Harper Talks Episode 30 – Andy-John Kalkounos: Harper College

Portrait Of Andy-John Kalkounos

Harper Talks Episode 30 — Andy-John Kalkounos (.mp3)

Andy-John Kalkounos is a restaurateur, actor, real estate professional, and currently serving as the Palatine Township Supervisor. Andy-John, a 2010 Distinguished Alumnus of Harper College, joins the podcast and discusses his varied roles, his Greek heritage, his experiences at Harper College as a piano and theater student, and the importance of being present in our lives.

Transcript

Harper Talks: The Harper Alumni Podcast
Show 30: Andy-John Kalkounos — Transcript

[00:00:00.090] - Brian Shelton
You. I'm Brian Shelton, and you're listening to Harper Talks, a coproduction of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Today on Harper Talks, I'm excited to speak with Andy-John Kalkounos, an actor, owner of Chicago Prime Restaurants and has served on the Harper College Educational Foundation annual fund committee. He's a 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, and he's joining me day in the recently remodeled WHCM Studios over here in Building A. Andy-John, thanks for being here today. How you doing?

[00:00:32.140] - Andy-John Kalkounos
What a pleasure. What a space. What a delight to be here. Thank you for having me.

[00:00:36.810] - Brian Shelton
I appreciate you coming over. Yeah, it's nice to have you're. The first guest for Harper Talks in our new studio, so it's fun to have you here.

[00:00:43.410] - Andy-John Kalkounos
A lot of happy faces on campus. Welcome back, kids.

[00:00:46.140] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. I must say, so many people are back on campus this semester. We've all been kind of shocked. Like, the online population has really dropped, and people want to be on campus, which makes it a fun place to be, right?

[00:00:57.000] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Yeah, it's good to see.

[00:00:58.320] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. So do I have this right? You started as a piano student.

[00:01:02.680] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Yeah, that's true. I was just reflecting on that. Nikki Weedle was my tutor, my piano teacher.

[00:01:10.610] - Brian Shelton
Yeah.

[00:01:11.060] - Andy-John Kalkounos
She did classes, and then we did private instruction. And as I was walking up, I was trying to remember the Performing Arts Center was built on top of the old studio where the pianos were right there. And that building is still there, and that's where I would play. And then this building is where I would run around. I was just a kid. I would climb on all the artwork and run around campus. I know every inch of the old campus. It's pretty cool. It's incredible. Now my son grabs the rim in the gym. He's 14. It's awesome.

[00:01:44.450] - Brian Shelton
When did you start?

[00:01:48.770] - Andy-John Kalkounos
I think I was about 10, 12 years old. Right around then. On campus. Yeah.

[00:01:54.260] - Brian Shelton
How does that connect with your long standing involvement with Harper?

[00:01:58.550] - Andy-John Kalkounos
I'll tell you when you start. As a young person, mom would drop me off in the Greek community. My parents are both born and raised in Greece, and we came here and settled in Palatine and go to the St. Nictario's Church here on Palatine Road in Roselle. And the Greek kids, as you might know, go to Greek school Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, from 430 to 730. And then on the other days, I would come here for piano, and so I'd come to campus, and that was, like, my thing. I didn't have to go to Greek school, so this was a delight. I was free, and I can do something. And so Harper was always something that I did that was a joy. And I'd play sports here on campus, and they'd always have summer camps, and there was always something going on on campus. Harper was always a tool belt for me.

[00:02:47.220] - Brian Shelton
That's really, really cool. And did you say your son goes here now, too?

[00:02:49.940] - Andy-John Kalkounos
No, he's a little guy. But we've done the summer camps, we've gone fishing in the ponds, even though we've ridden a four wheeler mini bike through the campus at some point. So, yeah, it's kind of home base. Everyone's really cool at Harper College and it's a great space. It's home.

[00:03:12.610] - Brian Shelton
My daughter is twelve, so I've been here for nine years now, and she knows every inch of this college and she'll crack me up because she'll come here for one of the summer camp things and she'll be like, I don't know, where this building I'm like, how do you not know where the building is? You could give tours of this campus now.

[00:03:27.060] - Andy-John Kalkounos
It's fun to explore. It's a campus, it's right here. You get to feel like you really are it's a community campus and that.

[00:03:33.120] - Brian Shelton
And you're a part of something. Yeah, absolutely. It's very cool. Very cool. That's great. That's fantastic. Why'd your parents? I mean, other than the obvious reasons, any move to the United States from Greece, why?

