Since January, Jason Meyers has spent Thursday afternoons working the numbers he's programmed into his cell phone, speed-dialing fellow musicians to perform at Parma's Jigsaw for its weekly
Open-Mic Night. "At most open mics, it's a bunch of people not knowing what they're doing. What I do is call everybody and get friends I know can play. They bring people they know can play, and you get the random walk-ins every week," says the 27-year-old Meyers, who also plays guitar in Solon's "country-fried" rock band RedWater Rojo. "It works out really well."Meyers honed his hosting skills in the fall, when he'd command an audience on the bar's smokers' patio. Once the weather turned nasty, the club's owner asked him to take his act inside and coax other performers to swap stage time with each other. To lighten everyone's mood, Meyers now starts the show by "making an ass of myself" — deliberately singing off-key to chase away everybody's inhibitions. "I'll do something out of my vocal range or guitar capabilities to make people feel better," says Meyers. "That way, everybody else doesn't feel so shy." Open-Mic Night is from 9 p.m. to midnight today at the Jigsaw Saloon & Stage, 5324 State Road in Parma. Admission is free. Call 216-351-3869 or visit
www.jigsawsaloonandstage.com.
Thursdays, 9 p.m., 2008
