How I Met Joel McHale

Copying and pasting this from an email I sent to a total stranger today.   She's a friend of a friend, and noticed my Joel Profile picture and wanted to know how I met him...

I am a MASSIVE Community fan. MASSIVE. So the week Community came back from that awful winter hiatus, Joel announced he was doing a show at Caroline's Comedy Club in Manhattan, and I was like , I HAVE to go. I go to the website and the tickets are 50 bucks, plus handling fee, plus 2 drink minimum. Being poor, I decided I couldn't afford it and was DEVASTATED. So I publicly bitch about it on Facebook and proceed to go about my day. I come back to my desk during a break in a looooong meeting and find that a friend sent me an email paypal-ing me 50 bucks. The email said "Just buy the ticket, Kim. Happy belated birthday." So I did.

Joel did 2 shows, and we (cause 2 other pals got tix as well) went to the early show where he not only did standup, he paused his show so we could all watch that night's Community together. After the show, I said to my friends we are SOOOOOOO meeting him. We go across the street to have a few beers while we wait for him to do the late show. We go back to Caroline's circa 11:30 to stake out the stage door. We even asked a street cleaner where they normally come out. He pointed us towards 2 possible places. We stake them out. One of us waited at one, and me and my other friend were at the other, with phones in hand to alert each other. My friend Amy and I are waiting at the front entrance of the club, cause there were a bunch of town cars there, and our logic was...Joel wouldn't just walk out and hail a cab, right?

Midnight rolls around, it is FREEZING, and there is no sign of him. It is clear that the club is empty. I decide that we have missed him (HOW? He's 6'4"). So we go to get Michelle, we round the corner...and there he was. He had just come out the back entrance, and Michelle had her phone in hand calling us. I ran up to him, jumped and planted and said "Aha!! We found you!!" To which he replied, "You WIN Well, actually your friend wins because she was here first!". And then he apologized for taking so long to come out. And it was only me and my two friends (which I could not believe), and he stood on that street corner and just chatted with us for a good while. I got to tell him the story of the time he retweeted me on twitter and Michelle and I told him how we went to the live stream of the LA Paley event at Paley Center NY dressed as Annie and Britta. He took pictures with all of us (in which he was very snuggly.  Seriously, he should trademark McSnuggle), shook all of our hands when we left, looked us in the eyes, and said Thank you for watching the show.

In other words, it was a completely flawless celebrity encounter. He was everything I wanted him to be, and more. Beautiful. TALL. And as nice and humble as he could be. Everytime I pass that street corner I smile.