Beneath This Bold & Brilliant Sun



23. Tour Manager. Nashville by way of NYC by way of OKC. PB&J aficionado. This is my life in pictures & pages.

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My Friend Donald Glover.

(The following was written on my iPhone Friday morning, hungover, during the drive home.)

As I sit here on my phone, writing this from the passenger seat of my friends Camaro, I can’t help but go through my photos from last night trying to figure out if it really happened. But it did, and I know it did, it’s just kind of hard to believe.. Here’s a recap:

We spent 4 hours on the road Thursday afternoon, not only to see Donald Glover, but also because I haven’t seen my friend Amanda in forever. These days she runs the activities at the university of Arkansas, and while we still talk, I’m not nearly as caught up as I’d like to be, so I was more than happy to make the trip. When we arrived I called Amanda, and she told us to meet her on the union stairs. As we stood there, watching our own breath float away in the 34 degree air, I started comprehending who I was about to meet. A guy that wrote for 30 rock, is one of the stars of a show I never miss, does hilarious stand-up comedy, and is a very respectable & favored musician. You would think that someone at that caliber should have an ego about himself. How could he not, right? Yet, when I shook his hand and heard him quaintly say “Ryan? Cool. Real nice to meet you man.” I knew he wasn’t going to be that way. And the rest of the night would only confirm that.


So, you know how in your imagination you picture someone like that to be hilarious? Just a great story teller, cracking jokes left and right making you laugh constantly, but in all actuality you know that they can’t actually ever live up to your expectations? Well, Donald does. From the walmart check out girl that was totally unimpressed with us to the blonde that he called out to from across the street hoping to conduct a wedding ceremony, his personality showed us why people can’t help but love the guy.

While everyone ran through the errands of setting up for his show, Donald, Amanda, Kumar, and I ventured off to the local walmart to find some sudafed for his cold. The walk was filled with awesome stories, and I couldn’t help my mind from constantly thinking “Holy Fuck, I’m joking around with Donald Glover as if we were old college buddies.”

After our trip to walmart I somehow got lucky enough to sit in the green room for about an hour with just me, Donald, and my friend Kumar. As you would expect, the first 15 minutes was just me trying to pick my jaw up off the ground & doing a reality check like David after the dentist asking myself if this was real life.. Then a thought occurred to me. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and when it comes down to it he’s just another dude. So I said fuck it, put some music on, and I asked him if he’d heard the new Lupe cd yet.. It was the best thing I could have done. We started shooting the proverbial shit, talking about how he records his music, how hot Aubrey Plaza is, and everything in between. He played his new remix of ‘All of the Lights’ which will hit the net soon, and gave us a little insight into what his life has been like since the fame hit. I started to forget that I was talking to Troy from community and looked at him as another dude that just happened to have a lot of cool stories.

A little before he was to go on Amanda came in and said that they had packed 900 people into a theatre that held 700. They had to turn away 200 more, and about 20 were still waiting outside, to which he replied “well bring em in, I’ll meet em.” I don’t know if I’ve ever seen 20 people go from being so pissed off to absolutely ecstatic in such a short time. He took the pictures, signed the autographs, then went up and performed a show that puts him in the pro rankings. A lot of people had asked if he would do some rapping as well, and some kid happened to have the instrumentals on his phone, so at the very end he did a few songs. There is absolutely nothing funnier than watching 900 white college kids from Arkansas mimic every word to a childish gambino rap song.

So he gets off stage and we go back to the green room. At this point it’s around 10:00 and I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since lunch, and I knew the union would be closing soon. Kumar and I went downstairs and got some chic-fil-a, and I picked up an 8 count for Donald as well. I think it was me wanting to one day be in entertainment management combined with the fact that I spent three years in college bringing big name acts to campus that resulted in me innately doing the little things for Donald. I’m glad I did too, because he noticed. Anyway, we went back to the greenroom where he was signing autographs and taking some pictures. It was really cool to see him interact with all of those people. He knows these kids are putting him on a pedestal, and he still approaches it very humbly and with a lot of humor.

So we wrapped all of that up and headed out to the bar. This is where things start to get a little fuzzy. From what I recall, we walked into the bar, and almost immediately people noticed who we were with. It was kind of packed, but someone important (either a manager or owner) cleared out a section that had a couch and a table for us. Donald bought the first round, and from there on out drinks just started appearing on the table. I imagine that’s what it’s like to be a celebrity, but shit, it was pretty awesome. We drank a lot, and eventually someone convinced him to get on stage and freestyle. He did about 20 minutes of freestyle (which he absolutely killed). That was followed by 20 minutes of more pictures and autographs because now everyone in the bar knew who he was. I’m pretty sure we ended up closing down the bar and going straight to waffle house. We were all pretty gone, but I remember playing “I’ve never” at the table (which Donald of course lost). I also remember picking up his check because in my head it was the least I could do. From there I’m guessing we went back and passed out. I’m sure there are a ton of details that are left out, but I’ll have to try and remember those later. I woke up this morning on the floor still a little bit drunk trying to grasp what had happened. Donald must have heard Kumar and I getting ready to leave because he came out and wanted to make sure that he and I exchanged information before we left. We bumped our contact info and said we would keep in touch. Kind of a perfect wrap up to a perfect night. We all walked out together, and Kumar and I started our drive back to OKC.

I’ll never really be able to thank Amanda or Donald enough for making those memories with me. I guess everyone has at least one really cool story to tell. This will be mine.
Also, I just shot Donald a text. He said everything was “Mad Cool”. Pro.

A couple fun videos are uploading now. I’ll post them when they’re finished.


  1. justcheese said: Holy shit! I’m so fucking jealous! I cannot wait to see him in Baltimore!
  2. elainethehorsegurl reblogged this from ryanalltogether and added:
    realzies!!!!!!!!!!!
  3. sharkhoodies said: Incredible. Can’t wait to see his show May 9th.
  4. alex-lately said: I hate you. Did you hi whom my damn number yet??
  5. passthemike said: This is where you get me a job on community :) I don’t care, I’ll be a fucking gaffer.
  6. ryanalltogether posted this