Joe Gilotti: Thriving Against the Odds – Fostering Inclusivity and Independence in the Autism Community

Welcome to Why Not Me the World?
Podcast hosted by Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee.
Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some
will make you laugh.
Some will make you cry.
Real life people who will inspire and show that you
are not alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World.
Today's guest is Joe Gilotti. He's here to tell us
about his journey as an autistic individual working at the
Prospector Theater and how it has transformed his life. He
will also share his experiences and insights working at the
theater and how it has impacted him. Thanks for coming on.
Yes, thank you for having me.
Oh it's my pleasure. Happy to have you here. So
tell me when was you diagnosed autistic?
I first found out when I was I think I
was about nine years old. And back at that time,
I believe the term that they used was Asperger's right.
And now it's just all part of the white spectrum
that is autism.
Sure, So what year was that?
Oh? I was nine years old, so that would have
been two thousand and three.
I think, yeah, that makes sense.
That would probably be the time that the doctors started
putting the autistic label on that.
Yes, I think that as I recall it about right.
Okay, So what are some of your childhood memories when
you was diagnosed? Do you remember some of the things
that you went through.
That's it's an interesting question. I didn't at that time.
I didn't think of it as a big disruption in
my life. I didn't think of it as something that
was really going to change very much. I was more
aware that I was different than others in a way
that I hadn't really thought about before.
Okay, when you say different, what's your definition of different?
Because everyone's definition is of course different.
That's a good point. As a kid, I struggle to
pick up on certain social cues and even this and
even to this day, I sometimes still am having a
hard time with that. I'd like to think I've made
significant improvements over the years, and I've had a lot
of techniques to help me understand these things that these
nuances that might come easily to sol and Crew does
not have autism.
Sure, okay, So what was your school years, like especially
your primary and of course your middle school years.
Middle school was tough because I was I was different
than most others. Occasionally I was singled out. It was
which was you know, it was not fun. Yeah, one
guy in particular, you know, I'm not going to mention
his name, obviously, but he was you know, he bullied
a lot of people, but I was always his you know,
his favorite, right and he was. Actually it's a little
ironic because because of him I am. I have brought
a lot of thick skin, and this kind of stuff
that he used to bully me for doesn't bother me
anymore because now I'm in a place in my life
where I am happy, and I'm doing a lot of
incredible work that he didn't believe that I would ever
be able to accomplish. I almost welcome the the minute
possibility that one day, while I'm working at the Prospector,
he could walk in to see a movie. I would
be tempted to look him in the eye and tell
him you are wrong, look at me, look where I am,
look what I'm doing, and look what I will continue
to work lush.
Yeah, that's great.
So your middle school was a little tougher how did
that transition to your high school years?
High school, Well, I went to John Reeve Middle School
in the Reading and Eastern Community, and then I went
to Joel Barlow High School for my first year. That
was the public school in my town. It was not
a good fit because the workload and the clash sizes
were just too overwhelming. It transferred to a smaller private
school in Norwalk, Wiston Predatory, where I graduated from, and
that was a much better school because that was more
tailored to you know, everybody learns differently, especially people with disabilities,
and I found while I was at this school, Wisdom Pratt,
they tailored their style of teaching to fit individual students.
There wasn't just one way of teaching, and I think
that really helped me.
Okay, so what are some if you have any of
your positive things that come from your school years.
I think when I started at Winston Prep that those
are the years of school I really enjoyed because I
was among the people who were like me and I
became really good friends with them. I would get involved
in a bunch of extracurricular activities. I was part of
the fencing team, I was part of the rowing team,
I did the theater productions every year. Well, I mean,
I've been doing theater since middle school, but it was
really at Western Prap that it was the most fun.
Once you finally got through your school years and out
of high school, did you have any plans or did
you go to college at all?
I did. I got into nowa community college and that
was a two year program where I went on and
got my associate's degree in graphic design. And it was
while I was at Norway that I started working at
the Prospector.
Okay, you know I.
