Joliet, IL — Birthplace of the Stars!
While watching Andy Dick’s new MTV show, The Assistant, he made an odd comment. After the kids auditioning for his assistant where introduced to their sleeping quarters — a series of cots in his garage — he asked what did they have to complain about? When trying to make it he spent a year living out of his car! Behind a Jewel!
A Jewel?! There are no Jewels in California! People in California wouldn’t even know what a Jewel is! (Okay, people in California wouldn’t know what a real grocery store is, what with this Walgreen’s sided places they have the gall to call supermarkets. Feh.)
Anyway, curious & suspecting Andy Dick now as a fellow Midwesterner, I jumped over to his IMDb page. He’s from Charleston. Guess I was wrong. Since I was there, I clicked his bio only to find:
- Was the 1984 Homecoming King At Joliet West High School.
What!?!
Growing up, the only hollywood fame associated with anyone from my alma mater, was Anthony Rapp! (You know, the kid from next door in Adventures in Babysitting! Okay, he latter was in School Ties as one of the random anti-semites who hated Brendan Fraser, and then Road Trip & Beautiful Mind, but come on, Adventures in Babysitting was the movie were we all fell in love with Elisabeth Shue for the first time! And it was in Chicago! And it had Thor! Okay, and it was the only one that was out while I was actually in high school. But Elisabeth Shue is still smokin’.)
Curious, about who else I might be unaware, I clicked the little linked Joliet, IL bit in IMDb, and found out that Vince Vieluf is from Joliet as well! (You know, the guy with the fucked up tounge piercing in Rat Race! Okay, I had no idea who that was either, but he was born in the 70s, so I clicked his name.)
Apparently, Joliet is not only one of the fastest growing cities in America, but is also quickly become birthplace to the stars!
And if anyone thinks I’m strange, just remember, I could have easily have been as fucked up as Andy Dick.
July 29th, 2004 at 3:38 pm
Dude, He Didn’t say “A Jewel”. He said “Jewel”. When he said Jewel, he was talking about the singer Jewel. Before she hit it big in the music biz, she slept in her car because she was homeless. Get it…
March 11th, 2005 at 4:05 pm
William,
I am also from Joliet. I graduated from Joliet West in ‘79. I am almost famous in the martial arts world, having written about ninjas in the mid ’80s when ninjas were hot. Does that count?
May 6th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
I know this is late in coming, but Andy Dick actually did mean Jewel as in the grocery store. I think he worked there, too, but I could be wrong.
December 1st, 2005 at 11:32 pm
I’m seeking info on a 60’s garage band from Joliet - the Intrigues. Any clues?
gem