[00:03:44.390] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Well, there was a big migration out of that country to come and find a better life. Right. And so the American dream is alive and well at that time, and it still is today. And they found Chicagoland and this northwest community as a really strong, kind of a diverse, dynamic environment that welcomed that. And the Greek community was very strong here. It still is now. It's even flourishing now more than ever. And St. Nichtarios, our church has really done amazing things over the years in a philanthropic way, in a faith based way. So it's really an incredible community. Is great?

[00:04:20.450] - Brian Shelton
That's a great story. Now, so you didn't go to Harper College as a student, you went to Butler, right?

[00:04:25.490] - Andy-John Kalkounos
I did, but I came back as a student to Harper.

[00:04:27.930] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. So, yeah, I was going to ask. So you went to Butler, you got a degree in business and then you came back here and did acting. Yeah, yeah. Tell me, what's that journey? How's that work?

[00:04:38.330] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Right? I went here to Plum Grove, Elgin Academy, and Fremd. And then Marion Jordan was one of my schools. And then I went back to Butler University for undergrad. And then I came to Harper. When I came back from school and I auditioned for, I think it was West Side Story, I read about Mary Jo Willis, known her just by name. And when I heard she was doing West Side Story and that was her swan song, that was her last directorial work, and I said, well, that's kind of cool, and West Side Story is kind of cool, and I've never done that. And I did some theater at Butler. I kind of studied in that as a kind of a minor area of study and then some theater in high school. And I said, that'd be kind of cool to do some community theater. And I auditioned, I got the part of Bernardo with Mary Jo, and I got a real opportunity. Then I took some acting classes with Laura PULIO Colbert. And I got to tell you, the instruction here, I got to tell you, blew it away from what I've done at Butler University. It was incredible.

[00:05:50.070] - Brian Shelton
That's great.

[00:05:50.740] - Andy-John Kalkounos
I tell a lot of people, take classes here, really? Take classes here and go for it. It's really good.

[00:05:56.050] - Brian Shelton
Laura's a hoot.

[00:05:57.110] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Oh, my God. She's incredible. She's a gift, really. She's intense.

[00:06:02.830] - Brian Shelton
We did a radio drama, was it two years ago? And she was directing it, and all the faculty in the communication arts department were the talent. It was like, how cool to be directed by one of your colleagues and see them do their thing.

[00:06:17.450] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Her work, her process. She's special. She's special.

[00:06:21.300] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, it's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. I was going to say you're an actor. You were or are a township supervisor?

[00:06:28.350] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Currently. Currently a township supervisor into the elected role. Okay.

[00:06:32.300] - Brian Shelton
You're a restaurant owner, you're a real estate developer. How do you make all that work in your life? How do you do all that?

[00:06:41.230] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Look, there's no formula. You wing it. Right. There's always something that's failing at this moment, and you're kind of juggling. You're spinning plates right now. It's like you try to manage your day. I kind of have a process that I follow, and everything's in folders, and it's folders in my phone. It's folders in physical form. So every day you kind of chop up your morning. Morning time is a little bit of this, and sometimes you kind of have a fire to put out, so you kind of put something on the burner and kind of just juggle. But yeah, I kind of like that I have to perform at a higher pace, otherwise I kind of flounder. So I found that if I keep moving fast, I'll be productive. And I turned out to figure out a way to make it work, but it's really not always as glamorous as I make it look (laughs) ...A little bit more stressful than I anticipated.

[00:07:29.400] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, I think we're definitely fellow travelers in that respect. If I'm not busy and going full bore, you can forget about it. Yeah. No use to anybody. That's really interesting because I was going to say doing everything else and then being an elected township, that's not enough.

[00:07:47.590] - Andy-John Kalkounos
It makes me better. Yeah, the township really makes me better at my private sector work. It really does. It's a responsibility. It's stress, but it also kind of keeps you focused. Like, I got to be a good guy. I got to do good stuff. It kind of keeps you active and on the right path and doing good things. And boy, the exposure, the things you learn there and how government works and how the funding happens. Okay. And trying to connect people. I'm doing it anyway at the restaurants. I'm connecting people. I'm part of the community. I'm helping people put things together, and before you know it, you're like, wait a minute. Hey, guys. And it became kind of natural, and so the boring part, really lame part, honestly, was the campaigning.

[00:08:29.510] - Brian Shelton
Sure.

[00:08:30.450] - Andy-John Kalkounos
That was kind of unexpectedly less fun than I anticipated.

[00:08:35.020] - Brian Shelton
Unexpectedly less fun, right?