Would have my classes in the morning, and then I
would get out at three o'clock. I would drive back
home to Ridgefield and start my worships at four o'clock.
Okay, So how's the family. Did you get good support
from them? And as that continued through now, oh, absolutely good.
My mother is a doctor, my father was a psychotherapist.
A lot of my family actually she's in the medical field.
My sister she has her BCBA in collegy. I believe
she works with children on the spectrum. And then there's me,
you know, the one who did not pursue science for medicine.
I went into a graphic design.
Well, that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that.
I love what I do and the graphic design really
came to be very helpful when I started at the
Prospector because shortly after I started there, I started doing embroidery.
Okay, and actually I have.
My broidery machine here.
In my office in my Okay, that's great.
Tell us a little bit about the Prospector, what happened there,
How did you get there, and how did it develop
for you?
Well, I started there. I first found out about it
before they had officially opened. They were in the process
of gathering more employees and gearing up for the grand opening.
Okay.
I had my job interview in mid October of twenty fourteen.
And I remember I went in for my job interview
and I had a lot of artwork with me that
I art that I had done.
Okay.
Most of it centered around movies that I really like,
like Star Wars for example. I'm a big Star Wars fan.
Okay.
I had this artwork in my portfolio, a lot of
the Star Wars artwork that I had done. I walked
in and I met brad Ela Gamba, who is our
head of HR, and I met like I Synteenie, who
at that time was our director of development. They both
greeted me from my interview and they were wearing Star
Wars themed sneakers. Okay, I thought to myself, okay, this
is a good sign. I showed them the artwork that
I had done and showed what I could bring to
the table working at the theater with graphic design, because
I would see all the you know, all those posters
that you see on the marquees at the theater basically
showing you know what's coming soon or what's now playing.
And I thought to myself, what if I could put
together designs for these movies that we could then display,
you know, as an idea that I brought to the table.
So my interview went really well. They brought me back
for a follow up interview. I had some more artwork
with me. I had this acrylic painting of Darth Vader
that I had actually just finished. It was actually here
at this follow up interview that I met Val Jensen,
our founder and visionary. I had just shown Brad and
Mike this Darth Vader painting that I had done, and
Thal kind of poked in just to say hello, and
I was introduced to her. They had me show her
this painting that I had done. First words that thou
ever said to me beyond the Hi, how are you
nice to meet you? First words she said to me
when she saw that painting where oh, you're a high nice.
I thought she was being nice, so we laughed. I
thought she was being nice until at the end of
the interview they asked, would you like to work here?
I said I would love to and they said, well,
welcome a order. So that was for me really exciting.
I had a job. I was I was in college,
I needed a job to kind of sustain myself, and
I had one. I didn't know at that time what
it was going to lead to, but now I'm more
aware of how impactful it is on the community around us,
and you know, people with disabilities, because it's really become
something of a beacon, a prospector for people with disabilities
who are looking for meaningful employment. And one of the
moments that really I noticed it was really impactful in
other people's lives. A couple of years ago, we hired
a young employee with down syndrome, and in working with
her since she joined, she has just the bubbliest personality.
It was really when and I saw her coming downstairs
after her job interview, and she was really excited, you know,
she got a job. And then she walked out the
front doors and her father was had just pulled up
into the driveway to greet her, and I could see
her just jumping up and down, cheering really excitedly. You know,
she ran over, She ran and jumped into her dad's
arms and he hugged her. And that was the moment
that I kind of realized we are really having a
really big impact on people's lives, that they're so excited
to work here and they love what the Prospector can offer.
Because you know, when I first got hired, before we
even opened, I had no idea what it was going
to lead to. I was just excited and happy to
have a job.
Sure. Sure, So how long have you been there?
I started My first day was October twenty ninth of
twenty fourteen. I'm still there now, so I'm approaching about
coming up in ten years.
That's awesome way to go.
How have you seen yourself develop over the years since
your first beginning days of working there?
I have really seen looking back, I have seen that
I've really grown in a way that I didn't expect.
