Key Points
Paul Rudd is remembering the time he ran into Neil Diamond while DJ-ing a party.
The Power Ballad actor said he was “very anxious” about Diamond being at the event, but still managed to talk to him.
“It was a perfect run-in. It was great,” he said.
Paul Rudd is sharing the story of his “perfect run-in” with Neil Diamond.
The Power Ballad actor revealed on Thursday’s episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers that he once encountered the “Sweet Caroline” singer in his early days as a DJ in Los Angeles.
“I did somebody’s 40th birthday, I think? And it was kind of cool,” Rudd said. “It was in L.A., so you’d sometimes get some famous people showing up at the wedding… I did one where Neil Diamond was a guest.”
Paul Rudd at ‘Power Ballad’ screening in New York City in May
Credit: Cindy Ord/WireImage
The Avengers: Doomsday star admitted he was “very aware” that Diamond was at the event and “nervous” about it the entire time. That didn’t stop him, however, from going up to talk to the Grammy winner during the festivities.
“By the way, I was about 21 years old.”
“I was just starting off and I just went around and Neil Diamond was sitting at this table by himself, and I said, ‘Hello, Mr. Diamond. Are you having fun tonight?’” Rudd recalled. “And he was very serious and he said, ‘Yes, yes I am.’”
Rudd, in turn, had the perfect response.
“I just said, ‘Well, more importantly, are you Wanging Chung tonight?’” he continued, making a reference to the group’s 1986 song “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” which he said “had to have been playing” during their chat.
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Diamond wasn’t shaken by Rudd’s joke.
“I remember he just looked at me, and he was very serious, and he just said, ‘Well, I try and Wang Chung every night,’” Rudd said as the late-night audience laughed. “And I said, ‘All right.’ And I walked away.”
When host Seth Meyers admitted that he didn’t think a conversation with Diamond “could go much better than that,” Rudd simply replied, “No, it was a perfect run-in. It was great.”
Earlier in their conversation, Rudd admitted that he wasn’t very good at being a DJ but that it was “a nice job to do when I was in school” because it was something he could do on weekends.
“I would do bar mitzvahs. Bat mitzvahs. Really any kind of mitzvah,” he teased. “And weddings and birthdays.”
Watch Rudd discuss his meeting with Diamond in the clip above.
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