Nostalgia Nonsense #4 – My Oscar Moment

As a Oscarphile, I love everything about the Oscars.

I have seen every show since the late 80’s live and always make sure to see as many of the nominees as possible each year to help form my own ideas as to who really is deserving to win in my eyes.

Watching the show live each year is no easy feat since it always begins at 3:30am for me here in Israel which involves a lot of logistics since I am no longer single and by myself.

In the 23 years that I’ve lived here, I’ve only missed it once live because the cable didn’t work that night in March 2004.

The question remains tho, what is the one thing that Oscarphiles like me want in life?

Wining an Oscar when not being in the industry is a bit difficult if not impossible, so that leaves two dreams:

attending the ceremony live
or actually getting the chance to hold a real Oscar.

I will probably never get a chance to go to the ceremony (unless someone gracious out there wants to give me a ticket), so that leaves me with just one option…

…and It actually already has happened 23 years ago.

In the summer of 1993, while visiting my family in Michigan, I went to a comedy club on a Saturday night and among the performers was Richard Belzer who did some great presidential imitations that night.

As my friends and I were laughing at his jokes, a woman sat down in the adjacent table holding a familiar statue in her hands.

I immediately recognized her as being Barbara Trent who just a few months earlier won an Oscar for her documentary The Panama Deception (1992).

I started to talk to her and she told me that she’s a friend of Belzer and stopped by to say hi.

I asked her if it was a real Oscar and when she said yes, I asked her if I could hold the golden statue and she let me.

As the saying goes, It really was lighter than I expected it to be.

I then joked with her and offered her 50 bucks for it and she jokingly considered it before declining my offer.

Now I just need to find a way to get me one for my mantle….