I was sad to hear about Richard Simmons’ passing last Saturday. Growing up in the 80s, I remember seeing him everywhere on TV for a time.
In college I had a roommate named Carmen. One day Carmen came into our dorm room excited and said that Richard Simmons was doing a book signing at the local Walmart and that we needed to go.
Except of course, Carmen decided to dress as his androgynous “Vampire The Gathering” LARP character from New Orleans, Xero.
So not only did we get to meeting Richard Simmons, but Carmen/Xero even kissed him on the cheek. Simmons was gracious about it and played along.
The student newspaper did a story about it. Sadly the article appears to be long gone from their online archive. Carmen would later go on to achieve minor Philly fame dressing as Skeletor and hosting a Karaoke gong show.
(Sorry about the crappy quality of the photo. This was considered a good size when I scanned back in the late 90s. I need to find the print and re-scan it sometime.)