Concert Review: Jawny Is Our Mr. Rogers At MHOW
If Mr. Rogers had a Gen-Z son that owned a Williamsburg coffee shop where he acted out, with muppets, mental health strategies to add to your self-care routine, you would get Jawny. Yup! With his literal name behind him like a 1970s, early morning tv show, Jawny embodied a child-like approach for self-helping adults. Think Big Bird smoking a cigarette outside a Burger King, and looking at the stars as he explained The Theory of Multiverse. For some, that feels laughable and like a joke. Yet, there is something so beautiful to the idea that, as grown-ups, we could turn on a song or a “kids” tv show and have someone explain how to make life meaningful to us as if it were our ABCs.
As Jawny entered the stage, his audience glistened. They had gone from regular people drinking drafts and rocking beanies, to appearing like a bunch of crystals at a gem shop. Suddenly, they felt valued or rather valuable because Jawny comes off like the most regular guy to do something splendid, which is why he is empowering. We love to build legends as if they are superhuman. Marilyn Monroe, Prince, even saints, all get the posthumous painting of their life as some grand journey that had to end as big as it was lived. Yet, the truth is, they were people that decided to do what they loved, despite the fact that others did not love them and, many times, they did not love themselves. Something about that truth, hit me like a gong and felt draped in Jawny’s songs and boisterous demeanor. Perhaps, you do not have to love yourself or have others love you to make your dream come true. Maybe, loving the dream is enough for you to want to become it??????? (Cue Existential Pondering)
There was something eternally boyish about Jawny; as if he and Paul Rudd had concluded that the fountain of youth resides in making life fun: not meaningful. Okay, somebody is BOUND to write me an email like, “What the hell are you talking about? Life with no meaning!” Yet, part of what made Jawny so connected to his fans, and vice versa, was his ability to put “the brain” away and have a laugh. There is something so inherently charming about someone laughing and singing and not trying to impress or “leave a mark on the world.” Ironically, it was that ability to be so present that made a mark. For More Information On Jawny Click Here.
