RC Weslowski

I meant to write this and post this sooner than today but the death of Zaccheus Jackson sidetracked a lot of us, me included. But I still wanted to write this review of sorts about Al Mader’s feature at the Van Slam on August 18th. Here it is.

There is a chaotic trickster released every time Al Mader steps on to the stage. Everyone is invited to walk the tightrope of being present in the moment with him as it feels like it could all fall apart at any moment or explode into exaltation at having made the crossing unharmed if not a little unhinged. I’ve seen Al perform both solo and as the Minimalist Jug Band countless times and I love it each time because there is a delicious delight of still not knowing what’s going to happen next.

One of the most wonderful things for me is to see knew audiences experience his artistry for the first time. Some people are perplexed while others dive into the unknowing head first and go roller coaster screaming along with him. That’s what happened on Monday August 18th at Café Deux Soleils during Al’s feature at the Vancouver Poetry Slam.

Al is part James Brown and part Pee Wee Herman. He is able to create a tension between himself and the audience and then release it with the flair of a master. His shows arm wrestle between the awkwardness of his honesty and the confidence of a showman who is able to lose himself and find himself at the same time in the heart of his song-poems. He walks the line between audaciousness and humility with vigour and grace while being willing to stub his toe in public and let us see his pain.

His on stage presence is born of street hustle busking in the 80s and 90s that gives a lot of his work an immediacy and dark comedic edge as in “Love is Black” or “Scarf” but if you can knock the crust off that big diamond heart you get such unsentimental gems as “Bloom, Bloom, Bloom’ and “Your Momma’s Arms.” Then there is just the pure comedic genius of “Problems in a Box” which he used to wrap up his set on the 18th.

It was one of those rare features where the crowd spontaneously started shouting “One more poem” as The POET walked off the stage only to return to make us laugh and wonder again at a world that seems determined to break our hearts on a daily basis. On this night we got to see the Magnificent Jug Band on full display.