Jawnts: Entertaining and quirky way to get your funk

This year, start celebrating Valentine's Day the night before. Bizarro soul man Johnny Showcase will be playing Johnny Brenda's with his outfit the Mystic Ticket. It's sure to be the funkiest and freakiest way to spend your Thursday evening.

Showcase - the stage persona of local actor David Sweeny - comes complete with a troubled, though fictional, past: He grew up as a lounge singer in Rhode Island, but was forced to flee Providence due to an as-yet-unsettled dispute with notorious former Mayor Buddy Cianci, who was twice convicted of felonies and twice forced to resign. After cleverly faking his own death, Showcase moved to Philadelphia, where the politicians' rap sheets presumably made him feel right at home.

Since fortifying his position in the City of Brotherly Love, Showcase has attracted a posse of epic proportions. His spiritual adviser, Rumi Kitchen, plays no discernible instrument (unless you count the tambourine) but looks pretty swell and claims to be one of the best singers in the world. Their backup singers are called the Truth, though little else is known about them. Backed by a five-piece band, Mystic Ticket, they crank out some of the best funk in Philly.

Thursday night's show is titled, naturally, the Night of the Electric Love Phoenix. If you aren't sold by the name alone, you can find his music at http://johnnyshowcase.com/ or on YouTube, where numerous live shows and a few music videos can be found. Search for "Sensual, Parts 1 & 2," which features Showcase and company strutting around the Latvian Society in Northern Liberties as he prepares to commit emotional infidelity - but nothing more! - with an alluring neighbor. (Sample lyric: "I woke up with my Dunkin' Donuts cup and a fever for you . . . we've got to be sensual but not sexual, because I'm married.") The other is a hazy, lethargic number, "Rubber Glove," set to the silhouette animation of German artist Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger, circa 1926.

But Johnny Showcase and his ensemble are meant to be seen live. So go see them.

The show at Johnny Brenda's, 1201 Frankford Ave., begins at 8 p.m. Glam funk dynamos Nicos Gun will open. Cost is $12, and it's for 21 and older.