Mr. Tony Bennett

I count myself lucky to have seen Tony Bennett not once, but twice in my life! On Sunday, Jason & I set out for Toronto to see the man, the legend, Tony.

I was keen on getting his autograph so we wandered around the Canon Theatre around 3:30, hoping to catch him on his way in to sound check. Several years of stalking celebrities at the Toronto Film Festival seems to have paid off. [Let me clarify that I use the term "stalking" very lightly...we don't actually stalk celebrities. We wait patiently at pre-determined locations where celebrities will be appearing.]

After checking out both entrances to the Canon, we decided to check down a dark & scary alleyway filled with stinking garbage left from the striking city workers. Ok, maybe it wasn't dark & scary but the garbage was real! We saw a sign that said "Stage Door" ...which I took as a good sign! We also saw 3 others hovering about with LP's and cameras in hand.



Less than 10 minutes later...the door opened and Tony walked out! I have to admit I was a little flaberghasted at first, but quickly composed myself and asked Mr. Bennett for an autograph. I had one page left in my autograph book for Tony to sign. At first, he ALMOST signed on the back of Jennifer Aniston's autograph. This wouldn't have been good since sharpies have some bleedthrough on the page. However, I didn't want to TELL Tony Bennett where to sign!! He quickly caught on and actually thumbed through my book! I was ecstatic to get an autograph. Jason, however, wasn't as lucky. We were both so enthralled that we didn't manage to snap any photos until the SUV had rolled away.

We returned for the concert and were treated to such an amazing performance. At 82 he still belts it out with such passion & finesse. I also think it's so adorable when he does his little dance moves during the musical interludes. During Shadow of Your Smile...he asked them to kill all the mics and sang "unplugged". Amazing!

After the show, we returned to the stage door to see if Jason could get an autograph. This time there were about 25 people waiting for Tony. When he came out, he was just great and signed everything that people had for him. This time, I was more together and was able to snap a few photos. I also was able to form words into sentences and told him I really enjoyed the show and he did an amazing job. (or something to that effect)

We left, 2 happy campers!