Sunday, April 11, 2010

Celebrities in Buffalo


This article in today's Buffalo News talks about what it means to be a celebrity here in Western New York. Not much. What I find funny is how some of these "celebrities" actually think they are in Hollywood. The article talks about the Chef's test:

Let's call it the Chef's Restaurant Test: If you went to Chef's and saw this or that person eating dinner, would you immediately call somebody and tell them?
This is why Frank Clark is a celebrity here, and why Jimmy Griffin and Tim Russert were. They weren't the richest guys around, but they did things that mattered, and we felt a sense of connection to them. (In Clark's case, still do.) Money can't buy that. And public office or sports team membership doesn't translate to it, in an automatic way, either.

Tony Masiello is a celebrity. Hillary Clinton, too. Chuck Schumer isn't, and the jury is still out on Byron Brown. He may get there — some mayors do, some don't — but it's too early to tell.


Frank Clark, Sam Hoyt, and Tony Masiello are not celebrities. To be a celebrity, you probably have to accomplish at least one notable thing in your life and demonstrate some kind of talent.There's a difference between a celebrity and a complete failure. Billy Fucillo is more of a celbrity than these three because at least his commercials are funny. Rob Ray is a loudmouth who wasn't a very good hockey player. In fact. Ray, Hoyt, and Frank Clark are good at two things-grandstanding and self promotion.

Tonawanda native Joe Mesi, who rose to professional boxing fame as "Baby Joe" before retiring to private life and a run at political office, said he also has had people come up to him in the supermarket to ask him why he's doing his own shopping.

Actually the reason "Baby Slow" goes to supermarkets is to look for cart collectors to book as opponents for his next fight. Now, if I saw him in a library or a bookstore, I might pass out from shock. The bottom line is that most of these people still live here because if they went anywhere else, they couldn't sell anything and most people wouldn't care who they were. Hey, I notice Mike Cejka has been ommitted from this list??? And what about the guy in the wheelchair that juggles outside of Bison's games? Now, that's a celebrity. I hear he can actually walk when large crowds aren't around.

3 comments:

  1. CelebriTARDS is more like it. I don't go to chefs but I once saw Lynn Dejack at Tops.

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  2. What about the crazy lady that went to jail for feeding deer? She was on T.V. more then MASH reruns.

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  3. hahaha. Both are more worthy of celebrity than half the people mentioned in the article.

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