Mr. Kamison: Too Tough To Die

Mr. Kamison spoke of his experience as a curator fondly, and of movies in general, radiated a passion rivaled only by his enthusiasm when speaking of his other artistic pursuits. “While I was in grad school, I got a job as a projectionist…free movies, and it was a really great job to have while in school, because when the movies were running, I would just work on my schoolwork.”

Despite how much he enjoyed his time working in the film industry, Mr. Kamison still believed teaching was his calling. He had every intention of becoming one as a grad student. However, when he graduated in 2014 from Temple University with his Master’s in Fiction, the company he worked for gave him the chance to become a program director, and he “jumped at it”. All forms of underappreciated art seem to resonate with Mr. Kamison, as can be gleaned from his quirky movie tastes (he cites A Woman Under the Influence, a 1974 National Film Registry selection, as his favorite film of all time), if not just from his numerous and incredibly humorous Letterboxd reviews.

A native Pennsylvanian himself, Mr. Kamison grew up in Montgomery County, attending Upper Darby High School. He described his high school experience as “great”, explaining: “I played music a lot, so I wasn’t good at sports.” The blunt equivalency is understandable considering the mutual exclusivity of these things, particularly in a high school setting. “Really, playing music was my thing. I played in a lot of bands… guitar, drums,” he reminisced. “It was the most rewarding experience. Sometimes we would play at more adult shows…those experiences were so defining of who I am, I think, because they were creative, but also a little rebellious in a fun way.”

While he did not seem to espouse any religious tenets, or, in true public school fashion, chose not to expound any, he cited the First Unitarian Church as his favorite place in Philadelphia. Yet it wasn’t the sermons that were appealing to him, as Kamison is, in fact, Jewish. (He does not eat pork, although he chalks it up to guilt over the fact that pigs are smart.) The church, about a two minute walk from Penn’s Mütter Museum, is the hub of the Philadelphia punk scene. Their website, which dates shows back to the late 90s, touts decade-old performances from present-day big-name artists such as Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean, and Vampire Weekend. Maybe Mr. Kamison spent so much time around this scene in the hopes of becoming the next small artist to play in the venue. In fact, he seems to be chasing that dream even now. A member of a punk band, Mr. Kamison is still heavily involved with music and songwriting, and described it as one of his favorite ways to spend his free time. Aside from music, he writes comics. While he passed it off in humble fashion as nothing more than a hobby, he seems to have found success in the genre. Kamison holds a 2022 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award from the internationally renowned Comic-Con.

Kamison thanks his “hippie parents” for their support in all of his professional endeavors and childhood antics, including a notable instance in which he broke his arm on a friend’s stolen bicycle after getting the wig he was wearing caught in its spokes and flipping over. He also shouted out his former boss, with whom he argued over whether the Ramones or Bach were more influential in the history of music while standing in line for Sundance Film Festival tickets. In case it wasn’t clear already, Kamison did not contend that Bach was the correct choice.

Mr. Kamison, in possession of a wife; a degree; and a stable job, perhaps wouldn’t be considered a true “contrarian” by some, but he seemed to proudly tout the label, and mentioned the dearness of this term to him numerous times when painting a picture of his life. The edgy comics and Kafka tattoos do certainly help support the claim, though. With his hyperspecific eccentricities, dislike of Room 11, and propensity for “rooting for the little guy”, Mr. Kamison blends into the Masterman crowd seamlessly. “I love it [here],” he asserted. So, it’s really a question of when, not if, Kamison will fully feel integrated with this little corner of the universe. A good start would surely be better familiarizing himself with the H-layout of the building, which he describes as annoying. After a few minutes of trying to wrap his head around the admittedly poor explanation I gave him, he sighed in resignation. “I’ll never figure out the room numbers.”