Nobody knows how to hustle as well as Shawn Gillie, and for all that relentless work ethic, as well as his hard-won notoriety in the Capital Region, he gets crowned as Dazzler of the Day, which I’m sure he’ll poke fun at, but which I intend with the most genuine of appreciation and earnest gratitude for all that he’s done for the community over the years. A man of many hats, and countless career endeavors (DJ, comedian, owner and founder of Gillie’s Getaways – see his website here), he dazzles with a hilarious wit, and has mastered the truly talented comedian’s hat-trick of turning his own personal heartaches into a story of survival, making everyone around him feel good even when he himself isn’t always feeling it. There’s a nobility in bringing that kind of joy to other people. There’s also something profoundly generous about him, which was apparent as I searched his FaceBook profile for photos – in almost all of them he was there with other people – a testament to his genuine attachment to and love of others. He can wisecrack his way out of it, but at the heart of everything he does is a desire to connect and make other people happy – and that’s more dazzling than just about anything else.
