Lou's Crayola Celebrity Challenge

This is now the place to find the latest news on my Crayola Celebrity Challenge - ooo... exciting!

Monday, November 27, 2006

1. Gareth Jones - TV Personality ("How2") - red - 27 Nov 05
2. Jenson Button - current Formula 1 racing driver - blue - 27 Nov 05
3. Shane Connor - Joe Scully of Neighbours - violet red - 20 Dec 05
4. Kym Marsh - Hear'Say / Hollyoaks spin-off - indigo - 20 Dec 05
5. Jonathon Wilkes - Robbie Williams' best mate / singer - scarlet - 20 Dec 05
6. Blair McDonough - Stuart Parker of Neighbours - blue violet - 21 Dec 05
7. Mark Rafferty - Dr Darcy Tyler of Neighbours - brown - 4 Jan 06
8. Alan McNish - racing driver/commentator type - cerulean - 14 Jan 06
9. Johnny Herbert - racing driver (my hero!) - carnation pink - 14 Jan 06
10. David Coulthard - current Formula 1 racing driver - red orange - 14 Jan 06
11. Mark Blundell - racing driver/commentator - yellow orange - 14 Jan 06
12. Dave Brown - Bollo in The Mighty Boosh - black - 6 April 06
13. Noel Fielding - Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh - apricot - 6 April 06
14. Rich Fulcher - Bob Fossil in The Mighty Boosh - grey - 6 April 06
15. Julian Barratt - Howard T J Moon in The Mighty Boosh - violet (purple) - 13 April 06
16. Pedro de la Rosa - current Formula 1 test driver - orange - 25 April 06
17. Antonio Liuzzi - current Formula 1 racing driver - blue green - 25 April 06
18. Shola Ameobi - Newcastle United striker - red violet - 3 May 06
19. Danny Wallace - Cult leader, King, quiz show host, author, comedian - green - 11 May 06
20. Wil Anderson - famous Aussie comedian - yellow green - 20 August 06
21. Adam Hills - famous Aussie comedian - green yellow - 22 August 06
22. Alan Davies - star of Jonathon Creek / regular guest on Q.I. - yellow - 22 August 06
23. Tim Minchin - "the next big thing in musical comedy" - white - 22 August 06
24. Ted Kravitz - reporter for the ITV F1 coverage - dandelion - 26 November 06

THE END!

FINITO!

November 26th 2006 - The Final Day of the Challenge.

#24 - TED KRAVITZ - from the ITV F1 crew - dandelion crayon.

Me: Ted! Can I get your autograph.... in crayon?!
Ted: Oooo, can I use pink? I bet everyone wants to use pink, right?
Me: Nope - Johnny used pink, sorry! You're the last one - you don't get a choice - you're yellow.
Ted: (disappointed) oh, ok then.
Me: You can draw too, if you want!
Ted: Ooooo... ok.... what should I draw? What's yellow?? What can I draw that's yellow?
Me: I dunno. (ever helpful!)
Ted: Oooo - I know!!! A banana!!!!!! ............................. no.... actually, I can't draw bananas...... ummmm....... ohhh!! I know!!...

He then proceeds to draw a little desert island beach scene (complete with palm tree and stick man on deck chair) - and happily writes "SAND!" underneath.

Which I think is a pretty satisfactory end to all this silliness. A drawing of sand. That's GENIUS! :D

So, there we have it. Precisely as originally planned.

24 crayons. 24 celebrities. 12 months, to the day.

DONE.



Next!! :)

Monday, November 20, 2006

almost done!

Hey guys,

Happy-sad news - it's almost over!! 26th November - SUNDAY! - is the final day. Boooooo. But YAY! How exciting.

Not sure who I'll get that day... depends who turns up... probably someone motor racing related... see how it goes.

Will report back. Of course!

Nice shoes, by the way,

Lou xx

Saturday, September 02, 2006

The List of Autographs so far!

