I saw this post on io9 about the five remaining munchkins from Wizard of Oz getting together for a quick interview and it got me thinking back to my days as a chorus member in my high school musicals. The reason I even tried out my sophomore year of high school was because they were doing Wizard Of Oz and I wanted to be a flying monkey (this monkey thing goes back quite a ways). Anyway, we had a new director named Michael Kastner and he wanted to make a splash by getting a surviving munchkin to come and hang out, take pictures and sign autographs. Well, when I saw the io9 post I checked the video and unfortunately Clarence Swensen is no longer with us, but don’t feel too bad for him, he lived until this year to the ripe old age of 91. Impressive. Anyway, here’s my picture with Clarence. By my count, I was 16 when this picture was taken and it’s fairly embarrassing, but what the hell? I swear, I didn’t wear makeup on a regular basis, it was after one of the performances. I wish I didn’t look like a weirdo serial killer in it, sorry Clarence.

In a strange twist of fate I was actually just talking about this photo with Kevin in the context that I have two photos with famous people, this one and one with John Landis and myself. I’ll try and dig that one up too.