MarksFriggin.com Special Feature

 

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Photographer Dan Wagner wrote a book called ''Getting To Howard: The Odyssey of an Obsessed Howard Stern Fan.'' The book is about how Dan got himself on Howard's show and met people associated with the show. Dan did a book signing at the Barnes & Noble at Rockefeller Center on Thursday, October 22 and I made my way down there to meet him. Dan told me that there might be a couple of Wack Pack members there so I figured it was worth checking out. My girlfriend and I headed down to the basement of the book store to find Dan. I spoke with him for a few minutes and got to put some of my Mark's Friggin.com refrigerator magnets out among Dan's photo exhibit. I was pleasantly surprised when people told me they visit my site all the time as they picked up the magnets. Within a few minutes Sal the Stockbroker showed up with the ''Phantom of The Colon'' guy who was on Howard's show earlier in the week. Sal spoke with Dan for a couple of minutes and I overheard Dan saying that Kenneth Keith Kallenbach and/or Fred the Elephant Boy might show up for the signing. I've chatted with Sal on the computer so we knew each other already. Sal told me that ''Phantom of The Colon'' is a co-worker and it was Sal's idea to get him on the show. I chatted with Sal for a few minutes about some of the new stuff he's working on. After talking to Sal for a few minutes Dan made a little speech about the book and did some reading from it. After that and taking some questions he signed some books.

I had one person, Sharon, come up to me who was actually coming down to meet me at the signing. Sharon saw my mention of the signing on my news page and figured she'd come down. I was really having fun at this thing.

The next thing I see is Kenneth Keith Kallenbach strolling in. It must have been at least 1:10, 20 minutes before the signing was scheduled to end. Kenneth had come down to promote an appearance he's making in Philly on Halloween. Some people have told me that Kenneth isn't quite as wacky in person as he is when he's on the show. I don't believe them now that I've seen him in action. Kenneth was trying to hang up a promotional poster for his album ''Yeah'' with a sticker he found. It didn't stay up long. I told him he should peel a piece of tape off the back of one of Dan's pictures. I was just kidding but Kenneth took my advice and hung it up. I had Kenneth sign my book since there's a whole chapter about him in Dan's book. Then he started plugging his head shot picture. He said that he'd sign it for $10. I passed on it since I'd already gotten his autograph in my book. I then spent the rest of the time watching Kenneth Keith in action. He was telling anyone who was near him about the appearance he's making. He also tried selling his head shots to just about every person. Kenneth was also hitting on just about every woman that walked by. He hit on a couple of women who had strong Australian accents. They were goofing on him but he either didn't realize it or didn't care. I also watched another guy talking to Kenneth Keith. It's hard to tell if these people are actually goofing on Ken or if they're just having a conversation with him. Kenneth was holding his head shot during the conversation and he must have dropped it 10 times. Each time he'd bend over and pick it up just to drop it again. At one point he lifted up his shirt to show off the scar on his stomach. I almost threw up at that point. Kenneth was also plugging his web site www.kennethkeith.com.

At about 1:30 or so Dan was packing away the pictures he had on display. Kenneth Keith walked up to Dan and asked him what time the signing started. I guess Ken didn't know that he showed up 40 minutes into the thing. Ken packed up his stuff and wandered around for a few minutes. That was pretty much it.


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