A Guelph-based music teacher turned children’s entertainer is making sure the show will go on by moving his in-person performances online for everyone to enjoy.
Geoffrey Jackson is a music teacher at Waverley Drive Public School who began an offshoot career as a children’s entertainer in January 2019, performing under the name Mr. J.
“March Break was coming up and I had a bunch of great shows lined up and doing a few things out of town and I was super excited about it,” said Jackson. “But we got locked in and my first instinct was to keep playing to find a way to keep those shows going.”
Jackson was also set to achieve a lifelong dream to perform as Mr. J for the very first time at an iconic Guelph music festival.
“It’s a bummer — I was a Hillside performer this year, but we just got the word that there won’t be a Hillside this year,” said Jackson. “Hillside is just a fundamental piece of the Guelph history, it was such an honour to be on that list.”
Over March Break Jackson began performing three sets a week on Facebook live. More recently he has begun to move those performances to a YouTube Kids account that is more accessible to his younger viewers.
Jackson begins the live performances at 10 a.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
He takes requests and interacts as much as possible during the performances and shares art work they kids send in. All the while, he has been avoiding talking about the scarier aspects of what is going on in the world, like coronavirus.
“It’s a pretty conscious thought that I don’t talk about it, because I know my audience is a lot younger,” said Jackson. “I feel like I am an outlet — a shiny happy spot in the start of your day.”
“And then I pop some videos on there for my intermediate kids with some songs we have been working on and doing amped up versions of those,” he added.
After the performance, Jackson takes the time to write back to all of the kids and parents who interacted by chat during the performance.
Many of the kids who tune into the performance are students at Waverley Drive Public School. Jackson said even when he was performing at local library branches, his students were often among his audience.
“I am lucky to be connected to every student in the school in some capacity, because I teach everybody,” he said.
As an educator, Jackson said he understands the balance that needs to be struck between overburdening kids with too much school work during the lockdown with offering them a creative outlet to express themselves. He hopes the Mr. J performances can help to keep them engaged.
“It’s been challenging as a music teacher,” said Jackson. “I feel that our role is a lot of performing and entertaining right now. Providing that piece as much as we can is super important.”
Aside form the three performances a week, Jackson has also begun to produce short children-themed episodes for his YouTube account. The first episode titled Friends was put up on the account last week.