[00:08:39.430] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Yeah. We juggle. We juggle. We've got a great, great staff. The people that work with us, both township and at the restaurants. We've got people that have been with us for 23 years, 20 years. Incredible people. So there's no chance any of this works without real people.

[00:08:56.760] - Brian Shelton
Yeah.

[00:08:57.440] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Family. This is it. My dad's with us. We got Shannon. She's been with us 23 years. Julio one of our chefs, 19 years. Julio is 22. Ruben just retired, 25. I mean, these are guys that are like lifetime.

[00:09:13.010] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. Well, that says a lot about you and your family as a business owner, though, that people want to stay with you for a long time.

[00:09:19.880] - Andy-John Kalkounos
It's mutual, believe me. Yeah, we got a good crew. Well, okay.

[00:09:23.010] - Brian Shelton
How does the Greek boy start at an Italian restaurant?

[00:09:25.900] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Well, long story short, we wanted to open up a flag in the city, and the people that we relocated the Chicago prime steakhouse because my dad and a couple of folks were developing the corner there, and we wanted to anchor it with something. And so when we were approached by the folks from a Rosebud that ended up purchasing the land over at the steakhouse at the time, we said, why don't you take this one, and we'll go there? And then we moved the steakhouse to where we are now.

[00:09:57.940] - Brian Shelton
Okay.

[00:09:58.400] - Andy-John Kalkounos
And then the old location where the Italian is became a Rosebud. And so then seven years later, after we survived the 08/09, it was crazy. I said, hey, we should open up in the city, because we survived it. Now we're like, hey, we should grow. And so dad's like, yeah, we should be downtown Chicago. We should be in the city. So I called the city guy Rosebud. I go, hey, why don't you let me know what you got in the city, since, you know, everybody down there? And he said, why don't you come down and talk? And so he talked, and he said you know, if I'm not doing these types of numbers in the suburbs, I don't want to be there. Why don't you take your old building back and stay in the burbs? I go, I want to open up another steakhouse. I can't do it down the street from my current steakhouse. I want to be downtown. He goes, look, I'm the downtown guy. You're the suburban guy. You stay out there. I'll stay down here. How about keep it Italian? And I go, well, I don't really know Italian food like, we know steaks. And then before you know it he goes, I'll give you this. I'll help you with that. I'll give you my chefs, and then I called Vic Giannotti from Giannotti 's restaurant in Lawrence and Cumberland. I go, what do you think? He goes, do it. You'll do great kid. So I grabbed, I bought the building back from Rosebud, and that's how it went down. And so we kept it Italian.

[00:11:11.530] - Brian Shelton
So that worked out for you?

[00:11:13.270] - Andy-John Kalkounos
It's been a struggle. It's been a struggle. It's been a struggle, yeah. Especially through the COVID, but even before the COVID it's been a little wild ride. But we're still here, thank God. And thank you to the community for supporting us, sincerely. It's been incredible.

[00:11:26.390] - Brian Shelton
How did the family get into the restaurant business to begin with?

[00:11:29.550] - Andy-John Kalkounos
My dad came back from Greece like a lot of Greeks. They came back from the old country as peeling potatoes in an alley in Brooklyn. And then he came to Fondelac, Wisconsin, of all places, and worked in a restaurant and opened up a diner and then moved to Chicago, worked at Greek Town Euro, and then moved out here and bartended at the Bovis House, Dunton House. And then he was a bartender at the Prime Table restaurant and bought The Prime Table. Yeah.

[00:12:02.150] - Brian Shelton
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. All right. That's really cool. That's awesome. Yeah. I did culinary school for a while and worked in several restaurants, so I know the business not the way that you do, but I am familiar, and it's hard. It's a tough business because customers, all they see is what's happening, and that's all you want them to see. They see what's happening in the experience. They see the magic. But you're behind the scenes and you're like, oh, my gosh, I need a new dishwasher. I need a new bus boy or whatever. Right? And you've got to making that stuff happen.

[00:12:32.690] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Or I need an actual piece of equipment, I need a new machine dishwasher. What do you do? The machine's broken. That doesn't happen in a day, and it has to.

[00:12:44.980] - Brian Shelton
It has to, right?

[00:12:45.290] - Andy-John Kalkounos
So you become a producer, right?

[00:12:46.820] - Brian Shelton
That's right. Yeah. So speaking of becoming a producer, you've done some acting in Chicago as well. I was looking at your IMDb page. You've been on some shows. What was that like for you? Are you still doing any of that?

