Tag Archives: remembering

Farewell Mr. Kilmer

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Val Kilmer December 31, 1959 – April 1, 2025

Nicholas Dye – Staff Writer

I’ve spent a good chunk of today trying to figure out how to best approach what I felt about Val Kilmer. Do I talk about his numerous roles? Do I give a detailed account of his life and how, at 17 years old, he was the youngest person at that time to be accepted to Juilliard? None of it seemed genuine, so I decided to give you a very small snippet from his life and mine but one that will last with me forever.

Early in June 2018, my wife at the time, and I had learned that Val Kilmer was going to be showcasing his one man play, ‘Citizen Twain’ at the Improv in Ontario, California. We quickly bought tickets and paid for the VIP seating and decided to make a date night out of it. The both of us have backgrounds in theater, but I am the real die hard when it came to being on stage so naturally, I was excited to see his performance. It was being shown in film format and was lovingly renamed ‘Cinema Twain’.

When we got to the Improv, we were seated right against stage left and couldn’t have been more than 10 feet away from him and listened with rapt attention as he explained how ‘Citizen Twain’ had come to be. For those of you who don’t know, feel free to look it up, but the long and short of it is, he wrote an entire one man play so he could better understand Mark Twain, a.k.a. Samuel Clemens before playing him in a film.

At this point in his life Val had to over annunciate everything due to his battles with cancer. He did so masterfully and managed to make everything funny and spoke so passionately about acting in this play in particular. The Improv was packed, a completely sold out show, and we all reveled in his performance. Afterwards, the Q&A began, and, once again, he spoke very passionately about the process he took in learning about Mark Twain. He fielded questions about his numerous films, actors he enjoyed working with, and also the ones he found difficult to work with.

At one point, I nudged my wife and pointed to his socks. Val was wearing these long socks that I can only describe as an explosion of color that looked like an acid trip. Not tie-dyed, but definitely funky. Wanting to see if I could make him laugh, I shot my hand into the air and waited for him to call me. When he finally did, I asked a two part question that began with some generic thing about his first feature film, ‘Top Secret’ and then I made a joke about the socks. He lifted his pant leg to see which pair he was wearing, and then looked at me with a genuinely disappointed and hurt look and made a comment about his battles with cancer and how he earned the right to be comfortable. He took about a two beat pause in which time the entire building fell silent, and I thought I was going to vomit. He burst out laughing and jumped up and came over and shook my hand and gave me a hug. We both laughed and then it became the running joke throughout the rest of the Q&A, which ran over the scheduled time. We took pictures with him afterwards and he double checked to make sure I hadn’t had a heart attack. We laughed a little and I ended up buying some of his artwork and one of his Funko pops. All in all, it was a night that I could’ve never predicted, but one that I will never ever forget.

There are so many things that can be said about Val Kilmer. For me, personally, he will always be one of the kindest and funniest celebrities I’ve ever had the chance to interact with. I’d like to think somewhere he laughed about that after the show on his way home. I will cherish his movies forever, and I will always be grateful for the time he took to tease a dumbass who teased him about his comfy socks. Rest well Mr. Kilmer and thanks for the heart attack.

Funny sock wearing celebrity almost kills local fat fan
Not bad for a skinny lunger

My Farewell to Animal

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The Legendary Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal

(Nicholas Dye/Staff Writer)

My first introduction to the world of wrestling came around 1983. My good friend Joe Barnum had introduced me to the WWF and, if I remember correctly, the first match I watched was Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine vs. The Killer Bees. It was right then and there that I decided that if I were to ever become a wrestler I wanted to be part of a tag team.

As a fan of the WWF, there was no shortage of teams to watch. The Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs and eventually, Demolition, just to name a few. It was during this time that I had first heard the rumblings of a wildly destructive team that didn’t wrestle for the WWF. A team that wore face paint and spikes like Demolition, but were waaaay bigger and scarier. I quickly discovered that they were a team featured on a promotion I had never heard of at that age, the WCW. Nevertheless, I managed to get a hold of a VHS recording when I was ten of the infamous “Scaffold Match” that featured the Midnight Express taking on the Road Warriors. When the Road Warriors were introduced, I sat wide-eyed and transfixed on my television. Hawk and Animal emerged from the curtain and it was like they belonged in my collection of Masters of the Universe figures. I thought it was so cool Animal had a spider painted on his forehead and I was fucking arachnophobic! From that moment forward, the only thing that could pull me away from my beloved WWF was to briefly tune in to WCW to see the greatest tag team to ever come out of the mean streets of Chicago.

Hawk was massive and powerful and damn fast but it was Animal, who was the true crushing power of that team. I would live to watch two things happen in their matches. The first, was to see Animal perform the most devastating and flawless scoop powerslam and the second was to see him hoist their victim (that’s what they really were people!!) upon his shoulders and to see Hawk sail from the top rope to deliver a clothesline that was aptly called “The Doomsday Device.” Every single time they were on the screen, it was like seeing a comic book character come to life. They looked like characters that Conan the Barbarian would try to avoid. I would have countless conversations with my friends about how I wish they would come to the WWF. On July 15, 1990, I got my wish.

From day one, the Legion of Doom were predefined to be the champs. They quickly feuded with teams like Demolition, the Powers of Pain, and the Nasty Boys. I lived to watch Animal point two thumbs towards the ceiling, calling Hawk to set up for the Doomsday Device. He and Hawk would cut the best promos and you always felt like they just might actually pull another wrestler’s head off. Whatever you call them, the Road Warriors or the Legion of Doom, are my definitive answer to the “who’s the best tag team ever” question. Just as inevitable as their rise to success, Hawk and Animal were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.

It would be years later that I would actually learn Animal’s name. Joe Laurinaitis. He became a very proud father who helped his son become one of the most feared lineman in college football and saw him play in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams. Sadly, Joe Laurinaitis passed yesterday at the age of 60. He was revered in the back in every promotion and he lived to give his all to fans and to his family. Thanks for everything Animal, it has been a rush. Below is there entrance music and my favorite entrance of theirs ever. Summerslam 1992.