I spent the weeks leading up to our feature Jason Carney not studying about him. I thought about him but mostly finding interesting ways to spin his name into other funny words. Carney-val or Carney-vore or Carney-balism I had a bunch of them. I don’t like studying up on people that everyone is excited about, it lifts my personal expectations to an unfair level. My funny name game works much better.

I walked in that night looking to see if he was already there. Features and especially performers that are that big a deal have an aura of importance about them that sets them apart from the environment. I noticed someone different and looked at him but instantly shook my head and dismissed him. That goofy bastard can’t be the feature.

Then Wil introduced me to him and I knew instantly that this is one of those scenarios where he goes on stage does great and you feel bad for thinking he was a goofy looking weirdo who looked like the guy who plays Freddy in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. I tried to prepare myself.

He stood near me(because there was nowhere to sit) while I ran the music and so I got to watch him view the reading. It was possibly the most interesting part of him coming to the venue. Jason Carney attends readings like he is going to church. Every poet had his complete attention and when they were done he would loudly declare “Right on!” nod his head and clap louder then anyone. A lot of people were reading there best work to impress him and he was so much more than that. Each poet molded his mood and affected his state of mind.

I read something I would not consider my best work but when I came back he gave me a strong pat on the back and said he loved it and he wasn’t lying. I believed him. Everyone who went up on stage achieved something amazing for him, regardless of the percentage of their overall potential they were utilizing.

Slam is full of honest real life problems displayed and masked by flowery language. When slam poets write about touching hard situations they have to throw in a few lines are wonderfully written and calculated to give them space from the subject matter, breathing room from the naked hard cold point they don’t want to make…they want to infer. Our feature was so brutal to himself and to us that he almost cried 5 times or more and when he was done, he was our friend. We all knew him.

So I have to thank him for being a great poet, and a new friend I didn’t count on.