Dealing with Name Dropper

[yokozbornak]

I have recently had to deal with two people who name drop often.  One is a person that I have limited contact with while the other is someone that I have to deal with a fairly regular basis.  My attempts at bean-dipping and even ignoring has not stopped it.  What's even worse, I live in a a place with a fair amount of celebrities (mostly music) and many people in this area work in the music industry and are connected. 

The one that I have to deal with is particularly bad about doing this every time we have a conversation.  Here's a recent example that is almost verbatim exchange minus a few changes.

Her:  "Are you still participating in Big Athletic Event?  When is it?"
Me: "Yes, I have been training for it.  It's happening the first week of March."
Her: "Oh, have you ever heard of Minor Celebrity?"
Me: "Yeah, I've heard of his."
Her: "Well, I am Facebook friends with his wife because we used to work together, and she's participating in it also."
Me: "That's nice."
Her: "Yeah, we go way back.  I knew them before he became famous."
Me: "Oh, okay. Look at the time, I better go find a seat."

She obviously didn't care about my participation in the event, she just wanted me to know that she knew this person.  Most people would have said, " A friend of mine is also partipating."

I am beandipping and being attempting to be polite while being disinterested, but that hasn't seemed to stop it.  I am to the point where I just want to roll my eyes and make a sarcastic response, but I know that is a rude and wrong approach.  Any suggestions on how to deal with this?  I have thought about humor, "Oh, that's nice.  You wouldn't happen to be Facebook friends with Johnny Depp, would you?" but I am not sure if that would be rude. 

[MrTango]

Probably the best thing you can do is act as if you don't care.  They're looking for affirmation or to see that you're impressed.

[Outdoor Girl]

Her: "Oh, have you ever heard of Minor Celebrity?"

You:  "Why?"

I'm just thinking that if you turn it around in a 'Why do you want to know?' style, it might make her not continue on.  She might still carry on but it's worth a shot.

[yokozbornak]

I like the "Why?"  idea!  That might throw her for a loop.   I feel like I have been acting disinterested and unimpressed, and that hasn't seemed to really work.

[wolfie]

Answering "No" to "Have you heard of X" ruins their fun too.

[CakeEater]

How about:

Her:  "Are you still participating in Big Athletic Event?  When is it?"
Me: "Yes, I have been training for it.  It's happening the first week of March."
Her: "Oh, have you ever heard of Minor Celebrity?"
Me: "No, well anyway the event in fascinating because..."
Her: "I'm facebook friends with celebrity's wife and blah blah..."
Me: "Yes my training regime had been..."

Would acting like she actually was interested and telling her all about your preparation, diet, training schedule, timetable for the event, colour of your outfit etc all the while ignoring references to minor celebrity be helpful?

[Luci45]

Responding to things like that just like it was Suzi or Bob that we graduated from high school with always works for me.

Most of the time I get celebreties thrown at me who are sports figures, about whom I know little and care less except that they are people who have accomplished something.

So I am pretty innocent when I just keep talking.

[Giggity]

Them: "blah blah blah I know a celebrity."

You: " ... and?"

[Thipu1]

I would suggest not using the 'and'.  After all, that's a basic technique for keeping improv comedy going.  It just gives the rambler a cue to continue.

Perhaps a somewhat bored, 'that's nice but I've been doing...' might be better. 

Conversations often morph but getting back to the original topic is important.  Regardless of what the name dropper thinks, the conversation is about the OP's preparation for the event.  That's important to the OP and should be respected. 

[RebeccainGA]

Oh this bugs me - between my dad (a relatively un-famous musician who has played with some REALLY famous musicians and has good friendships with them) and the people I've gone to school with (several actors and artists of note - I went to arts magnet schools) I actually DO have a few names to drop. But I don't, because it's obnoxious. However, more than once I've had an acquaintance of mine, who has seen that I'm Facebook friends with X or that my dad was tagged in a picture with Y has acted like SHE is the one that is friends with X or Y, and has even name dropped about them AS IF SHE KNEW THEM, when she hasn't even met them.

I have yet to figure out the motivation, except that people who name drop want others to know that they are important, or to make themselves feel like they have more power in the world than they do. Baffles me.

Best way to handle it, as far as my experience, is to bean dip and move on. Acknowledging it just gives them the satisfaction that you noticed.