"Hoot"

Here’s the story about how I met Jimmy—finally!

It all started with an inquiry from an assistant director at the movie set’s home based down in Ft. Lauderdale. It seems that Parotthead clubs from all over had heard about Jimmy’s own search for a stand-in photo double for a four to five day shoot. Well, Jimmy’s office and the office on location kept getting e-mails about this guy up in Pittsburgh that looked like him.

Monday, August 15, at 7:00 AM.

Due to prior show committments, I had to settle for a short night’s sleep, an early AM flight, and some fast footwork. I got there and got rushed to a shuttle van at the set’s base station. Guess who climbed in the front seat right after me----Robert Wagner! He turned around in the front seat to introduce himself, took a look at me and said, "Guess I know why you’re here. Have you ever met Jimmy? I assure you that Jimmy will be here tomorrow—I just talked to him yesterday." I related the story about how I’d been doing a Jimmy Buffett tribute show for seven years and had tried and tried, but never met him. Mr. Wagner seemed genuinely interested in me and my story, and, as time would later tell, he was.

When I arrived on the movie set a small crowd gathered round, and I got questions from set people wanting to know what to do about this and that, how was my surfing trip this morning, what about the Manatees? All rapid-fire, and all at the same time. Finally I just said, ‘’We have a problem here... I’m not Jimmy."

Someone asked, "Well, If you’re not Jimmy, then who in the hell are you?"

"I’m his photo double," I said, and from then on I had a whole lotta fun foolin’ people.

The next evening, about 6:00 PM, while I remained the last person still at the movie set, Jimmy finally showed up at the base station a half mile away. I was sitting at the bus station/holding area near the set when Amy, an assistant, told me to hurry up over to base. “He’s over there right now!” she exclaimed.

When I got there, he had hopped a shuttle and was on his way back to where I had just left. Cookie, another assistant, told me to get right back on the shuttle and get back to the set. When I got there, Jimmy, Wil Shriner, Robert Wagner, and some other directors were conversing in the middle of the set area. I walked up to the group. At this point Jimmy had his back to me. As I got close to them, Mr. Wagner began to smile and look at me and then Jimmy, back and forth, eyebrows raised, and finally Jimmy turned and saw me standing right beside him. He almost belly laughed—he looked me up and down, and said, "Man, you really do have this thing down! Come on, let’s get a picture."

I didn’t have a camera. We ended up getting pictures the next day, Wednesday —they're the ones you see here. Jimmy and I were able to talk together in the van on the way back to the base, and I told him about my band, my favorite songs, and especially about how my own son, Zach, was playing in the band. Jimmy commented about how fortunate I was to have my son beside me on stage. We met briefly a few more times, and only said ‘’Hey’‘.

I also got to meet Luke Wilson, and some of the other actors too. I even got to sing a little of “A Man of Constant Sorrow” with Tim Blake Nelson (from "Oh Brother Where Art Thou").

But meeting Jimmy finally cured a seven year itch.

Tom