So over the last 40 (41) days I've been sifting through old blogs, journals, photos, etc., sharing with friends and strangers alike some of my fondest TIFF-related memories, including zany things we've done, great films I've seen, and wonderful people I've met.
I have mentioned the gentleman featured in today's blog here and there, but I think it's time to put him in the spotlight...
In the mid-00's a young guy started volunteering at the Elgin. I knew him as Jonathan at first, Jon for a brief period of time, but of course the name in which he established his legacy is Jonny...
He was a volunteer on my team, a real superstar that we could trust to do a great job where ever we placed him. Always willing to take one for the team, together we've shouted at line-ups until we lost our voices, fended off the hoardes pushing towards the red carpet, and diffused many a crisis in between.
It wasn't all volunteer business, Jonny and I actually became friends. He was a friendly face year after year, coming in at recruitment sessions and into the Elgin volunteer lounge all smiles. He'd tell me about a new exciting marketing job he'd just got, or introduce me to a new volunteer he'd convinced to join the Elgin team (that being my buddy Jack - the guy behind Jonny in the photo above, I believe they went to college together). We'd get up to no good at Midnight Madness screenings (Jonny's king of the Rockstar energy drinks!) and party together at TIFF events.
After some years as a regular volunteer, Jonny finally made the leap to captaining and never looked back!
Captain Group Photo from 2011. Truly one of my favourite Elgin/WG captain teams.
As a volunteer captain, he was a continued pleasure to work with. I could always trust him to have my back, and I knew for certain the volunteers were having a good time under his command. During this time Jonny also met and began dating one of the FOHAs of the theatre.
Flash foward to the next festival and Jonny tells me he's now officially staff at the Elgin! I'm always a little conflicted when my beloved co-captains make the leap. I'm happy for them, and love the idea of having staff in the venue that truly understand the volunteer experience. But at the same time I feel I'm losing them to "the other side", and know that we won't be spending as much time together going forward.
I couldn't begrudge Jonny though... I'd been working with ticket line/inside rep Mathias for 13? 14?? festivals (we started at the Elgin the same year) and he'd become truly one of the greatest people to work with, I didn't think the inside volunteers could ever have such a great person to work with again... until I saw Jonny in action during TIFF14 as the new inside rep. It honestly made me want to be a regular inside volunteer, just so I could work on a team with Jonny again.
This year Jonny's returning as the daytime head rep of the Elgin and I couldn't be happier for him, he's going to rock it like he does everything else. Oh, and little lady he met at the Elgin, did I mention they got engaged???
Everything's coming up Jonny! Here's to you my friend :)
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| Candy, Jonny, and I at a TIFF Party (Elgin party?) |
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| MM line-up antics abound. |
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| This one is definitely an Elgin party... I love how Jonny's hair changes from year to year. |
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| More Elgin party antics (to the left of Jonny would be our night time Head Rep, the vivacious David Tomlinson) |
[I ran into Jonny and his fiancee a couple weeks ago and I told her if she ever needed embarrassing photos of Jonny for a wedding slide show to give me a call, even Jonny recalled that I seem to have an unusually large number of uber close-up sweaty, drunken party shots of him. He doesn't look very sweaty in the above, which means those must be saved on another harddrive... maybe I'll bust em out for TIFF50!]
And with that, I'm off to TIFF! Happy festival everyone!!!
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