1. Gareth Jones - TV Personality ("How2") - red - 27 Nov 05
2. Jenson Button - current Formula 1 racing driver - blue - 27 Nov 05
3. Shane Connor - Joe Scully of Neighbours - violet red - 20 Dec 05
4. Kym Marsh - Hear'Say / Hollyoaks spin-off - indigo - 20 Dec 05
5. Jonathon Wilkes - Robbie Williams' best mate / singer - scarlet - 20 Dec 05
6. Blair McDonough - Stuart Parker of Neighbours - blue violet - 21 Dec 05
7. Mark Rafferty - Dr Darcy Tyler of Neighbours - brown - 4 Jan 06
8. Alan McNish - racing driver/commentator type - cerulean - 14 Jan 06
9. Johnny Herbert - racing driver (my hero!) - carnation pink - 14 Jan 06
10. David Coulthard - current Formula 1 racing driver - red orange - 14 Jan 06
11. Mark Blundell - racing driver/commentator - yellow orange - 14 Jan 06
12. Dave Brown - Bollo in The Mighty Boosh - black - 6 April 06
13. Noel Fielding - Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh - apricot - 6 April 06
14. Rich Fulcher - Bob Fossil in The Mighty Boosh - grey - 6 April 06
15. Julian Barratt - Howard T J Moon in The Mighty Boosh - violet (purple) - 13 April 06
16. Pedro de la Rosa - current Formula 1 test driver - orange - 25 April 06
17. Antonio Liuzzi - current Formula 1 racing driver - blue green - 25 April 06
18. Shola Ameobi - Newcastle United striker - red violet - 3 May 06
19. Danny Wallace - Cult leader, King, quiz show host, author, comedian - green - 11 May 06
20. Wil Anderson - famous Aussie comedian - yellow green - 20 August 06
21. Adam Hills - famous Aussie comedian - green yellow - 22 August 06
22. Alan Davies - star of Jonathon Creek / regular guest on Q.I. - yellow - 22 August 06
23. Tim Minchin - "the next big thing in musical comedy" - white - 22 August 06

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

August 2006 - ONE TO GO!!!

Hello everyone! (She says, as if thousands of people will be reading this... ah well, we can but dream!)

On 20th August, I went up to the Edinburgh Festival for 3 nights. I had very much fun, thank you.

I also went through a nasty stage of pointing at famous people and announcing "YOU/THEY'RE FAMOUS!!" (depending on whether they were close enough to talk to directly, or if I was just stating it in general). I then picked up a slightly worrying habit of being exceedingly picky. However, it worked out very nicely.

I'd been planning for months to get Tim Minchin ("the next big thing in musical comedy") to sign when I was at Edinburgh. I'd not got him to do so in March, and had been mocked profusely by my mother for this. My argument is "He's just Tim" (he's a friend.. therefore I struggle to gauge his famousness)... but The Daily Telegraph had a column entitled "Celebrity Somethings" (I forget the second word of the title) and it featured a certain Mr Minchin. He is undoubtedly a media whore (he's all over papers and radio and has even been spotted on TV, no less) and if the Telegraph claimed him to be a celebrity, that was good enough for me.

So, I knew I'd get ONE autograph at Edinburgh. I also wanted to get Adam Hills (famous Aussie comedian), because I'd vaguely spoken to him twice, a year and a half ago.

Then I happened to find myself in a conversation with Wil Anderson (famous Aussie comedian). Which was pretty cool, because unlike a lot of people in this country, I appreciated just how much of a famous Aussie he was. And, suddenly, I found myself going "YOU'RE FAMOUS!" (in case he'd forgotten) - "Can I have your autograph?" It was mid-conversation and completely out of the blue, and really rather daft, but oh well. He humoured me, and we ended up having a nice chatty acquaintance by the end of the fest (he'd come over to talk to me and my friends, rather than us having to go over to him, which I thought was nice.)

I then shunned a famous Aussie lady (Corrine Grant, from Rove Live, which was as seen on Neighbours)..... and some random dude from Home and Away who I saw no less than FIVE times. I also didn't get Charlie Pickering (who's a little less famous than Wil and Hillsy, but often seen on TV in Oz anyways), even though I spoke to him a few times.

I then spotted Hillsy, rambled at him, completely confused him, won him back by making him laugh by looking on the bright side of life, and got him to sign in crayon. He then recognised me the next day as we passed on the street, and he grinned and said hi, which was nice.

