Abbra Cadabra
My magical evening with Jason Mraz began in a way unequaled in my life. I won tickets on the radio. I've never won ANYTHING on the radio, and it's not for lack of trying. I've run the gambit from Cabbage Patch Dolls in 1983, to concert tickets, to cold, hard cash, baby. But at last, sweet victory- and that was just the start.

I had three hours to get a babysitter, drive to Richmond (an hour away) with my husband who just happened to not be on call that night. Seamless.

And the show was a blast.

Yet another review
So I won't dwell on this because I'm sure you've read the other reviews [Here's one of many. - Steve] on this site, as well as others (sshhhh, don't tell Editor Steve). So all I will add is ditto, ditto, ditto to everything fellow staffers have said. Never have I seen a musician so at home on stage at such an early point in his career. But I would like to take a minute to point out that what you hear on his recorded albums is barely a glimpse of his talent, and I refer specifically to his freestyle singing. I realized quickly that his vocal control and speech muscle control is one in a million. Then I realized I was wrong.

We interrupt this Mraz-gushing to bring you Toca
Toca. The man on the djembe. The man who completes Jason's sound. The man who matches Mraz' freestyling verbatim, with just as much ease and clarity. What are the odds that these two musicians should meet? Well, going by my precise statistics in the previous paragraph, it would be two in a million. Call it fate. Call it serendipity. Call it Mraz-matazz. As wonderful as Jason is, Toca is an essential part of the equation. He is to Mraz as The Edge is to Bono, Boyd is to Dave, or Garfunkel is to Simon. Uh, scratch that last one.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program of Mraz-gushing
This show was in Jason's hometown, and he was thoroughly enjoying playing for his family and friends of yore. I did notice a definite toning down of the innuendo in his stage persona, as opposed to other shows I've heard the recordings of, so I'm going to go out on a very short limb and say his mom was there. What a good boy. The venue was intimate, and Mraz & Co. made it more so, with their casual banter and off the cuff remarks. Rather than leaving star-struck, I felt like I'd just had a beer with a long lost college roommate, except that I don't like beer and none of my former college roommates will get lost. As it turns out, part of his magic is making it all seem so ordinary.

And for his final act...
So what started as the perfect evening ended even better? We returned from the show in time to catch the 9th inning of the Red Sox/Athletics Divisional Series Game 5. Sox 4, Oakland 3. And while I can't prove it, I'm sure Jason had something to do with it. I just pray he's not a Yankees fan. The Curse they can overcome. The Magic of Mraz? I think not.

See also: Editor Steve's side project MRAZturbation.com