About a month or so ago, I received an invite to attend a friend’s 50th birthday. In what seemed like two seconds after the invite, I received a text from my friend asking whether I was coming to the party or not because I hadn’t clicked on the link and RSVP’d. I told him Wendi and I indeed were coming, and I found the link and indicated we would be intending the 50th birthday bash of Kenny Hart.
I met Kenny, along with his fiancee, Dawn Hott, about a year ago through a mutual friend, the late Kevin King. Kevin was an incredible comedy magician, and he and Emmett Pennington started Mega Magic Monthly at a Massillon restaurant. Kenny, being the good friend, attended the inaugural event, in which I was the featured performer, and we hit it off.
I would come to know the depths of Kenny’s friendship over the coming months. He and Dawn were regular guests at Mega Magic Monthly. When Kevin was performing at the Holmes County Fair, Kenny was the sound guy and stagehand. When Kevin, Emmett and I performed a show together in Wooster, Kenny was right there, making sure everything was working.
Kenny and Dawn are lovers of music, rock music. Whenever a band played at Fiore’s, Kenny would text asking if Wendi and I were coming. When we did, he made sure there was enough room at his table to accommodate us.
Then, came the night of May 11, 2018. Kenny and Dawn reserved the hall at the Knights of Columbus in Wooster, and they hired MoonmanTV, a band that performs music as a tribute to MTV’s first decade. Kenny graciously allowed Emmett and me to perform at his birthday. It was a fun experience.
As guests came in, Kenny would introduce us all to one another: This is my friend. This is my sister. This is my brother. This is my future mother-in-law. And on and on and on it went. Kenny wanted everyone in the joint to know one another, and because they were all important to him, he wanted all of us to be important to one another.
The depth of Kenny’s friendship came to light when Dennis Davis, the lead guitarist and vocalist for MoonmanTV, paid tribute to him. He talked about how Kenny would attend many of their shows, “and they are not in the Wooster area,” he said. Kenny and Dawn would travel great distances to catch the band, and you could tell Davis, bassist Steve Kovacs, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Heidi Longfield, and drummer Chuck Schilling appreciated the support from Kenny and Dawn. (The band was gracious enough to ask Kenny to come up and join them for a song. He sang Loverboy’s “Workin’ for the Weekend.”)
Family and friends are very important to Kenny. Spending the night with him, his family, and his friends was an excellent reminder of that. It was a good lesson to learn. Kenny will give you the shirt off his back and do whatever he can to help you if you are his friend. Thanks, Kenny, for the reminder. It was also a lesson in not taking my other friends for granted and letting them know how much they mean to me. Happy birthday, my friend.
Enjoy Kenny singing Loverboy.