THEN - thank god I'd been picky with the Aussies earlier - because no less than ALAN DAVIES, aka JONATHON CREEK, walked by. No one else had recognised him... or, if they had, they were ignoring him. I, on the other hand, hurried to catch up with him, and he very happily signed in crayon for me. He was very nice, and I was a bit apologetic for having nabbed him like that, but he didn't seem to mind.

And then a minute or two later, the Minchmobile walked by, so we handed him the white crayon and made him sign away. I was explaining the whole challenge to him, and said that ppl wanted me to get him to sign, and he laughed and was like "that's not a challenge - you see me all the time!" He has a point. I also said my "you're just Tim" reasoning, and he laughed and agreed. but he still signed. He's like the all-new Bill Bailey. He's going to be HUGE.

Also, a bit earlier, we'd walked by Rich Hall (as seen on QI)... but hadn't been able to get an autograph due to him having his hands full. So I just said hi, and he said hi back in a nice friendly way, so that made me happy. He's COOL.

And then Jimmy Carr walked past me. Twice. I ignored him. Twice.

It was fun. :)

Friday, May 12, 2006

11 May 06 - Status: 19!!

Went to Birmingham for Danny Wallace's bookreading of Yes Man... I got to hang out with Joinees, eat cake, have my name remembered by Danny, chat to him about the Boosh (he called Noel a bastard for breaking Rule #4 haha), he admired my belt, he signed my copy of Yes Man, and he chose the green crayon and signed THE Book, and then he also drew Nelson Mandella on a Jetski. Check out the Rules blog below to see why. But, YAY!

It was great, and I could write about it for hours, but I'm knackered. You get the main point that. Wallace. Daniel Frederick. Green Crayon. Nelson. Jetski. Yay.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

6 May 06 - Status: 18

Earlier this week, Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi was doing a booksigning in the city. So I went, I bought the book, I got him to sign it, and then I grinned cheekily and produced The Book and The Crayons. I actually explained the challenge to him as well, I'm not sure why, I just did. Him and his little entourage thought it was pretty cool. And when I told them that I'd got DC and Jenson's autographs their jaws all dropped (even Shola, haha). Which was cool. He was pretty friendly. It was all very random though!

Next week: Danny Wallace in Birmingham. Then it's the final golden 5... exciting!!

28 April 06 - Status: 17!!

And I'm back with a bang!! Woah yeh - SEVENTEEN!! Only 7 more to go! Check me out. I'm the Crayola motherbitch. Haha ummm... annnyyywaaayyyyyss...

So first off I got 3 Boosh boys at an aftershow party in Manchester... then I got a 4th Boosh boy at Newcastle when I waited for a (freezing cold) hour after the show. But alas and alack! Noel Fielding broke Rule #4!! BUT! It's OK. A loophole was immediately added in, therefore stopping the world from imploding. Phew. See.. it went like this:

Me: Pick a colour.
(Noel picks a colour and draws)
Noel: I want another colour!
Me: OK!
(I hand over box of crayons to Noel, and he fishes through until he finds one he's happy with (green yellow), and then continues to draw. He then inspects his handiwork, and in a true Vince Noir moment goes...)
Noel: Yeh... I'm quite proud of that actually! That's genius!

Did you pinpoint the moment where Rule #4 briefly shattered until the loophole could paste it back together? But... I mean.... NOEL! You can't say no to Noel!!! But anyways, it's ok, it's sorted now.

After the Boosh joy, I went to Silverstone for the F1 testing and I crayola'ed a couple of racing drivers! YAY!!

Pedro de la Rosa made me laugh... I told him to pick a colour, and he had a look and then picked out orange, and then proudly announced "orange is a colour!!" Haha.... they're smart cookies, these racing drivers! Liuzzi was a sweetie.. he thought long and hard about which colour to use, and then gave me a big grin. Nice boys.

Near misses: Juan Pablo Montoya (only signed about 3 people's things coz he had a meeting to get to), Anthony Davidson (had stopped signing by the time I got there), Jacques Villeneuve (being inexplicably mobbed, so was impossible to get to and would never have been able to get him to choose a crayon even if I had fought through the masses).

