Imagine being a young and impressionable child who gets to go to every big sporting event but gets to tell no one.
Well, comedian Gary Vider doesn’t have to imagine it. In fact, it was his reality. For years, he and his father would scam their way into meeting celebrities and pro athletes by pretending to be a reporter for Sports Illustrated for Kids.
It was a childhood dream come true — well, sort of.
But all Gary ever dreamed about was having a normal dad. This yearning, far from fading, has only intensified with time. In fact, it’s the very reason behind his new podcast, No. 1 Dad. Through the show, Gary attempts to address the same core issue that drew Meadowlark Media’s Pablo Torre to find out about him — reliving the story of their biggest scheme yet.
“He saw an opportunity to take me to games by calling up Madison Square Garden, saying that we worked Sports Illustrated for Kids, that a photographer and a reporter would be going,” Gary explained during a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out. “He would act as the photographer with the nice camera. I would go with a pen and a pad as a reporter. And he’d arrange where we’d have press passes waiting for us when we arrived to Madison Square Garden.”
They tried their scheme there for a New York Knicks-Milwaukee Bucks game. It worked, and upon getting in the locker room, the two never looked back.
“I remember we were going to this Knicks versus Bucks game back in the ’92-93 season,” he said. “We’d gone to games before at this point, whether it be the New York Islanders game because I grew up on Long Island. But my dad didn’t have tickets this time. We drive to Madison Square Garden. I didn’t necessarily know what was happening. I knew that we didn’t have tickets and that my dad said, ‘If you want to meet the players, this is what we’re going to be doing. We’re gonna be going in as Sports Illustrated for Kids; just follow my lead.'”
Gary, on the cusp of fifth grade in 1992, was a picture of an awkward pre-teen. Sporting a bowl cut and a combination of baggy clothes and turtlenecks, he wasn’t exactly projecting confidence. This, according to Gary, was precisely what his father, Manny, exploited when he approached him with a well-rehearsed plan.
“I was going as Gary Vider, and my dad, I don’t know why, he would just use an alias and say he wasn’t my father,” Gary said. “That was the part that always like…In the beginning, I was like, ‘OK, whatever. If this is how it works.’ But eventually, I was like, ‘Can you just say that you’re my dad? I think it’s weirder to say that you’re not my dad.’ But he just loved lying, and he had several different aliases.”
It would be anywhere from Manny Wolf to Michael Wolf to Emmanuel Wolf. And Manny didn’t pull “Wolf” out of thin air. That happened to be Gary’s mother’s maiden name.
“We started to just going the games and constantly meeting the team,” said Gary. “And then, I’d go and become very familiar with the security guards and everything. By the time we got to the ’93-94 season, the Knicks and the Rangers were at their height. It was the best team(s) that both of those franchises had in years up until that point, and even still. And I would just go and meet (Patrick) Ewing and (Charles) Oakley and John Starks.”
A lot of those interactions would be that Gary would interview the players, but he was also there to get autographs.
“The goal was to get autographs,” he said. “That was everything. Acting like a Sports Illustrated for Kids reporter was to get us in the door. But the whole point was to get autographs, which is what you’re not supposed to do…That was my goal, and as a kid, you could get away with it.”
One of those he got away with was meeting and posing for a photo with NHL legend Mario Lemieux.
“The Mario Lemieux one, that was a Celebrity Golf Association back in the day; I don’t think they have it anymore,” Gary added. “They had a tournament on Long Island and all these athletes, my dad found out that they were staying at this Marriott hotel…My dad knew that I wanted to meet Mario Lemieux. And he called up the hotel to say he was Mario Lemieux’s chauffeur, just to confirm the time that he was gonna come down. Once he had that time, he then reserved this banquet hall that was in the hotel.
“He knew Mario Lemieux was coming down. He had this banquet hall secured. And then he called Mario Lemieux to say that Sports Illustrated for Kids was there, and said a time that he thought would now be convenient for Mario Lemieux to do an interview before his tee time. And I was able to interview Mario Lemieux just one-on-one.”
.@GaryVider and his father used to scam their way into meeting celebrities and pro athletes by pretending to be a reporter for SI Kids. 😂
“He called up the hotel to say that he was Mario Lemieux’s chauffeur, just to confirm the time that he was going to come down. … Then he… pic.twitter.com/tyUGYajDNe
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) June 17, 2024
Curious about Vider’s interview style, Torre, with his own reporter background, inquired about the questions being asked. It turned out Gary was referencing Sports Illustrated for Kids, keeping the interviews short and focusing on lighthearted topics like favorite memories and advice – all familiar territory for the magazine’s audience.
In short, nothing too earth-shattering.
But the fact that he skated with Nancy Kerrigan, shook hands with John Elway, and snuck into Madison Square Garden when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup was earth-shattering.
“The other thing is these weren’t memories that I could share when I was a kid,” said Gary. “He wanted to keep it in-house. If I wanted to keep doing this, I couldn’t really reveal how we were doing it. And that’s a lot because I’m going to all these games, having these cool memories, and then not telling (anybody). And then your friends, you want to brag…I’m doing really neat stuff, but it wasn’t stuff I could share. I didn’t share until now, really.”
Those memories included
“That was the most important thing for us,” he said. “We didn’t wind up going to any other playoff games because I think I had conflicts with sports and hockey and little league. But when they made it to the Finals, my dad made it a point to make sure we were going to those games. We made it to Game 1, Game 5, and Game 7, all without a ticket…For Game &, I sat glass. I’m in so many Getty Images, and also I’m in the Rangers’ Stanley Cup video, where I was able to hone in on myself…it was incredible. My dad and I, again, were not sitting with each other for these games. I was with a random family.”
Comedian @GaryVider and his father snuck into MSG when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup (and their after party) by pretending to be a reporter for SI Kids. 😭😂
“We went to Game 1, Game 5, and Game 7, all without a ticket. … For Game 7, I sat glass.”
Full episode:… pic.twitter.com/Ciyq6H11yY
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) June 17, 2024
Gary was living his own version of Home Alone in Madison Square Garden.
He never went to another championship game after that. And lived a life that no other kid has possibly ever lived.
