One table, 50 states. One Epic Road Tour.
Ellen Jovin had to get away from the computer screen. She needed the outdoors, and something different. So she took a card table, fixed up a couple of signs, and headed out to the corner to set up her “Grammar Table” - an opportunity for the neighbors to get timely answers to those pressing grammar issues plaguing mankind. Ellen’s husband Brandt would accompany her as an observer.
From those humble beginnings in 2018, an idea for the table to pop up in all 50 US states on one “epic road tour”, and that led to "Rebel With a Clause".
YPR’s Karl Lengel chats with grammar guru Ellen Jovin and husband Brandt Johnson. The couple turned a longing "to connect" into a tour, a book, a docu-comedy, and another tour.
In this interview, the couple talked about working and touring together, their interest in the subjects of grammar and math, some examples of our quirky grammar conundrums, Ellen’s connection to Bozeman, and the simple joy that repeatedly exploded across the table as they made the “epic” journey.
The docu-comedy’s website explains that the film covers Ellen as she shows “that comma fights can bring us closer together in a divided time.”
“When I first set up the table in 2018, I really just did it out of pure “grammar hedonism’. I just love this stuff, and I was on the computer too much, and I wanted to be out in the light and air and see human faces.”
In the early days, Brandt would join his wife as an observer at a distance, usually on a nearby park bench. The couple noticed something extraordinary was happening with the impromptu conversations that Ellen’s grammar table inspired.
“It was hilarious and funny and fun, but there was this sense of community, and people that are very different connecting with each other. That human connection - as hilarious as everything going on - there was that, that core, the heart of, that human connection was really so beautiful.”
The Friday, September 12 event for “Rebel With a Clause”, featuring Ellen Jovin and Brandt Johnson, and a screening of the documentary takes place at Bozeman’s Ellen Theatre.
