Happy birthday, Shakespeare: Meet Columbia's 5-year-old expert

At 4, Jackson Drew of Columbia could recite Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 from memory, thees, thous and thys included.

The little bard recently strutted his Shakespearean stuff for Steve Harvey, host of the NBC series “Little Big Shots.”

The family-friendly show, produced by Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres, celebrates extraordinary and talented kids like Jackson.

At 12 months old, he learned his colors in a single afternoon.

At 2, he was admitted to Mensa, a high-IQ society for people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized IQ test.

Now 5, he’s studying Mandarin and the violin. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine and wants to fly planes one day.

When his mother, Jessica Drew, saw a casting call for “Little Big Shots” online, she decided to enter him, and reciting Shakespeare was a way to showcase his excellent memory on the show. “You tell him something once and it locks in,” she said.

She and Jackson spent a week in Los Angeles filming for the show last summer.

After several practice rounds, Jackson filmed with Harvey in front of a live audience. Harvey would start a Shakespeare quote and Jackson would finish it and tell him which play it came from. His grand finale was reciting Sonnet 18 in its entirety.

Jackson said Harvey was “really funny” and that he wasn’t nervous about being on TV. “I was that much nervous,” he said, making the number zero with his fingers.

“We’ve seen many memory whiz kids, but Jackson was different from the start,” “Little Big Shots” executive producer Alison Holloway said in an email. “That face, that personality, that mega-brain in someone so small! The moment he said ‘All the world’s a stage,’ we knew he was right for our stage. And the best part is, backstage he was running around like a normal kid.”

Jackson’s episode will air at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 6 on NBC. That’s normally his bedtime, but his mom said he’ll be able to stay up late and watch it.

This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Happy birthday, Shakespeare: Meet Columbia's 5-year-old expert."