Crayola revisited: The third time I met Rich Fulcher, I had a discussion with him about his crayon drawing... I asked what it was, and told him that the only thing me and my friend (hello Rik!) could think it was, was a duck being hit in the head with a frisbee. He laughed, and agreed it DID look like that... "but I'm no good at drawing.... I improvised!". I also saw Noel Fielding again. And Johnny Herbert. And Jenson Button. All three of whom remembered me. *excited squeak* This one simple fact makes me ridiculously happy.

So, 11th May will bring me to Birmingham to see Danny Wallace, if I can get decent train fares there. That'll be 18. Then there'll just be that final half dozen. Hmmmmmmm.....

18 March 06 - Status: 11 (still!!)

So close and yet so far! I saw all 5 Boosh guys... had a little chat with Rich and Noel told me he liked my outfit (yay!)... BUT... I didn't get chance to get their autographs. It wasn't really the right moment.

HOWEVER! I'll find them after the show on April 13th. And I'm going to London to see them on April 21st, too. That could be a really effective way of shooting up from 11 to 16. Fingers crossed.

22 Feb 06 - Status: 11

OK, this is how things are panning out for potential signings:
  • Several chances lined up to get Leader/King Danny Wallace. There's no escape for him, I'm afraid.
  • Mighty Boosh will be in Newcastle 16 March. I've not got tix for the show (boo).. but I might try my hand at finding the guys.
  • Footballers. One day I *will* get a couple of the Newcastle squad.
  • Jonny Wilkinson. Must find out where the rugby training ground is or something... but he's gotta be findable, right?
  • Does Tim Minchin count????? What do you think?? He's back in the UK (HURRAH) and has been back in all forms of media - newspapers, radio, tv... - one review claims that he good become bigger than the likes of Harry Hill or the Boosh (*wow*)... but he's not yet, is he? I may save him up for Edinburgh... He should be better known by then. I find it hard to judge... coz he's just Tim... and people know about him because I've instructed them to go see him.
  • Formula 1 Testing at Silverstone, April 25th. I can't wait. If I get even just one more driver out of that, I'll be SO excited. Especially if it's Zonta or Wurz! *goes all unnecessary at the thought*
  • General celeb finding at Edinburgh Festival. If the Umbilical Brothers show up, and I can find them, they're a given. Other than that, will just have to see how it goes. Shouldn't be too hard though.
  • General celeb finding at the JH Karting in November. There should be at least a couple of guys there that I've not got to sign yet.

That should bring me up to 20. If I get one for each of those bullet points (far from guaranteed). That leaves an ever illusive 4 left. I think I need to seriously think about that festival thing at Zoe's Uni in July if there's a chance that I could nab Richard E Grant and Julian Clary. That'd be pretty cool.


Apparently Johnny Depp's filming in/near York again soon. With Angelina Jolie. How much do I hope that that's before the end of November??? That'd be the COOLEST THING *EVER*.


If you know of any other easy autograph opportunities, please let me know. Ta! I can't wait till I get #12! I miss it.

14 Feb 06 - Status: 11

Silverstone Testing in April has been BOOKED. This could do WONDERS for my collection. Or it could all go wrong and not. Either way, I'm DAMN excited! A letter has been sent to my Leader and King, Danny Wallace, to see if he'd join us for Tim Minchin's show next month... and become my #12 in the process. If you don't ask, you don't get. Hammond's show isn't filming in March when I'm down - bugger. There are no book signings in London that weekend either. Can't find any details of book signings in Newcastle in the near future either. Apparently Derek Acorah's in Southampton on the 18th though. Damn, I've already got to be in York and Newcastle on that day... I can't fit Southampton in there too. Bugger it.

I just found out that the University of East Anglia (I think that's where Zoe's at... Zoe... where are you?) has a 'festival' thing in July... meaning: Richard E Grant, Margaret Atwood (had to do one of her books for A-level, hence, hold a bit of a grudge), Matthew Parris and Julian Clary. Hmmm...!

The Mighty Boosh is in Newcastle at the end of this month... very tempted to try and find them... wonder if I can talk any of my uni friends into that?

Next month, or maybe April, I might actually attempt to find some footballers too. Oh, and Jonny Wilkinson.

Any other ideas??

