream with afterward. The kind of guy I had just spent 2 hours backstage chatting, reminiscing and being very comfortable just “hanging out” with. The kind of guy for whom the term “inspiration” is an understatement. The kind of guy, that I very pleasantly discovered, Carl Sagan was.