I started on the embroidery that we do there for
the hats and the stars and all the stuff that
the merchandise that we sell. Today, I'm running a small
and muridery business out of my house and it's just
been something I never imagined doing. The art of the
profit design work that I'm doing has really been great
at the theater. I'm also very much into cosplay, which
has come into a big thing at the theater. Whenever
we have these big opening weekend events for big blockbuster movies,
anything by saying Marvel, Disney, Star Wars, anything like that,
I would put together a costume and I would walk
around the lobby as one of these characters from one
of these movies. And it's really fun to interact with
the guests who come in, especially the kids. For example,
we have one of the Spider Man films a while back,
and you know, the kids come in expecting to see
Spider Man on the screen. They are just blown away
when they see Spider Man walking around in the lobby,
interacting with you know, the kids with their families, you know,
posing for pictures, and that's just something I really love
doing because it's just so fun to see the kids
get really excited about wanting to come in.
Oh.
Absolutely, that's a really good thing. What is one of
the things that you look at that's a major impact
because you can see what it's done by working there.
By what you mean, what's one of the biggest impacts
I've seen?
Well, an impact that you've seen, or maybe something this
impacted you that happened only because you started working there.
Well, for one thing, when I first started, I was
still living at home, but now I've since moved into
my own apartment right down the street from the theater. Okay,
and so you know, I'm an independent homeowner and not
something imagined I would have been able to achieve if
I hadn't gotten the skillfuls and just bi a better
sense of confidence in myself from working at the theater.
Sure, now, with any theater or any place that you
were once you start getting comfortable there and you have
other people working around you that are comfortable, it can
create a good friendship with those that you work with.
So you mentioned that there was some people with disabilities
that work there, So how has that changed how you
look at others as well as how you look at
yourself in trying to help those that you work with, because,
as you know, sometimes the outside world isn't quite as
accepting in the first initial stages as you can be.
Oh yes, of course, because you know the world we
live in. You know we've has come a long way
in terms of inclusion and acceptance, but you know we
still have a ways to go. Like working at the
Prospector and just seeing I think it's the fact that
you know, we're all kind of in the same boat
in that we all want to be accepted in this world,
despite the fact that we might have some differences from say,
other people. I found that there's this sense of real
This is really the sense of community at the Prospector
that I haven't really seen much else places. It's just
something that how can I say this, It's it's like,
you know how you always hear people who say, at
this business, we're not just a business, We're a.
Family, right.
It truly feels like that because a lot of these
people that I've worked with, and I've been there since
we opened, so I've seen all the people that have
come gone and the people who started around the time
I did, who were still there today, and it really
does feel like a family because despite how different we
may be, we're also very similar and we have a
lot of similar interests, a lot of similar passions, a
lot of similar goals for life. And I think it's
very easy to coexist and get along with people who
are very much similar to the way you are. In fact,
there's often a joke I make among some of my
coworkers who I've become really good friends with. Sometimes, you know,
we'll get together outside of work, and with all the
camaraderie that goes on between us, I sometimes as it
just completely as a joke, I'll just say to them,
you know, it's a wonder we manage to get any
work done. The sense that you know, that sense that
you know when you work with friends it could be
a little distracting. That is actually what strengthens us, is
that we're so coordinated and that we kind of balance
each other out very well that it actually, in a way,
it increases the productivity rather than causes distractions.
That's awesome.
When you can work in a place where the employees
call each other family, that is just so good and
definitely a plus.
Oh absolutely. In fact, you know, some people that are there.
You know, their siblings work there. One of my coworkers Andres,
his brother Santiago joined recently, or it could have been
the other way round. I actually am trying to remember
who started first. I know one brother started there and
then shortly after the other brother joined shortly after. You know,
it's a big community that comes together under one roof
to you know, achieve this this mission that we have,
which is, you know, to provide competitive and inclusive employment
for people with disabilities. And it's not just the theater itself,
but with the gourmet popcorn that we sell at the
theater and on our website, and it's just really just
you know, business is just skyrocketed.
Oh that's just so good to hear. So you've been
working there for ten years, You've grown in ways that
you didn't think was possible. So what do you see
in the next five years.
