Jon Favreau and the Complex Media and JoBlo.com party!!!

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Fifteen years ago, I met a dude named John Fallon in
Montreal, Canada. We hit it off, as we were both "young punks" who loved
movies, the X-Files and we immediately bonded on many levels. The first
movie we saw together in theaters was SWINGERS starring Jon Favreau and
Vince Vaughn. A couple of years later, I founded JoBlo.com because of my
love of movies and two years after that, John joined JoBlo.com as the horror
meister behind Arrow in the Head.

In the year 2000,
John and I flew out to COMIC CON for the first time and walked around like
kids in a candy store. That continued for years on end, until last night,
12 years later when we found ourselves at our own party (a
co-sponsorship with the great folks at Complex Media) in one of the most
surreal moments in my life as we stood there, beers in hand, watching
now-director Jon Favreau spinning the records as our ‘celebrity DJ’ while
actor Faizon Love egged folks on to dance.

Picture courtesy of Pacific Coast News

Seeing folks like Tom Morello, guitarist of RAGE AGAINST THE
MACHINE, rockin’ out in that crowd made the events that much cooler — I’d
seen them in concert more than a few times as a ‘young punk’. Even though I
know it’s a little "fanboy-ish", I had to approach him at one point, just to
thank him for being there and just to let him know that I dug his work. Very
chill dude even shared a shot with JimmyO!

I say all this, not from the "Hey look at me!" point of
view, but because as a fan of movies and the COMIC CON, last night felt like
a "full circle" moment for myself and the site. As we stood there at one
point, I looked over at the Arrow, we clinked beer bottles and finally had a
nice moment in which to appreciate where the site had come since those early
days.

What made the entire night that much more special, was that about 10 of the
JoBlo.com staffers were there as well, and somehow-someway…the lovely
Olivia Munn had made her way inside. Even though I’m a major chicken-shit
when it comes to approaching lady celebs, our trusty videographer, Rusty
Eltringham stopped her before she left, giving me the 30 seconds I needed to
"fanboy" talk to her (she knew of the site, woo-hoo!) and ask for a quick
pic. She obliged and even said something nice about the site, but I didn’t
hear her very well. Oh, and as she was leaving, I’m pretty sure I said "I
love you". No joke. What a maroon! Doh.

Anyway, I’ve included a few pictures from the evening, and
also wanted to thank El Mayimbe (aka Umberto Gonzalez) for organizing the
entire kick-ass event, as well as the peeps at Complex Media.

Hopefully this will become an annual thing and we can take
it to the next level in years to come.

Thanks to Jon Favreau as well, the class act that he is, for
not only coming down to hang with a few fanboys, but actually staying for
HOURS on end, even though he was originally only supposed to come in for a
few minutes. He literally ROCKED the joint and everyone appreciated it. I
remember "dancing" along to "Jump Around" from House of Pain, YMCA (yeah,
you got a problem with that?) and many others. And check out the awesome
IRON MAN design on top of his laptop (see top Favreau pic).

As he was walking out, I was able to shimmy over to him for
a second, introduce myself and thank him personally for giving the
party, and myself personally, a night that I won’t soon forget, and after
some of the harsher "health" issues that I’ve had to fight over the past few
years, this was one of the better things that could have happened to me and
the crew for our site. Yes…I’m verklempt.