2011 Edinburgh Fringe
Jay Foreman review
"You like the Beatles? Who's your favourite Beatle then?" asks a sceptical Jay Foreman, of a confident pre-teen lad in the front row. There's a lengthy pause, then he only goes and gets the biggest laugh of the show. "Er... Elton John!"
Not that there aren't others in Foreman's fine, well thought-out hour. The tall, thin bearded chap with an acoustic guitar and a slightly beatific stare may look like he should be sitting cross-legged around a campfire but it becomes clear early on that he's going to spice up his otherwise gentle strumming with a splendid array of obscenities and gross-out flights of fancy, despite the whole family in the front two rows who've flagrantly ignored the '14+' guideline in the programme. And boy, do those kids dig the swears.
We're Living in the Future is actually a look backwards, at the various TV shows and movies that predicted all manner of dramatic events for this decade: Lisa Simpson was supposed to get married in August 2010, for example, surrounded by robots, and according to Back to the Future 2 we only have four years to develop and popularise the Hoverboard.
Instead we have iPhones, text-speak and Angry Birds, all of which Foreman fulminates over via a clutch of catchy, folksy, often uproariously funny tunes. The chat-song format can be tiresome in less capable hands but he keeps things fresh with some novel audience-involvement devices, tiny musical nuggets about British national treasures dying and at least one song that takes us in a whole different direction.
Clearly a talented chap, Jay Foreman's future looks very promising indeed.
Jay Foreman: We're Living in the Future listing