It's it is a little hard to think that far ahead,
but you know, when everything I've had has been very consistent.
But I think, I imagine five years from now, I
may still be working there because I love what I do,
and I love what I do because I get to
do what I love, and I think that's what makes
it so on. For lack of of a more graceful termay, yeah,
if you do what you love, it doesn't feel like.
Work exactly exactly.
So it's very fulfilling and very fun.
That's so good.
So now you talk about the family, the family of
the people that you work with and have worked with.
You've developed great relationships.
So how about the other family family that put this together?
How's that work on a daily basis?
You mean with like the people that put together put
the theater together?
Yes, I think.
Well, for one thing, I owe so much to Valerie Jensen,
our founder Visionary, because she came up with this whole concept.
She at that time, before there was a prospector she
was I believe. The story was she had been working
with an organization here in Ridgefield called Sphere, and her
sister Hope, who was down syndrome, was a member of
this group and it was all these kind of activities
and things that were put together for the members of
the group, many of them on disabilities. And over the
course of her time there, val came to realize that
in between these activities, these individuals here had a lot
of time on their hands and they were saying, you know,
they want to work, they want to have jobs, they
want to earn paychecks. And Thal was driving past the
building that would become the Prospector, which back in the
nineteen forties was the original Ridgefield Playhouse, and then in
the seventies, eighties, and nineties it was converted into a bank.
In the late two thousands, or maybe it was like
twenty ten, I don't remember the exact year. But Thal
was driving past that structure, which was going to be
torn down to make additional parking space for the library.
She was waiting at the stop light and she looked
at the remains of the building in her rearview mirror,
and it was like a lighthoult went off, and she said,
I don't know what this town needs. This town needs
a movie theater, and there's so many jobs that go
into operating a movie theater, and there's this untapped workforce
just waiting to get to work. When I started, it
was not like any job I'd ever worked before, which
I technically consider it my first job. I had like
a few brief employment bits that last very long. Prior
to that, I worked for a few weeks at Party Depot,
but it wasn't as enjoyable as experience. The Prospector is
just by far the best place I've ever worked.
That's good. So, how what's your work week? Is it
five days? Six days?
What do you do there?
Well, I recently last year, I was promoted to full
time and my work week is anywhere from thirty five
to forty hours a week. I work five days a week. Okay,
I have one days and Sundays off, and I will
work some days. I might be working ast an usher,
i might be working down the cleaning through, or I'll
be helding out with the service learnings, which we actually
had one of those. Today. Schools or other organizations will
reach out to us about bringing in groups to, you know,
take a tour, learn about the theater, learn about what
goes on there, come to see a movie. For example,
today Starsdale Middle School had a bunch of their eighth
grade class and some other teachers come in for a
tour of the theater and then they went to sit
down in the theater and watch a movie.
Okay, So now you say people come in and do
tours and things like that, what has been from the
time that you started, in the time that they opened
to now, how have you seen the business grow so
that you can see the support from the community for
what you're doing.
Oh well, well, the support from the community is one
of those things that you know, cannot be overstated. They
have just they los us and even and despite the
fact we've been around so long, there are still people
who come in who have never heard of us, which
which is actually which honesty is great because it gives
us a chance to, you know, tell them about what
we do. And the people that you know that come
in over and over again, that you know, love coming in.
They just they have such wonderful things to say. And
one of the things I actually hear most frequently from
guests is when they talk about how much they love
the prospector they tell us they don't go to any
other movie theater.
They've just come to us nice.
It's a little funny, but one of the biggest compliments
we get is how to clean the place is because
our cleaning crew is just is top notch. They really
put in so much work to keep the place sparkly clean.
