Johnny Brenneman envisioned his return to Victoria as a slower-paced lifestyle, figuring he’d ditch the journalist life and enjoy walks on the coastline.
Instead, he pedal powers his way through city streets towing tourists and now in a documented series – locals who expand his knowledge.
After spending his entire adult life working abroad as a successful radio host and journalist, Brenneman returned to Canada in 2021.
“I let go of an amazing job in Austria, mainly because I was curious,” Brenneman said.
He wanted to explore what kind of a person he would be back on the soil where he grew up. After settling in Victoria, the lifelong writer embarked on a new pursuit, taking a writing course at Camosun. He also chased another bucket list item as a tour guide.
Leading tours on a pedicab quickly revealed itself as similar to a radio show, “only broadcasting as far as my voice would carry.”
It was a soothing thought that inspired a bit of restlessness.
“I missed the platform of producing stories for a larger audience, missed the sense that I was contributing something to the world,” he said. “I wondered if there was something there where I could find an intersection of the two careers.”
The two come together, and after a year of heavy lifting, his new eight-part documentary video podcast series, Bon Victoriage, premieres April 8.
“Having a couple guests in the back of the pedicab and taking them around has a lot in common with being a radio host and doing an infotainment program. The people in the back of the pedicab were my studio guests. This is an exotic version of what I’ve done the entirety of my adult life,” he said.
Brenneman set out to share the reasons he ended up in Victoria, drawn by its historic flavour that lingers while adapting to the modern world.
“Victoria has done a good job of maintaining its character, and it’s a beautiful place.”
So he set out to document it, knowing that as a tour guide, you’re sharing stories with people who haven’t seen the city, often telling the same stories again and again, only occasionally stumped by a question or new information.
He sought out other perspectives, hoping to reveal the city through a variety of lenses.
“I don’t belong to every community in Victoria. If I were going to do a program, I wanted that program to have even more local flavour. I wanted to be learning things about the city. I wanted the people who already had a relationship with the city.”
The resulting show offers panoramic views, narrated by an eclectic mix of locals as they travel around the city on a pedicab, rediscovering home alongside Brenneman.
His barber, the person who “cuts his mullets,” put Brenneman on to the episode one guest, suggesting Charlayne Thornton-Joe as an expert guide to delve into the deep Chinese history in the city.
A mainstay on any tour, Fan Tan Alley shone in a new hue, just the first in a series of new perspectives offered.
“Because (guests) belong to different communities, they will have completely different things to say about the same places,” Brenneman said. “It expands your notion of the city's character and what it means to different people.”
It includes an episode with Grant McKenzie of Our Place exploring addiction and the unhoused community.
Another episode features popular Victoria drag queen Jimbo (and her mom) and drag king Eddi Licious with stops at Vicious Poodle and the Victoria Event Centre, days before they learned the venue was closing.
“We managed to capture a time capsule,” Brenneman said. “Some of the stories, there are arcs. There are topics that come up and disappear, and they come up again. It’s like a committee of people talking about what it’s like to live in Victoria in 2024.”
Shot with several cameras, angles and even a second pedicab, it literally provides many perspectives of the city. Brenneman admits folks were skeptical of the project's ambitious nature, but with the help of $12,000 in Telus Storyhive funding and a boatload of learning on Brenneman’s part, the finished product premieres April 8.
“Their whole thing is supporting fresh perspectives from new and emerging content creators," he said.
The cash was crucial in funding technology and talent. Brenneman had been on camera before, but this was his first real foray into video editing. Once the first episode was done alongside director of photography David Malysheff of Gamut Productions, Brenneman took over 90 per cent of that work after sourcing and hiring talent.
The yearlong project felt like a shift from checkers to chess.
More of those details – and filming blips – are revealed in episode eight, where Brenneman serves as primary storyteller and spills the tea on the whole escapade.
“We were interacting live and in the real world with a living city, and anything can happen,” he said. “There were things at the beginning that tested us, but at the end of the day, we succeeded, and we’re really proud of what we came out with.”
Bon Victoriage premiers April 8 on Telus Optik TV, Stream+ and Storyhive’s YouTube channel.
Visit journeybyjohnny.com for an episode guide and details on a series of community screenings that start April 1 at Paul Phillips Hall in Fernwood.
