Celebrity Sightings and Tax Monologues

Perhaps I should find it a bit embarrassing to admit, but I have always gotten a kick out of celebrity sightings.  Of course, having lived in the LA area and worked in downtown LA for almost six years, it was not a complete shock to see celebrities out doing their jobs or going about their lives.

One of my favorite celebrity sightings happened a few years before I moved to LA.  My wife and I were living in Oakland at the time, and I was commuting via BART to Golden Gate University for my tax degree in the evenings and to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.  One day, from the window of the BART, I saw Josh Kornbluth coming off an escalator at one of the stops.  I saw him, did a double take, and then he saw me.  I may have got excited and pointed.  Josh Kornbluth noticed my reaction, and smiled and waved as my train departed.  I was a little giddy.

Most people in Southern California may not know who Josh Kornbluth is, but in the roughly year and a half I lived in Oakland, he had a show on public television wherein he interviewed celebrities and did funny things like play basketball with them (which was amusing because he clearly had never done organized sports).  He seemed out of place on television, lacking Hollywood good looks, and the whole thing was a bit awkward, yet endearing.  My wife and I loved his show.  It was short lived, though, and was apparently cancelled not long after my sighting.

So, my wife recently looked him up on the internet, and it appears he is doing monologues, a form of theater art (or arguably stand-up comedy) that made him part of the entertainment world to begin with.  Kornbluth is pro-tax and pro-goverment, and he has apparently devoted some monologues and writing to the topic.  Once again, I am delighted to see our paths cross.  An article on Kornbluth and his tax monologues can be found by clicking here, for your enjoyment.  As stated in that article, Kornbluth has a personal website, joshkornbluth.com, and a tax blog called i-r-us.org (now defunct, so don’t copy and paste into your browser).  The latter of the sites had gems like, “The idea of the site is quixotic, to turn the tide, make the country pro tax! When the politician says, ‘I’m gonna cut your taxes,’ vote him out of office!”

Interestingly, Kornbluth’s professed love of taxes comes from a period where he had fallen out of compliance and faced a large and growing tax bill from the 1990’s.  More on that can be found at www.downtownexpress.com/de_32/lovetransforns.html. Now, Kornbluth has the help of the accountant and does not seem to hold any animus towards the IRS.

Daniel Layton, the author of this post, is the principal of Tax Attorney OC.