In twenty fifteen, the New York Yankees actually came to
the Prospect as part of their Hope Week. They were
covering different organizations filing for the community on their hope
on their Hope Week, and they came to us, So
it was that was very insane because I'm a big
Yankees fan. We all inside the theater for what we
thought was going to be a professional development meeting, but
then they started on the screen and it was this
thing that talked about the Yankees Hope Week. And then
the side door opened and inlocked Joejardi and a bunch
of other people from the Yankees, Brian Cashman, Chase Headley,
a member of the Steinbrander family, and they talked about
how impressed they were by everything that we do. They
gave us a very nice they gave us a very
terrible donation. And then Valerie Jensen was and a bunch
of prospects our employees were invited out a Yankee stadium
for the game that night, and val got to throw
out the first pitch.
Oh that's good.
That's amazing. And we've received a lot of support and
a lot of praise. We've been featured on on several
news segments. In twenty twenty one, we were featured on
Good Morning America, which was amazing. I was along the
large number of prospects that got speak on national television
about the theaters. I think that was really a really
amazing way to kind of just to kind of tell
the public on a grand scale about what we do
and how our work is important, and how the people
who work here are really important to society. We can work,
we want to work, and we love what we do,
and I think that was really important to be able
to have that opportunity.
Oh, it is, it is.
I mean that's awesome because when you can get national
recognition like that, that takes it to a bigger scale
to where people really will look at what you're doing
and respect what you're doing. So this just goes to
show you that those that are autistic and special needs
can really step up and do what they want to
do if given the opportunities to do. So, you're standing
in front of one hundred people, whether it be at
the theater or wherever you might be, and they want
to know more about you and what autism is.
What would you be telling them?
I would say, as far as I understand it, because
you know, I am still learning about this myself. It's
something to do with the brain. It's my brain is
wired differently than say a person who does not have
a want, and it can it's growing up. For example,
I was very rigid in my way of thinking. I
was resistant to change. I didn't pick up on certain
social cues that would come easily to other people. For
the years, I've gotten much better at that. And there
are things about my autism that have actually really benefited me,
Like I have a really keen eye for small little
details that might otherwise be missed, and that really helped
my graphic design work and in my embroidery work, because
if I'm able to focus on some of the smallest details,
I can increase the quality of my work, and that's
really been I think beneficial to everything that I've done.
I'm glad that you brought up focus. Autistic people are
well known that once they focus on something, they do
not give up. They learn everything they possibly can about it,
and then they just keep learning. Is that how you've
been through your life as well?
Absolutely? I have. Over the years, I've come to find
that's true. If I'm locked in on something, it can
be very difficult to break me out of it, which
can be a tremendously great advantage at times. But then
there are other times where that could backfire in that
it could leave me. It could leave me for lack
of revenatory, it could leave me blind to the world
around me. It's like it's like a black singing a curse,
I guess. But it has served me very well overall,
because in my line of work, that's very important to
be able to pick up on those small things that
otherwise might be missed.
So do you feel now with the way things are going,
do you feel like you've hit your comfort zone where
you're really kind of hit your stride, where you're satisfied
with everything that's going on in your life.
I would say so, yes, I'm in you know, I'm
in an amazing I'm working at an amazing job. I've
got my own place, I'm you know, I have a
you know, I'm a I'm in a very happy relationship.
My girlfriend and I are celebrating, you know, we're going
out a year and a half now. And yeah, I'm
very happy with where I am. Maybe ten years ago
I never would have imagined any of this. So I
owe a lot of it to the prospector, which is
one of the reasons why I work as hard as
I do. Is because I really want them to understand
how much I appreciate the opportunities they've given me.
That's awesome, that's great. So how do people find you?
You must be on social media and have websites.
Oh yes, well for information about the Prospector and the
movies that we show there. You know, if you're in
the area you want to come see a movie, you
can go to Prospectorstheater dot org. You can check us
out on Facebook. We have a TikTok account. We are
on blie, morel Snapchat. I think we have our Gorlet popcorn.
You can go to Prospector Popcorn dot org and you
can order it from wherever you are in the United
States and we will ship right to your door.
That sounds just so good. So this has been a
great conversation. I've really truly enjoyed it. So thanks for
coming on.
All right, Well, TOOTI, thank you so much for having
me on.
It's been my pleasure.
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