You Think Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Seeing is Believing: Meet Edgar Allan Poe

by Lauren Fleming

Some of us read The Raven in eighth grade and thought Edgar Allan Poe was a creepy, 19th-century version of a Goth kid, but with better writing skills. (Myself not included. Swear.) Others, like South Jersey resident Karl Babij, had a very different experience. He thinks the writer had such a compelling life story that it's still worth retelling — and re-creating — today.

Babij began his career as a Poe impersonator about three years ago, and has since attempted to show people the man behind the legend. "I could just stand up there and read verbatim, but when we look at figures like these, we forget about the human underneath," Babij says. Instead, he improvises — audience members talk to him like he's actually Poe, and he talks in "yores" and "nevermores" right back.

The fact that Poe spent so much time in Philly only makes Babij love him more. Poe penned The Tell-Tale Heart here, and Babij believes that vaults beneath the Free Quaker Meeting House were the inspiration for The Cask of Amontillado. (Which, if you know anything about the story, is fairly freaky.) "It should be cool to think that you're standing in probably the inspiration for one of his greatest works," Babij says.

As part of an ongoing celebration of Poe's 200th birthday, Babij and a handful of Poe scholars will also analyze his best pieces and take questions from the audience — which may shed light on the man behind some of the eeriest books we've ever read.

Thu., April 9, 7 p.m., free, Camden County College, Civic Hall, 311 College Dr., Blackwood, N.J., 856-227-7200, ext. 4767, camdencc.edu.