[00:12:58.410] - Andy-John Kalkounos
We still I mean, you're on stage every day. Like you today, you're performing, right? I'm on stage every day, but the acting muscle is rusty. Right. So I've got to stay sharp. So if they give you an audition and I still have an agent who's been very good to me and believed in me, Don Underwood. And so he'll send me out on stuff, and he's like every now and again, he'll say, do you want to be a dad in a Tide commercial? I'm like, no, man, that's not me. I don't want to sell stuff.

[00:13:27.730] - Brian Shelton
Good residuals, though.

[00:13:28.690] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Come on. You know what? I've learned that. I did a lottery commercial. I paid better than anything. I was like, that's crazy. I should have done more of this. He said, yeah, goofball. But then he know you want to be a fireman? And I said, yeah. And then I tried out for something that I didn't know what it was. It was Chicago Fire. I didn't know it was a big deal. My wife did and she said, Chicago Fire, that's a big show. I watch it. Chicago PD. Chicago Fire. I said, yeah, so that was really funny. And then I had to look it up on YouTube because I don't watch a lot of like I know the Tyler Kinney guy and all this other stuff. So we had to look up the name. She knew everyone, of course. And that was a kind of a good opportunity. And I had fun playing that role. Lieutenant Colonino.

[00:14:10.310] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. That show and that franchise there has been really good for the Chicago film and television market. Put a lot of people to work, really help expand the industry. Because I mean, you know, growing up here, the Chicago was kind of a boomtown for doing film here. All the John Hughes stuff and all that kind of stuff. But then it kind of died off in the late ninety s and through the early 2000s. So it's pretty cool to see all the TV and film stuff happening.

[00:14:34.070] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Yeah, you seem to know a lot about it. That's cool.

[00:14:36.640] - Brian Shelton
It's my business. Yeah, right on.

[00:14:38.680] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Cool. Yeah. Studio City, down on Roosevelt Road. Credidio family has that property. And now Cinespace is Alex Pisios and that's I guess the second largest film studio in North America now.

[00:14:54.100] - Brian Shelton
Yeah.

[00:14:54.290] - Andy-John Kalkounos
So they're doing big production, of course, last three months they have the strike going on. But incredible stuff. Chicago is a great film town now.

[00:15:01.300] - Brian Shelton
Yeah.

[00:15:01.620] - Andy-John Kalkounos
And so I told Laura, now you should be doing this because she's an amazing actor.

[00:15:09.880] - Brian Shelton
Yes, she is.

[00:15:10.450] - Andy-John Kalkounos
And she knows amazing actors and all the people that she coaches with. I said, you guys should be doing this. So it's a great opportunity for everyone to take a look at, you included.

[00:15:23.030] - Brian Shelton
I never can remember my lines. You can ask Laura that, but I.

[00:15:27.990] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Wing it just like I do in the dining room.

[00:15:30.950] - Brian Shelton
There's a movie called State in Maine, I don't know if you've ever seen it's, about making movies. And the director asked the actor, he says, do you know your lines? And he says, I do, but I don't know what order they come in.

[00:15:38.810] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Yeah, that's great. I'm going to use that. Nobody will remember that last.

[00:15:43.870] - Brian Shelton
It was Alec Baldwin actually is who. He was talking to. It's good stuff. It's good, you know, and being in the restaurant business, you know, going back to what we were talking about, you know, with the acting, people just don't realize how much of a show it is and what's happening there. And you are a character when you're doing that, when you're running a business.

[00:16:04.360] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Like that, you can't fake it. You can't fake it, though. It's just like being on stage. If we're looking at each other on stage and there's an authentic moment, people feel it. And when you're in service, if you're giving them, I'm happy you're here, and I'm grateful that you walk through these doors and I'm delighted to serve you. They feel it and people love that and they want to come back for that. If you're like inconvenienced because you're hot and it's the patio, they chose the patio to sit outside. And because you're warm, I share this with the staff and I share that moment. I'm hot. It's 90 degrees.

[00:16:41.060] - Brian Shelton
Right?

[00:16:41.440] - Andy-John Kalkounos
But when you go out there and you let them know you're hot, when you go out there flat as a performer, and you go to the table like that, the table feels oh, yeah, absolutely. They know you don't want to bring them tabasco right now. You forgot to ask them. They don't want to inconvenience you. Well, guess what? I don't need to go back there, because when I go to that other restaurant, they love taking care of me.

[00:17:05.820] - Brian Shelton
That's right.

