“A Very Small Act of Kindness”: Jason Mraz’s Full-Circle Night in Fort Lauderdale

Jason Mraz on the Au-Rene Theater Stage

Jade Read

President / Editor-In-Chief

May 16, 2026

Long before world tours, Grammy Awards, and singalongs to “I’m Yours,” Jason Mraz was just another musician playing 10-minute open mic slots in coffee shops around Southern California.

One person decided that wasn’t enough.

“I felt something when I saw him at the open mic,” Gregory Page said after Mraz’s Still Yours Tour performance at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. “I knew that he was extraordinary, exceptional. I just wanted to hear more.”

That instinct would quietly alter the course of Mraz’s life.

Page invited the young songwriter to open for him at Java Joe’s in Ocean Beach, California in 1999, giving him his first professional gig as a musician.

“That night I got to hear 45 minutes of his songs,” Page recalled. “And now, I couldn’t even imagine, in my wildest dreams, what would come around from that.”

More than two decades later, the two shared the stage again in Fort Lauderdale for a fully acoustic evening alongside Chaska Potter on mandolin and Adam Moss on fiddle, with each song revealing another chapter of the journey that brought them there.

Gregory Page opening the night

Throughout the night, Mraz revisited memories from his early career, reflecting on the unpredictability of chasing music and the relationships that helped sustain it. Much of the setlist itself was built from fan requests submitted through his Instagram, giving the evening an even more personal feel.

The setlist balanced beloved classics with brand new material from Mraz’s newly released album Grandma’s Gospel Favorites, which was being sold on vinyl for the first time that night. Mraz explained that the album originally began as a 2007 Christmas gift for his grandmother during a period when gospel music was all she listened to. The Fort Lauderdale show also marked the first time any of the album’s songs had ever been performed live. What started as music meant only for his grandmother was eventually passed around through her church community and among friends and has now, in a way, been passed on to us.

When Mraz introduced “Turn Your Radio On,” the album’s opening track, the audience quickly began clapping along despite most hearing the song for the very first time. The moment showed how naturally the new material translated live. “All God’s Creatures” followed, with moments of a cappella harmonies from the group of friends playing together onstage filling the theater.

Some of the evening’s most memorable moments came not from the songs themselves, but from the stories attached to them.

Before performing “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry),” Mraz opened up about writing the song while a close friend battled bone cancer as Mraz prepared to record his first album in California.

Jason Mraz raising his Guitar

“We drank the same water, dated the same girl,” he reflected, trying to make sense of why one life seemed spared while another suffered. He dedicated the performance to his friend Charlie, proudly telling the audience he is still alive today.

Mraz’s sense of humor carried through the entire night. Before one song, he described himself as an “optimistic pessimist,” stopping himself midway through setting up what he called a joke about “a rainbow coming out of my ass.” Later, while singing about the constant negativity of the news cycle and fading optimism, he paused to take a deep breath alongside the audience, turning the moment into something oddly funny and sincere at the same time.

Even longtime fans still found themselves surprised throughout the night.

During “Lucky,” Mraz teased the arrival of Colbie Caillat by dramatically introducing, “Ladies and gentlemen, Colbie Caillat...” before quickly following it with, “could not be with us tonight,” drawing one of the biggest reactions of the evening. Later, while talking about joining Waitress, he pulled the same joke again, introducing Sara Bareilles before revealing that she, too, apparently “had plans with Colbie tonight.”

Before performing “93 Million Miles,” Mraz shared that his father once gave him permission to fail while chasing his “ridiculous dream,” allowing him to pursue music without the fear of disappointing anyone if it didn’t work out. Later in the night, “Have It All” slowly transformed into “I Won’t Give Up,” with Mraz stretching out the outro just enough for the familiar melody to quietly emerge underneath it.

Then came the song everyone knew was coming.

As Mraz slowly and almost “discreetly” moved his capo higher up the fretboard, the audience immediately recognized the opening notes of “I’m Yours.” The room erupted before he even started singing, turning the theater into the night’s loudest singalong within seconds.

For the encore, Mraz, Gregory Page, and Chaska Potter returned together for “Now It’s Time to Say Goodnight,” ending the evening with the same intimacy that defined it from the start.

After the show, Page reflected once more on watching Mraz’s journey unfold from the side of the stage for over two decades.

“Whether it’s tonight, or in front of 30 people, it’s the same,” he said. “It’s extraordinary.”

For one acoustic night in Fort Lauderdale, it truly was.