31 Jan 06 - Status: 11

It's been, what?, 12 days, since I last Crayola'ed. And I'm already getting restless, already worried that I may fall behind and not succeed. And yet I'm already 46% of the way through, with only 2 months gone. However, those 12 days (has it really ONLY been 12 days?!) have been far from wasted. A trip to Silverstone for F1 testing, complete with paddock pass, is currently in the final stages of being processed. This should guarantee a few more autographs... the coolness of who I get to be determined simply by who turns up. The prospects range from the very exciting (top name racers) to the ridiculously thrilling (Zonta!!!! eep!!) to the possibility of me being arrested for violence (a certain German).

I've also got tickets so that I'll be in London for the first weekend of March. If Hammond's 5o'clock show is still filming, I'll go to that and try and grab him. I'm seeing Tim Minchin's show on the Saturday, but he's not FAMOUS enough yet. (Oh - Speigeltent and chips flashbacks!) I'll have to have a think and see who else I could find that weekend.

Still planning on getting a few footballers to sign sometimes. Got my sights set on Shearer and Owen, simply because they're the biggest names. I want impressive signings!

Annnnnddd... yeh... that's about it.

19 Jan 06 - Status: 11

Woah... what a difference a day makes. I went to the Birmingham NEC on Saturday, for the Autosports exhibition. First off, Alan McNish (he's driven in F1 and Le Mans, among others, as well as doing pitlane commentary for ITV's F1 broadcasting) chose cerulean!! Cerulean!!! Hurrah! (Or "scottish blue" as he called it).

Then it turned out that Mr Coulthard is a popular, popular man, but luckily I got into the queue early enough to guarantee that I'd see him. I'd been waiting for 45 minutes when who should turn up... but Johnny Herbert! This was exciting because he's my racing hero, and it's always great to see him. Luckily I was able to jump out of the DC queue in order to chat to Johnny, and then go back to my spot again. I didn't want to miss Johnny because of DC, but I didn't want to miss DC because of Johnny either!

Johnny did make me laugh. He studied the Crayola box to see which colour he wanted... then he delved in to pick one out. And he picked Carnation Pink. !!! The look on his face was a picture, and I just had to laugh out loud and tell him it was "very manly". After he signed his name, I suggested to him that he draw a picture too... he just *looked* at me, and I grinned and was like "oh go on, you know you want to!" So he took great, great care and concentration.... and drew a little stick man in the corner. He looked oh so proud of himself! He's a funny one!

Anyhoos, so I went back to my spot in the queue and waited about another 20mins or so for Coulthard to arrive. He was only signing for 15 mins, and there was a huge queue of people, so the guys in charge were telling us to Be Quick. So I made him choose a colour, but I wasn't going to attempt to banter with him about drawing pictures. And yet as I watched him, he did his autograph... and then put on a face of deep concentration and started doing little marks on the paper... and I was like 'hmm... what's he doing?'... then suddenly I realised, and so I suddenly announced at him "oh my god!! you're DRAWING!!! I didn't even have to TELL you to! Most people I tell them to, and they don't, but you ARE!" He looked up and just GRINNED proudly at me, then went back to finish his little drawing. When he'd finished, I told him it was more impressive than Johnny's stick man, which made him chuckle. What a nice guy! YAY for DC!

Lastly (or indeed, eleventhly), I got Mark Blundell, again a driver and a commentator guy. He made some comment about "does crayon last?" - good god it had BETTER!!! Can you imagine the tears if I woke up one day to find it had disintegrated into nothingness?? However, I'm fairly confident that it'll last a while... and if it does start to fade, I'm sure I can figure out a way to laminate the pages or something silly to protect it. This book is going to make me smile like a silly person for years to come. One day my grandchildren will look at it and say "WHY did you make them write in crayon, grandma? were you a mentalist?"..... Good times ahead.

PS - Happy birthday Jenson :-)

13 Jan 06 - Status: 7

Now then, on one hand, I'm really pleased with how it's going so far. Not quite 2 full months into it, and 7 autographs done already. As you can easily work out, I need to get an average of 2 per month... so I'm almost double my quota. That's AWESOME. Well done me!

However, these were the easy months. I had the karting to start with (and if only I'd got the Challenge worked out then, I could've been even further along. Boo! But oh well... that's why I've allowed myself the 2006 karting too, to catch up on what I missed from not being into the swing of things yet) - and so that was 2 autographs in the bag easily. Then December rolled along, and with it came my Neighbours-stars-in-Pantomime obsession... and bing bang boom, another 5 in the bag without me even having to TRY.