[00:17:06.230] - Andy-John Kalkounos
I feel safe and comfortable there.

[00:17:08.280] - Brian Shelton
And so many people it seems like so many people in the restaurant business don't get that concept.

[00:17:12.810] - Andy-John Kalkounos
They don't.

[00:17:13.440] - Brian Shelton
It blows me away.

[00:17:15.690] - Andy-John Kalkounos
They're quick to criticize you as a guest. It's unbelievable. It really is. It's human nature. Right. But I think it's a culture. It's a culture. It starts with the fish stinks from the head. Right? If we're grateful.... My dad is like the ultimate host. I mean, he is a true he wakes up in a suit. A guy gets up. (laughs)

[00:17:39.890] - Brian Shelton
I love it.

[00:17:41.190] - Andy-John Kalkounos
He really is. I mean, I'm a far cry from George, right?

[00:17:44.710] - Brian Shelton
Is he still at the restaurant a lot?

[00:17:45.840] - Andy-John Kalkounos
He's there every day.

[00:17:46.630] - Brian Shelton
Yeah.

[00:17:46.940] - Andy-John Kalkounos
09:00, he's there in a suit and he's at the post waiting for people to walk in. We don't open till four. Yeah, but he's grateful. He's at the door, he says, hello, thank you for coming. I mean, it starts there and everyone sees it and it's in us, so there's no joke. We're genuinely happy that you're there.

[00:18:07.770] - Brian Shelton
That's fantastic. Hey, speaking of your dad, you started a scholarship in his name.

[00:18:11.860] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Yeah.

[00:18:12.240] - Brian Shelton
Can you tell me about that?

[00:18:13.280] - Andy-John Kalkounos
While he's alive and well? Wanted some praise. Looking forward to an inheritance one day.

[00:18:20.750] - Brian Shelton
Dad, I started a scholarship in your name.

[00:18:23.180] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Dad, you're listening? Dad?

[00:18:25.180] - Brian Shelton
It's not a memorial scholarship.

[00:18:27.270] - Andy-John Kalkounos
It's a black Cadillac. I wanted dad, no. So the scholarship is under the George Kakounos Chicago Prime Restaurants Scholarship for Culinary Arts students and to help them help students get through it, because I was involved in the educational foundation here on campus, and basically that scholarship exists to help students to finish, to get involved. It's for second year and beyond students, to help them finish. Right. It's to just basically help them get through their expenses here in school. And now we've got quite a few dollars and the story of how it got funded was hysterical. Do you remember that?

[00:19:12.690] - Brian Shelton
No, I don't know.

[00:19:17.570] - Andy-John Kalkounos
There was the former president of the school, and what we did he was...

[00:19:23.720] - Brian Shelton
Are you talking about Ken? Ken Ender?

[00:19:25.860] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Ken was a graduate of what was it? Virginia Commonwealth.

[00:19:32.510] - Brian Shelton
You're right, right.

[00:19:33.260] - Andy-John Kalkounos
And Virginia Commonwealth was playing Butler in the finals. It was final Four or something like that. And we were at the restaurant and we were busting each other's chops and I said, hey, I don't know, we had some sort of friendly banter. And we said something about, I'll put a scholarship up if this happens. And he says, well, I'll wait tables and help you fund it if we lose. I said, all right, you're on. And it kind of started like a friendly little joke, and all of a sudden I said, you know what? We're going to do that. And that's what we did. And then he helped serve tables. Of course Butler won and of course he helped serve tables and he helped fundraise to help turbo the donations. And it was just an amazing gesture on behalf of and look at how elegant the college has always done things so nice for everyone in the community and all for the benefit of the students.

[00:20:31.500] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. And that story does not surprise me at all because it's very much Ken Ender. I was very fortunate to start here while Ken was still here, and he still checks up on me, which is like just the beautiful thing. I'll get a random email from Ken and he'll say, I heard about X, Y and Z. Congratulations, good job. And it's like, wow, that's really yeah. He's a gem of a guy.

[00:20:54.720] - Andy-John Kalkounos
He's done he's done incredible things. Yeah.

[00:20:56.620] - Brian Shelton
Well, it's cool that you have the scholarship, though, and that you're able to give back to this institution. And as faculty here I really appreciate that, because our students need it. They need the help, they need the financial help to make this stuff happen. And the college does wonderful things with these students and with the community itself as well. I thank you for doing that. So I ask everybody on the show, all the alumni, I have this huge collection now of the same question of what advice would you give to someone who's currently going to Harper? Like, what would you tell them to do? If you could sit down with every student who went to school here, what would be your advice? And I know that might be a little hard.

