host

For the most part, experience has taught me to, "let them come to you"....if you interact with them, especially in the majority of my encounters where my role was to perform service for them, the more successful you are at treating them the same as you would anyone else, the more willing they are to open up and engage you in conversation.

My experience living and working in Manhattan was that celebrities could come and go in public generally as they pleased, without the public approaching them on the street or ina restaurant. It is different in Atlanta... I saw one customer seated at a table near a famous pro athlete, get up and move near the athlete's table, and direct his young son to slip into the seat next to the athlete, while he took a quick picture of his son and the celebrity, as he murmured, "you don't mind....do you"?

I've seen other guests follow celeb guests to the bathroom, or approach their table and attempt to introduce themselves. The public in Manhattan does not behave that way.

Generally, people in show business, when I've asked, will talk about their work. They appreciate normal conversation, and I've never asked for a photo or an autograph. If, as you say, conversation has "progressed" to talking about the weather, and, as in the case of Laura Linney, I want to pay a compliment about a performance or ask the actor what they thought of their own work, I simply ask.... "may I say something"?, or "I saw you perform in (movie title), were you as satisfied with your performance when you viewed it on the screen, as I was?

It's always different....sometimes they thank you when they observe that you have discouraged a member(s) of the public from approaching them. Almost always, they are gracious, unassuming, appreciative of the normalcy of their dining experience. Bishop Tutu .... a small, old man, finishing dinner over coffee with his wife, if you didn't know who he was, it was hard to envision, save for his charismatic smile, his role in recent history. On his way out, he thought to approach the chef, introduce himself and shake his hand, and compliment him fof the quality of the food.....

One guest let me know that he was traveling to Cleveland, OH, later in the week, to be inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame. I heartily congratulated him.

It may not seem it in, here in my 2D persona, but, I am told I have a cordial, low key, "tableside manner", that draws people out. In the dining room where I worked in NYC, the manager designated me to wait on the celebs, because he felt I treated them like people.... It's a bit like a first date with a woman who you find attractive, success in getting a second date comes after a mix of restraint, and just the right amount of warmth and personality,