By Andrew Poretz . . .
A rare breed of performer these days is the musical humorist. These are self-accompanied singer-songwriters whose songs tend to be witty, often satirical, and thought-provoking. They typically tap into the zeitgeist of popular and political culture. Among the most brilliant of these who come to mind are the retired Tom Lehrer, the late Dave Frishberg, the late parodist Mark Russell, Christine Lavin, jazz bassist Jay Leonhart, and John Forster. The Harvard-educated Forster is an award-winning songwriter whose songs have made it to Broadway.
With his new show, Too Clever By 20%, John returned to live performance on April 16, after a long absence, with the first of three shows at Don’t Tell Mama. The show celebrates his new album, Location, Location, Location, a collection of a dozen Forster songs, many recorded live. Half of the set’s songs appear on this new album, making it a swell souvenir. (Mr. Forster personally provided me with a copy, “hot off the press.”) Additional performances of the show are scheduled for April 24th and May 1st, with special guests Sidney Myer and Christine Lavin, respectively.
The tall star took to the stage of the intimate Brick Room spiffily dressed in a charcoal suit, grey tie and sparkling black shoes, a Broadway-style wireless mic on his head. Mr. Forster has great comedic timing and a warm, avuncular presence. After the “world’s shortest opening song,” his opening monologue revealed his discovery of a Jewish great-uncle. The decidedly “goyim” composer examined his new Jewish roots. He sang a brief Yiddish parody of “Bewitched” that set the tone for an evening of laughter and delightful surprises.
Those newfound Jewish roots have clearly found their way into his songwriting. Mel Brooks could eat his heart out after hearing the title song of Location, Location, Location. In the set, he performed his pandemic-inspired “The Zoom Song,” in which he feigned a video freeze and stutter. The song poked fun at the limitations of the technology that allows singing together.
A marvelous form of a singalong came with “This Pretty Planet,” a children’s song (and book) he wrote with his frequent collaborator, Tom Chapin (Harry’s younger brother). The legendary Pete Seeger recorded it, too. Small sheets with three snippets of the lyrics were on each table. Like a teacher with a very old kindergarten class, Mr. Forster taught the sold-out audience the first line, awarding them a swig of their drink for getting it right. He came back to the other lines later in the show, making it both easier and creating anticipation.
Mr. Forster revealed his grandmother’s sage advice: “Find someone who could stand you.” He turned this advice into a brilliant, sweet and funny song, “Find Someone Who Can Stand You.” This song, in turn, and an actual mismatch, inspired “A Mismatch Made in Hell,” a great list song comparing attributes of a wholly incompatible couple’s differences. The funniest lines included “I was a leg man; she was an amputee” and “She was a masochist; I was one too. We’d be all dressed up, no one to turn the screw.”
The star briefly switched to guitar, of which he knows but a handful of chords, for his amusing “Loving and Losing,” a “folk song about writing folk songs.” When Mr. Forster brought guest Julie Gold up, he interviewed her for several minutes, songwriter to songwriter, before she took to the piano to sing a moving rendition of her most famous song, the Grammy-winning “From a Distance.” Ms. Gold performs intensely, eyes closed. With a singing voice suppler than her speaking voice, she somehow inhabits the young woman she was when she wrote the song 37 years ago.
Mr. Forster also did a reading from the hysterically funny BSAT, a parody of SAT prep books he wrote with Marc Segan.
Some of Mr. Forster’s songs seem to invoke other singer-songwriters. “This Sentence is False” could have been a Leonard Cohen song. He even sings it in his lowest possible register. (The new album contains “February 31st,” a faux Dylan song, perfectly mimicked in singing and writing style, which Mr. Forster did not perform at this set.)
For the final song, Mr. Forster’s zany “Entering Marion,” he turns an innocent road trip through towns with (mostly) female names and actual road signs saying “Entering [town name]” into quite the risqué travelogue. The song is included in Dr. Demento’s “50 Greatest Novelty Songs of All Time.”
A singalong (as a “round”) of the full “This Pretty Planet” made for the perfect encore.
This performance of Too Clever By 20% took place on April 16 at Don’t Tell Mama (343 West 46th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues). donttellmamanyc.com Additional performances of the show are scheduled for April 24 and May 1.
Photos courtesy of Michael Lee Stever