[00:21:42.510] - Andy-John Kalkounos
I don't feel like I'm in a position to give great advice, but I'll tell you, my offer is to be fully present. Right. What I think I've been able to do with my corporate A.D.D, if you want to jokingly call it that, is, I'm fully present with you right now.

[00:22:01.240] - Brian Shelton
Right.

[00:22:01.770] - Andy-John Kalkounos
I'll be fully present when I go to the township after this. I'll be fully present with my children. I'll be fully present at the restaurant. There is nothing I won't be focused on when I'm doing it.

[00:22:12.920] - Brian Shelton
Right.

[00:22:13.280] - Andy-John Kalkounos
So if you're in class, you choose to be there. You're spending a few bucks there. Somebody helped you to get here today. Just sit there and pay full attention. Put your phone down. Turn it off. When you're at dinner, put the phone down. Dang it. Put the phone down at dinner, gang. I see it every day, and I see beautiful families, and I see them put their phones down, and I see them talk, and it's beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. And then I see families that have their phones out, and that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. They might be making travel plans because their airline just bumped.

[00:22:47.310] - Brian Shelton
Sure.

[00:22:47.570] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Okay. So I'm not judging. I'm not judging, but I do see some incredible things happen when people are fully present. And a lot of that being present I learned in the Black Box Theater right downstairs at Harper College. And that being present is part of the tool belt that you learn in school, in speech, in debate, here at Harper, or wherever you choose to go after here. So I think that's all I have to offer. That's it.

[00:23:23.680] - Brian Shelton
Well, it's great advice because it is the key, and we see it a lot myself as well. You get distracted by whatever else is going on, but if you can be 100% focused on what it is you're supposed to be doing at that point in time and really give it your all, and then you move on to the next thing. Right. Because you're busy people.

[00:23:41.830] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Right. Not done. But I'm able to move on fully.

[00:23:46.290] - Brian Shelton
Right. I've accomplished this task. Now I'm moving on to the other thing and be present about it. And I would also say I have a colleague here. I've talked about this on the show a couple of times, so I feel like a broken record. But I have a colleague named Jeff Pryzbylo here who maybe you know jeff.

[00:24:00.240] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Okay. Jeff's a monster. He's amazing. Yeah. I've known Jeff for many years.

[00:24:05.600] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. It doesn't get any better than working with Jeff.

[00:24:07.800] - Andy-John Kalkounos
He's speech debate person.

[00:24:12.030] - Brian Shelton
They did a they named a classroom after him over here on campus. And I've told the story a couple of times, so again, forgive me, but he gave the speech that really touched me. He talked about, if you're going to be here, if you're going to be at Harper, be at Harper.

[00:24:26.170] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Right on.

[00:24:26.840] - Brian Shelton
Be a hawk. Give it 100%. Be all about this place. Be involved, do everything right. And I take that with me. And I feel cheesy when I say it. If you're going to be here, you need to be a hawk. And they look at me like I'm crazy. But.

[00:24:43.930] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Where was that speech presented?

[00:24:46.560] - Brian Shelton
Over here on campus. They named a classroom after Jeff.

[00:24:50.020] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Okay. When he received the classroom naming.

[00:24:55.690] - Brian Shelton
Yeah.

[00:24:56.020] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Okay. Oh, wow. Yeah.

[00:24:57.390] - Brian Shelton
And it was nice. It was a great speech.

[00:25:00.050] - Andy-John Kalkounos
Well, it better be. It better be from him. Damn it. Damn it. Pryzbylo. You better deliver! (laughs)

[00:25:06.710] - Brian Shelton
You better deliver. (laughs)

[00:25:07.990] - Andy-John Kalkounos
And we recorded it for posterity. (laughs)

[00:25:13.650] - Brian Shelton
That's great. Well, I thank you so much for coming. This was so much fun to talk to you. I got to get over the restaurant sometime soon to both of them and really enjoyed having you on the show and hope that we can get you back again sometime. Thank you so much, Andy-John Kalkounos is a champion of Harper College, and you might find him on your favorite TV show if you look around enough. If you're enjoying Harper Talks, please subscribe. And while you're at it, rate and review us so that others might find us. Harper Talks is a co-production of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Our show is produced by the lovely and talented Shannon Hynes. This episode was edited by Maliha Callasier, and our online content producer is Matt Byrne. Our theme music was created by Aidan Cashman. I'm Brian Shelton. Thanks for listening.