My Jamie Kennedy Experience

Way back in the summer of 1997, I was employed at a movie theatre in the little city of Kenosha, Wisconsin. The night was a night as usual and uneventful as any other night in the Midwest. Work was expectedly slow that night since there were no major blockbusters or sleeper hits out at the time. My fellow co-workers and I were bored and just waiting for the night to end, until he walked in...

At first, none of us really realized who had just walked in and bought a ticket for the new Mira Sorvino B-movie Mimic. For some reason, still unknown to us, it happened to dawn on us that it was Jamie Kennedy, whose only claim to fame by this point was playing the horror fanatic Randy in the first installment of the Scream franchise. This may be why we did not realize who he was at the time, or it could have just been the sheer denial of having a celebrity waltz into our little, five screen movie theatre. After the light bulb came on inside us, and we knew who we had sitting in theatre number three, a twenty minute game of rock, paper, scissors ensued to see which one of us would interrupt Jamie Kennedy's movie to start the autograph hounding.

This game was abruptly ended when one of his friends came into the lobby and told us to call Jamie Kennedy by a name he apparently got mistaken for often back then - Dustin Diamond! For those of you not in the know, Dustin Diamond played Screech on the classic (at least to some) television show Saved by the Bell. Almost as if on cue, Jamie Kennedy walked into the lobby to buy a large soda right after this engagement occurred. None of us ended up calling him Dustin Diamond, but we did all receive autographs (mine being the best quote from Scream, "There are certain rules.").

During the conversation with the up-and-coming star, we found out they were in Kenosha to film scenes for an indie movie, which for the life of me I cannot remember anymore. We also got the strict impression that Jamie was having a good time in Kenosha, both by his actions and the strong scent of 'good times' that was coming off of him. We asked if he would return when we opened Scream 2 in a few months, which he did agree to, but we were never able to contact him after that, as we had figured. That aside though, we had a great time and made a memory none of us will ever forget.

Jamie Kennedy has since gone on to become a bonafide star, starring in movies and his own television show. He can be seen in the upcoming movie Finding Bliss, as well as on a stand-up comedy tour across the United States. Oh, and he has his own iPhone app. Now that is star power, baby!