Kato Kaelin. What I knew of the man could be summed up in a Letterman Top Ten list. And it was, regularly -- Top ten things overheard in OJ Simpson's guest house, Top ten media whores living in Brentwood, etc.

The man was, is, a human target. A blown dry, deeply-tanned, perky-assed target. Comedians took potshots at the poor guy like he came out of a skeet launcher. Every single night his image would flash across the screen and invariably take an unforgiving comedic right hook to the jaw. But he kept coming back.

He wouldn't leave my television for a full year! Ito's court jester. He bounced around from camera to camera, waving like mentally-impaired toddler at the droves of paparazzi. While OJ and his furry-browed counsel dodged cameras like hot lead, Kato welcomed them with open arms, permanent markers and 8x10 glossies. He was the only one with nothing to lose in the whole fiasco and he threw himself into the melee with abandon.

11/17/96 -- In his first appearance on the stand in O.J. Simpson's wrongful-death civil trial, Brian "Kato" Kaelin testified Tuesday that Simpson had watched through a window while his ex-wife had sex with another man.

"The People Vs OJ Simpson" trial is one of the many reasons that I no longer have a television in my apartment. It got to the point where I couldn't even enjoy a good night of Must See TV without having Chandler's antics interrupted by an updated on the proceedings. Every flip of the channel brought some sweating, panicky reporter into my living room, imparting the latest juicy nugget in hushed tones as Marsha Clark scurried to and fro in the background. And then there was this Kato character, with his toothy grin and button nose, riding the nag for all she was worth. You almost had to admire him for it.

So, as you can imagine, I wasn't quite sure how to react when I saw him walking quickly towards me. The whole scene kind of stopped and launched into this weird slo-mo sequence. He seemed to be extending his hand, slowly mouthing something, "a-r-e...y-o-u...B-r-a-n-d-o-n?"

I snapped out of it and assumed my role. JAMtv was at X-Fest in Indianapolis on August 9 and well, so was Kato. Local radio station WRZX was hosting some big deal festival with plenty of bands: Wilco, Local H, Matchbox 20, Better Than Ezra, Sugar Ray, Reel Big Fish. And, I guess they figured that having Kato on hand to do some emcee-ing and glad-handling would be a good idea. We were there to webcast the event from start to finish and in-between set breaks, we have some space to fill. Occasionally we conducted an impromptu interview with a band, fans...or, as it were, Kato Kaelin.

So there he was, smiling, hoping that we were doing a radio show and generally wondering what the hell we wanted with him. Once I began the interview, he became convinced that it was a radio show, and I wasn't going to disabuse him of this notion. He jumped into several entertaining anecdotes regarding his career, the idea behind his new book, The Sixteenth Minute (a play on Warhol's fifteen minutes of fame), and an upcoming audition for a star-studded vampire movie. All of his waggish stories were peppered by odd, Robin Williams-like bursts of "zany" impressions (William Shatner, John Wayne and Johnny Carson). In short, he was still the court jester. He laughed, he smiled...he pretty much thought he was on the radio.

After he had gone back to the green room, something dawned on me. Despite all of my well-cultivated cynicism, despite all of my preconceived notions...I liked him. I found myself dabbing tears of laughter from my eyes. As corny as his stories were, I laughed my ass off. Not because he was exceedingly hilarious, but because he was a good guy and you just felt like you should laugh at his jokes. He was like the kid in high school who tries too hard, but your friends keep him around anyway because he's so damn nice.

As the day continued, I would have this epiphany several more times. I consider myself a critical judge of popular culture, and somewhat savvy about what is "genuine" and what is not. In my mind, there was nothing more base, more absolutely ridiculous that the OJ trial. The whole situation was so absurd that I was able to objectify it to the point where it ceased to be real. It became more like a really boring comic book with under-developed characters and bad art. Kato was part and parcel of that -- easily labeled and dealt with by the paradigm that I had developed to deal with the trial. Turns out that I might have been the one who was manipulated. Maybe he was just a regular guy thrust into an unsavory situation...but that hair!.

Consider if you will another example. One of the bands at the show, the headliner in fact, was The Bloodhound Gang. If you're not familiar with their work, think Andrew Dice Clay backed by the cast of Scooby Doo. They're a gag act, with a career built on humorous takes on other people's songs and pee pee jokes. For instance, halfway through their set the lead singer, Jimmy Pop, walks to the front of the stage and lays one of the most horrifically obscene jokes I have ever heard on the packed house at the Deer Creek Music Center. Have you ever heard the sound of 20,000 jaws dropping? I couldn't in good faith relate the details of the joke, but it involved your grandmother and gravity. You get the picture.

I was all set to hate them. But before their set, the guitar player for the band, Lupus, did a little interview with us and agreed to sit diligently at our online chat computer fielding inane fan questions for over an hour. He was a really cool guy. Totally laid back and willing to help us out in any way we wanted. Same thing goes for Murph, the bassist from Tiger Beat Magazine band-of-the-month, Sugar Ray. From their MTV image, I expected an attitude riddled rock star. He was really cool. He also did a turn in the chat room, much to the delight of our users. He stayed in for three hours. Granted he was trying to pick up chicks, but who cares! Three hours!

So again, I go into shock as perception meets reality. All three of these guys were unbelievably accessible and agreeable. Now when I recount the tale and people go into fits of laughter ("Kato Kaelin!"), I find myself defending him. I can listen to the Bloodhound Gang now and laugh at the potty jokes and I'm all set for the Sugar Ray explosion (oh yes, it will come). So, from now on, I will accept things at face value, live each day as if it is my first and scratch no deeper than the surface. It should be really fun.

Send your opinions to Brandon Barber and he will accept them as his own.