‘Gibby,’ from ‘iCarly,’ has a real heart

MISSION VIEJO–Logan sat at the back of the gym, brooding.

Around him, kids from Camp Del Corazon – a place for children with heart disease – played basketball, grappled up a climbing wall and shoved each other through a spider web net.

They laughed and had fun. They asked Logan to join in.

But the 12-year-old, stricken with an underdeveloped heart, was angry. His best friend, Sean – who shared the same heart disease – was supposed to be there with him, but he wasn’t.

After a few minutes, Logan couldn’t take it anymore. He tore into the net where the children played, tossing the smaller kids to the ground.

Dr. Simon Brenner, head physician at County General, pulled him into his office.

“You think I’m being a jerk?” Logan said.

“I think you’re not letting yourself have a good time,” Brenner told Logan.

The boy broke down.

“It’s not a good time because Sean’s not here,” he said.

“Since we were babies, we had the same operations and we were on the same meds. He had never been to camp. I kept telling him how great it was. We made plans, talked and texted every day. He thought he could win the Kahuna’s fart contest. We were going to have so much fun.

“He had to go to surgery last week for a conduit replacement. … Died on the table.”

•••

Tonight, Noah Munck – best-known for his role as Gibby on Nickelodeon’s “iCarly” – will play Logan on NBC’s “ER,” the long-standing, Emmy-winning show that’s finishing its run this season.

The seventh-grader at La Paz Intermediate – who, like Logan, is 12 – didn’t always have the acting bug. Until the age of 9, all he cared about was skateboarding, playing football and soccer, and his big (he has four siblings) family.

His parents, Greg, 39, an executive pastor at Crossline Community Church in Mission Viejo and Kymbry, 38, instilled leadership and values in him. Dutifully, he tended to his younger siblings, keeping order when things got too rambunctious.

But three years ago, Noah signed with an agent and, within six months, he was a working actor. He landed a role in a play. Then a spot on a non-union Volkswagen commercial. Soon, he was a day player on “All of Us.” He booked the “Got Milk” commercial in 2007 and did a pilot for a CBS show called “1321 Clover.”

In 2007 he got cast as “Gibby” in Nickelodeon’s “iCarly“, the popular teen comedy. He plays a character who is physically immature for his age, slightly chubby and likes to dance shirtless.

Now he can’t go into public without being swarmed.

At Chuck E. Cheese, kids walk by coyly trying to confirm that Noah is who they think he is – Gibby.

At a recent trip to the mall, Noah drew the attention of a swarm of tween girls who squealed, “Oh my God, it’s Gibby!”

At his house – as he sat in his PJs playing Xbox with his buddies – the doorbell rang and a neighbor’s out-of-town guests wanted some face time with Gibby. And Noah, who describes fame as “awesome,” is cool with all of it.

“I only thought this happens in the movies.”

His popularity as an actor has made seventh grade normalcy elusive. He attended six weeks of school last fall, his teachers giving him homework to be finished on set. But, when he came back earlier this month, right before finals, he was facing failing grades. He crammed for two weeks and ended up with straight B’s.

“Sometimes I don’t want to go back because it feels like it’s the first day of school all over again,” he said. “Half of them don’t know my name and call me ‘Gibby.’ But my best friends see me as a normal kid.”

This summer he’ll be in “The Rainbow Tribe,” a movie featuring David James Elliott, and in “All About Steve,” with Sandra Bullock.

“He totally deserves everything,” said sister, Taylor, 11, who also has an agent but has been cast less frequently. “He’s done so much to get it. I’m not jealous at all. I’ll just follow in his footsteps.”

Siblings Micah, 8, Elijah, 7, and Ethan, 5, have all gotten picked up too and their mother, Kymbry, spends most days carting the kids to auditions.

Grandparents Mike and Jeanne Robinson live with the Muncks. At first they were able to help out but over the past few years, Jeanne – who has only one kidney, which continues to lose function – has become weaker.

For Noah, watching his nana’s decline has been emotionally tough.

“I’ve always loved my nana,” he said. “To see her getting sicker hurts me. The kids at Camp Del Corazon and Nana need organ transplants. It touches me and makes me sad.”

•••

Camp Del Corazon might be making a cameo reference in “ER,” but it’s an actual place, on Catalina Island. And it’s used by actual kids suffering from actual serious heart ailments.

Noah got to meet some of those kids while playing Logan and filming “ER.”

The camp gives kids with congenital heart disease a chance to live as if they didn’t have heart issues for five days. They get to run and play, swim and camp out, says Ronya Waters, the camp’s director of development.

“These children aren’t given a lot of opportunities in their regular life,” she said. “Most of them can’t play sports. And many have big scars. Our camp provides them an opportunity to be with their peers and to be normal.”

Each year about 30 percent of children are born with congenital heart disease. That’s more than the amount of children who will develop childhood cancers.

“People don’t think about children with heart disease,” she added. “This is helping us spread the word. The more people that can help the more funding we can get for the camp.”

For Noah playing Logan has been life changing. The actor with a totally healthy heart has become a spokesman for the camp.

He took on that real-life role after prepping for his on-screen role as Logan, a process that included watching a video made by 17-year-old Emily Brightwell, from Arizona.

Brightwell, who suffered from cardiomyopathy, and who had received a heart transplant, talked about her experiences at Camp Del Corazon, and how the camp had instilled her with hope. She hoped to come back to camp next year as a counselor.

“It’s hard to think your life has ended when you’re a teenager,” she says in the video. “To find out you’re dying is horrifying. I’m horrified to sleep at night because I don’t know if I’ll wake up. Everyone says I’m to paranoid.”

Emily died shortly after making that video.

“It really hurt me,” Noah says.

“They’re really normal kids, but they’re living with this disease where they face death everyday. Still, they’re so full of love and joy …

“These kids could have the world to be sad about, but they’re not.”

Contact the writer: 949-454-7307 or eritchie@ocregister.com