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A Fun Game

Alright, I’m on the lookout for taglines for the Boystown Tour, who wants to play? The winner will get TWO FREE TICKETS to the Boystown Tour? How fun is that?

Here are some of mine so far:

Boystown Tour: Giving it to you straight

Boystown Tour: An in-depth look at the neighborhood where you go to Eat Drink [...]

July 26th, 2010 | Category: Tour Related | 9 comments

Reminders, Recommendations and Revelations

Whew! We are in the dog days of summer huh? My goodness.

So here a few things to remember today:

1. Apply to win a Chicago Elevated Tour or a copy of Elaine Soloway’s book Division Street Princess! You can win one of these awesome prizes over at Me & My Shadow. Do it! Great site, great [...]

July 15th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Tour Related, Video | Leave a comment

Why Get a Tour Guide?

I’ve never really been one to go on tours. I know I know, it’s my job, but before it was my job, tours were not really my thing. Standing around listening to someone else talk for an hour – two hours? Meh..I’m a performer goldang it, it kills me to watch other people talk!

But then, [...]

June 3rd, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Tour Related | Leave a comment

Boystown Tour - The Final Word

Although I wrote and gave the Second City/Old Town Tour last year and also wrote and gave the Pedway Tour this winter, this Boystown Tour is my first real Chicago Elevated Tour. I have no one else’s tour to jive off of and I’m not talking about buildings that have been on tours since the [...]

May 10th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: Tour Related | 2 comments

Was Louis Sullivan Gay?

I’m preparing for the Boystown Tour, learning my gay history, doing interviews, learning…just general learning.

I went to an interview last week with a knowledgeable historian of Chicago’s gay community and as we were sitting there yapping about all kinds of things she throws this out:

“Gay history in Chicago doesn’t just start in the 1970’s after [...]

April 15th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Chicago Architecture, Tour Related | 12 comments

Chicago has been ELEVATED

Photo courtesy of bluekitchen.files.wordpress.com

One of my favorite things in the world is when a touree tells me he has never been to Chicago. It’s like a blank slate, an empty canvas for me to draw and paint on.

What’s even more fun, is to give a tour to someone who has never been to Chicago [...]

April 5th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Chicago Architecture, Personal, Tour Related | Leave a comment

Secrets of the Pedway

The Pedway Tour ends on Friday, so if you’ve been thinking about coming and haven’t yet, you better, or you WILL LOSE IT FOREVER.

No, you won’t really. It’ll be back next fall and you could always request a private tour whenever you want. But still. You should come.

But now that the tour is almost over, [...]

March 22nd, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Fun with Chicago, Tour Related, Video | 2 comments

What I can do for you

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I have to offer, what makes me different.  What it is that I can give to Chicagoans and tourists that is different and new. Certainly I thought about this when I started the company and I had a pretty good idea then, but it takes a few months [...]

March 8th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: Personal, Tour Related | 2 comments

The Gang Tours

photo courtesy of boston.com

This blog isn’t related only to Chicago, it’s also about being a tour guide and keeping up with the whirlwind of tour guide news (there is no whirlwind, there’s barely even a breeze, but I gotta keep it interesting for myself) and the new hulabaloo is the LA Gang Tours.

I couldn’t [...]

January 22nd, 2010 | Tags: , | Category: Tour Related | Leave a comment

It’s the Pedway or the Highway

When I decided to start my own tour company, I knew I wanted to do something different.

But the time and place of my decision to strike out on my own required that I flex a winter muscle. I needed a tour that could start in January and get me through to big tour time in [...]

January 18th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: Personal, Tour Related | 9 comments