Imagine being able to meet and interview your favorite celebrities as a kid for Sports Illustrated, but you don't work for Sports Illustrated, and your dad is just playing the part. That was comedian Gary Vider's childhood.
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00:00It may have been the greatest scam for a sports fan, posing as a sports illustrated kids reporter
00:09with your dad and getting into all of the games, not to mention the locker rooms, watching
00:14your favorite players warm up before the game, prime seating during, and one-on-one conversations
00:20in the locker room after with a few photographs and autographs.
00:24Joining me now is comedian Gary Beder.
00:27Gary, you and your dad ran this scam from 1993 to 1997, and it allowed you to talk to
00:33and meet players like John Elway, Shaq, even Michael Jordan.
00:38You have to tell me more about this and how it worked.
00:41Cool.
00:42Yeah.
00:43So like you said, we started doing it in 1993, and it was all the games that we went to were
00:47at Madison Square Garden.
00:49And it pretty much involved my dad giving the garden a call up the day of the games
00:55and letting them know that Sports Illustrated for Kids would be there.
01:00And I would be going as a reporter.
01:03So he would give my name and my dad himself, he would use an alias, usually went by the
01:07name of Emanuel Wolf, but he had a few aliases, but that was one that he used at Madison Square
01:13Garden pretty regularly.
01:14That was the thing that he would switch up the names and people would never even catch
01:19on.
01:20It was kind of like a game for him in a way.
01:23But at the same time, we'd go to the games, we'd have press passes waiting for us when
01:27we arrived, and he would look the part of a photographer.
01:31He would have a whole vest and all the proper gear, and I would go with a pen and a recorder,
01:38and we'd sit in the press box.
01:41A lot of times we'd also have great seats up front, just that were open, that my dad
01:46would put me in, and he'd be off taking pictures.
01:50I'd be by myself, just watching the game.
01:53And once the game ended, I'd be going into the locker room and interviewing the players.
01:57And there were never any questions asked outside of, you know, that's really cool that you
02:02do this.
02:03And everybody was really nice to me, and it was definitely one of being an easy thing
02:08to get away with, based off of just me being a kid.
02:12And that's kind of how it operated, and it was a pretty simple thing.
02:18And it was definitely a cool moment in my life.
02:22I love this so much.
02:24It's hard to imagine that you guys got away with this for years.
02:27And I know no one asked you guys questions, but you did some question asking.
02:31You would talk to some of the athletes afterwards.
02:33What would you talk to them about?
02:34What would you say?
02:36Absolutely.
02:37So I was a subscriber for Sports Illustrated for Kids.
02:40So I would always read the articles, and a lot of the stuff that they would ask would
02:44be, you know, what's your favorite advice to the players, or what's your favorite food?
02:49And those are the questions I just stuck with, like the natural things a kid would want to
02:54ask a sports athlete.
02:56So I would ask those questions, and, you know, I would ask, when I went to meet Michael Jordan,
03:01I asked him, you know, what his favorite food was, and I couldn't remember my other questions
03:05outside of that, because I was so nervous meeting Michael Jordan.
03:08But you know, aside from interviewing him, a lot of times I was there, I just wanted
03:11the pictures and the autographs.
03:13So, you know, as unprofessional as I was as a fake kids reporter, I wouldn't even get
03:17the job done.
03:18I love that.
03:19You must have quite the memorabilia collection.
03:22You've got some all-time favorite memorabilia.
03:27So my favorite, so this is my favorite that, to me, because I grew up playing hockey.
03:33I got an autographed hat from the New York Rangers when they won the Stanley Cup, because
03:36I was at the game, and it was signed by the four All-Stars that year, Mark Messier, Mike
03:41Richter, Brian Leach, and Adam Graves.
03:44And I got that at game seven when I went into the locker room, and I had them all sign it.
03:49And that one means a lot, because I feel like nobody else has that autographed and has it
03:54on like an official Stanley Cup hat.
03:56So that one means a lot to me.
03:58I mean, other than that, it's just a bunch of, I have a bunch of sticks and a bunch of
04:04basketball shoes, a lot of things my dad would just walk out of the locker room with.
04:09So it's just priceless memorabilia that means a lot, and it's cool that I have it.
04:16And it's, yeah, it's pretty awesome.
04:18It definitely means a lot to me that we were able to get that stuff.
04:24It's incredible.
04:25I cannot believe that you guys were able to do it, but you did.
04:28And obviously, you've got a lot of priceless memories.
04:30And the irony of it all, here you are years later on Sports Illustrated.
04:34Gotta give it to you, Gary.
04:35Yeah, so pretty much now I'm doing the job I was supposed to about 25 years ago.
04:40So yeah, I owe Sports Illustrated a lot just for even wanting to do this.
04:45So to get that story out, it's pretty cool.
04:48And I was at the games, just didn't fulfill my obligation of actually writing the article.
04:54But now I did.
04:55Now you did.
04:56All right, Gary, thanks for sharing.
04:58Really appreciate it.
04:59Awesome.
05:00Thanks for having me.
05:05All right.
05:06Bye.
05:07Bye.
05:08Bye.