A Real Job

Jacob Duncan, 41, clears his head at one of his frequent haunts just outside of Excelsior Springs, Mo. Established in 1856, the Missouri City Cemetery is close to his childhood home.

Duncan touches up a mural outside of Carolyn Schrute Park in the center of downtown Excelsior Springs. He does this every couple of years or once he notices that the paint is starting to peel. “The work is never finished”, he said. He maintains four murals in Excelsior, eight in the county, and over a dozen across the state of Missouri.

“I wanted to work on a bigger canvas”, Duncan said regarding this mural. He stands on a bucket to reach the higher points on the project.

Duncan sits in front of his modest double wide trailer home just outside of Excelsior Springs in Lawson Mo. The trailer currently houses Duncan, his wife Jess, their daughter Audri,12, and their son Jacob Jr, 22, who has recently been sleeping on their couch. The house itself is owned by Jacob’s mother whom he has a fraught relationship with, he said. “But at least she lets me pay rent late sometimes.”

Duncan checks his mailbox customized with a cow skull. He says that personalizing items like this is his way of making a mark on the place until he lives somewhere he can more fully call his own.

Audri Duncan, 12, joins her dad for a seat in their backyard. Much of the house is too cluttered to lounge in comfortably, so they spend a good amount of time outside in the evenings. Duncan asks her about school and grades but maintains a relatively hands-off approach to parenting. “I got a call that your grade was falling in math,” he tells her. “That’s on you to fix…It’s not like I’m going to college anyway”, she said.

Duncan practices with his local blues rock band J.D. and the Chasers in Excelsior Springs. Duncan’s two closest friends Marie and Rob are the band’s other members. They have been playing music together for over 10 years.

Duncan shows off a guitar he made during band practice. Now 41, he says he has been playing every day for the last thirty years. “Everything I’ve ever made has been cobbled together bit by bit” he said, referring to the guitar. It is an amalgamation of neck and body pieces with an airbrushed finish courtesy of Jacob himself.

Duncan smoking shortly after practice. In conversation, he hints at a history of mental illness and previous anger issues, which his steady consumption of alcohol and marijuana purportedly helped soothe.

Duncan sits in front of the keyboard he purchased with pandemic stimulus money. Despite the recent purchase, he sounds fully competent with the instrument. “It’s the only thing I can do,” he sai.d “I’m compelled to create. I’m getting close to middle age and I’ve got friends who have stable careers, a real job, and none of those people are any happier than I am despite having so much more. At least I’m getting to do something I enjoy.”