And now I go into what I can only think of as being the lean period. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't just stumble across famous people in my day to day life. And so I've realised that I have to actually THINK of ways to find them.
Tomorrow I'm going down to Birmingham NEC for the Autosports show. Due to the ticket I bought, and the fact that he'll be there, I should HOPEFULLY end up with David Coulthard's mark in Crayon. Hopefully there'll be another name or two there that I can nab. After all this time and money, I'd better get a step or two closer to the Holy Grail of 24. I've also almost decided for sure which date to go and see Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show - whilst I'm in no way guaranteed to get a crayon into his tiny but, I'm sure, perfectly proportioned hand, it's a great excuse for going! (I love little Hammond!) I might also get tickets to see The Mighty Boosh in Newcastle... because that show is damn funny, and I'd love it if I could Crayola them at the end!

I also plan on getting my hands on a NUFC footballer or two... that'd be quite exciting on a personal level for me too. August could be easy to some degree, as I'll be at Edinburgh Festival and should bump into some folks there. At the very least, as long as they turn up, I could get The Umbilical Brothers... although I can't decide if they count as one or two??

But even working this out using a sensibly optimistic calculator (an 'sopticulator', if you will)... that's still, say, only bringing me up to about 15 or 16... that's still a lot of work to do. Oh, plus a couple of easy extras at the Karting.. but I'd still be struggling to reach 20. Where do I find that extra handful?? I foresee more trips to London... I could keep GNER and Megabus in business singlehandedly if I'm not careful. Oh well, as long as it's fun, I don't mind!

I'm really looking forward to seeing who use my favourite Crayons (due to names alone) - Cerulean and Dandelion. Will let you know!

THE RULES!

1. The status of the signee as a "celebrity" is at Lou's sole discretion (which can easily be influenced during the initial debate of "are they famous enough?"). Any quibbles with celebrity status must be submitted in writing, in at least 6 different languages (must include Latin), with no more than two grammatical errors in total.

2. The Crayons to be used for autographs are "Crayola Crayons - 24 non-toxic crayons" - specifically: the pack given to Lou by Richard Elkin of Florida, USA. No other writing instruments are acceptable.

3. The autograph must be made directly onto Lou's black-binded autograph book (henceforth known simply as The Book). There is one slight exception - a dark sheet of thin card has been attached to The Book, for use with the White Crayon.

4. Each Crayon from the pack must be used to sign The Book only once. It is Lou's duty to ensure that there is no duplication of Crayons.*

5. Lou must be present for the Signing. It's just more fun that way!

6. Suggesting that the celebrities not only sign, but also draw, is more than encouraged. [NB: A surPRIZE (it's a prize, that's a surprise!) will be awarded to Lou should she succeed in getting one of the 24 to draw "Nelson Mandela on a Jetski". Courtesy of Riktopher Faris.]


* Noel Fielding Loophole: Noel Fielding can do what he wants. The first crayon picked will officially be His Colour, and any other colours used by him after that will simply be loopholed out and put back into circulation.

The Background Story

It's all the fault of 'Team Forum' from the Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge. It really is. I wanted to get autographs... Rick mentioned remembering to take 'writing instruments'... a phrase which I loved... then someone mentioned crayons (mocking me for my childish nature, no doubt)... I got excited... Rick therefore brought me some crayons to use on the day (hence autographs #1 and #2)... and then I started to get a little bit carried away...


There's several reasons why I want to do this Challenge. First off, it's great seeing people's reactions when I tell them to "pick a colour, any colour" and hold out a box of crayons. It's not everyday that that happens to them... and they like it. To quote Jonny Wilkes: "CRAYON!! I love writing in crayon!!!" Secondly, it makes me stand out a bit... if you're reading this, then you obviously know me at least a bit, and therefore you'll know that I just like to be Me. A bit of an individual. And this just gets their attention that bit more. Thirdly, it's a great excuse to try and get celebrities to draw you a random picture. (Why are self-portraits popular choices by them so far?!) Fourthly, and fairly importantly... it makes my autograph book look pretty when you flick through it. It's a rainbow satchel of famous-y goodness!