2011 - 2nd Annual Amaury Nolasco & Friends Golf Classic - 10 - 11/06

Wake up call at 8:00 AM to go play? Now? What DJ does this?! Reluctantly, I drag myself out of bed and up to the truck with all the equipment that needs to be loaded up into a golf cart that was made to move this kind of equipment. They ask me to drive this golf cart. This has to be easy, last time I drove one I was 13, and it was not hard.

Have you ever driven one of these before? I was asked. “OF COURSE”, I replied.

Here’s the thing about golf carts, when neutral they make no sound. So I’m looking everywhere for a power button only to find a button that turns it off. The person next to me laughs and says; “Clearly you haven’t driven one in a while”. I’m embarrassed! He proceeds to turn the golf cart on again and we’re off to the tent.

The tent is a huge tent located on the 18th hole, this tent could fit 200 people comfortably. Music is up and ready by 10:00 AM, the only problem is, nobody is really set to come here until at least 3:00 PM. They tell me to leave some music running and join them at a bar that was set up near another hole.

I arrive to the tent, there’s food, but more importantly, it’s an open bar! Don’t you just love hearing those two words put together in a phrase? It’s past noon and I haven’t had a bite to eat yet, so before charging up to the bar I decide to get some food. While I’m eating I get into a very interesting conversation with Sean Elliot (former NBA player for the San Antonio Spurs, currently works for the Spurs). We talk about his time working as an analyst for ESPN, NBA Refereeing, and how the NBA works as a business. This is a very interesting conversation I’ll put up in another post for another day.

3:00 PM has arrived and now I have to work. I head back to the tent, starting to feel those Chivas on the rock get to me. I am currently happy and care-free. I start to play and celebrities start to arrive.

As I am playing, Robert Knepper (Actor from Prison Break, Transporter 3) comes up to me to congratulate on the music. I am honored. I decide to return the favor and tell him that he did a great job on Prison Break to the point where he made me hate him. He smiles and responds, that means I’m doing my job. (If you haven’t seen the TV series Prison Break, get your Hulu plus account and watch it! It has to be one of my favorite TV series I have seen to this date.) I kindly ask Robert for a picture with him and Amaury Nolasco before he leaves (both are actors on Prison Break), to which he accepts and walks away.

A couple of minutes later, Jennifer Morrison (Actress from House M.D; How I met your mother) comes up to talk. I forgot what she said to me to initiate a conversation but my only response to her was; “You are so much skinnier in person”. I wasn’t lying either. On House M.D. this girl looks like your average petite girl, but in person she looks a lot skinnier. She didn’t take the compliment positively and replied; “Does that mean I look fat on TV?”.

Whoah! That did not go as planned. We small talk for a bit she kindly tells what she is currently working on and I take advantage of the photo opp. I avoid further awkwardness and let her walk away.

A band of “Pleneros” comes in and I have a break to get another drink. (Pleneros are musicians that play “Plena” which is a Puerto Rican genre in which participants engage in call-and-response chants over funky rhythms tapped on large tambourine-like instruments and on guiros, or hollowed-out gourds). All the celebrities and guests form a line and walk around the tent as if they were dancing the conga. Leading the line is none other than Cole Houser, who proceeds to make sure the ending point of this conga line finishes at the bar. He succeeds of course and gets a loud applause from everybody.

Once I resume playing, Cole Houser (Actor from 2Fast2Furious; The Break Up) walks up to me and asks for some dance hall. This guy likes to party! I switch up to some dance hall and from the looks of it, everybody is having a great time.

Later on, as the party dies down, Wilmer Valderama (Actor from That 70’s Show) comes up to me and ask if I could charge his iphone. Lucky for him I have the cable that connects his iphone to my laptop. We talk for a bit about what he’s been working on lately and small talk for a while. I ask for the photo to which he accepts. Picture is taken and I get the cell phone back (I don’t think I own a camera), once returned I think I have mistakenly deleted the photo. I ask for another picture. I could see it in his face he was not really happy about it but he approved either way.

Party is over and I head back home to get ready for Club Brava that night. As I am playing upstairs in the Ultra Lounge, I see on the TV’s a shout out stating that Cedric The Entertainer is at Brava tonight. I already could assume that he wasn’t the only celebrity that drove an hour and a half to visit Brava.

I was right! The owner of the club then comes up to my DJ booth with Wilmer Valderama, where we talk once again. Wilmer looks a lot happier now, and I ask them if they want to do some shots. Both of them agree. The owner proceeds to bring us some Patron shots to which we all cheer to a good night. Wilmer sticks around a little longer and we talk about hip hop and how he likes the club and then he takes off.

Overall, it was an interesting day. I got to see and meet actors I normally see on television as their regular self, and they are all surprisingly normal and cool.