Jay Foreman (comedian)
Jay Foreman (born 4 October 1984) is an English comedian, singer-songwriter and YouTuber.
Jay Foreman | |||||||
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Jay Foreman in 2011 | |||||||
Background information | |||||||
Born | Stanmore, London, England | 4 October 1984||||||
Instruments | Guitar | ||||||
Years active | 2005–present | ||||||
Website | jayforeman | ||||||
YouTube information | |||||||
Channel | |||||||
Years active | 2006—present | ||||||
Subscribers | 853,000+ | ||||||
Total views | 96.96 million | ||||||
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Updated: 27 January 2021 | |||||||
Personal life
Jay Foreman was born to a Jewish family in Stanmore, North London.
His brother is beatboxer and musician Darren Foreman, more famously known by his stage name "Beardyman".[1]
Education
From 1996 to 2003, Foreman was educated at Queen Elizabeth's School,[2] a state grammar school for boys in Barnet, North West London, followed by the University of York, where he began performing comedy songs on acoustic guitar in 2005.[3]
Career
Foreman was featured as the BBC New Talent Pick of the Fringe 2007, won Best Newcomer at the Tuborg Musical Comedy awards 2009[4] and came third at the Musical Comedy Awards 2010.[5]
In 2009, Foreman contributed jingles to the weekly comedy podcast Answer Me This!,[6] and in 2011 and 2012, supported comedian Dave Gorman on Dave Gorman's PowerPoint Presentation tour.[7] In 2014, he began contributing regular topical comedy songs on Not The One Show, a magazine programme on London Live.
Foreman presented The General Election Xplained, a film sent to every secondary school in the UK in 2010, which won gold at the New York Festival for Best PR Film.[8]
For several years, he has also performed shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which include Disgusting Songs For Revolting Children (And Other Funny Stories), No More Colours and Mixtape.[9]
In June 2019 Jay became engaged to Jade Nagi.[10]
Jay Foreman's songs have been heard on BBC Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, The One Show and London Live TV.[11]
YouTube
Foreman created his YouTube channel in April 2006. It contains various clips from his comedy shows, tongue-in-cheek educational series such as Map Men (presented with Mark Cooper-Jones), Politics Unboringed and Unfinished London, and music videos for his songs. As of February 1, 2020, Foreman has gained over 850 thousand subscribers and amassed over 95 million views across all his public videos.[12]
Map Men
Map Men is a series of educational YouTube videos co-presented with Mark Cooper-Jones. The series premiered in 2016 and consists of around 5 minutes long videos about specific maps and abnormalities considering them.
Part | Title | Subject | Uploaded |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Bir Tawil – the land that nobody wants" | Bir Tawil | 4 May 2016 |
2 | "Mappa Mundi – the worst world map?" | Hereford Mappa Mundi | 25 May 2016 |
3 | "Where is the north/south divide?" | North–South division of England | 10 June 2016 |
4 | "India/Bangladesh – The world's worst border" | Enclaves on the India-Bangladesh border | 8 July 2016 |
5 | "Why is there a BLANK space in this map of East Berlin?" | Old East German maps leaving blank space in the place of West Berlin | 4 August 2016 |
6 | "Who Owns the South China Sea?" | Territorial disputes in the South China Sea | 8 August 2016 |
7 | "The world's oldest border?" | Anglo-Scottish border | 15 April 2019 |
8 | "Why do maps show places that don't exist?" | Trap streets | 13 May 2019 |
9 | "Why every world map is wrong" | Map projection | 20 June 2019 |
10 | "How did triangles shrink France?" | Cassini map | 7 August 2019 |
11 | "The world's silliest time zones" | Time zone anomalies | 2 September 2019 |
12 | "The map that saved the most lives" | 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak | 16 November 2020 |
13 | "Why are British place names so hard to pronounce?" | British place names | 14 December 2020 |
14 | "Why does Russia have the best maps of Britain?" | The Soviet Union's maps of Britain made during the Cold War | 11 January 2021 |
Politics Unboringed
Politics Unboringed is a series of educational YouTube videos with the first episode uploaded in 2015. Each episode is roughly 5 minutes long and handles various topics relating to British politics.
Part | Title | Subject | Uploaded |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Who's in charge of Britain?" | Government of the United Kingdom | 29 April 2015 |
2 | "Whom should I vote for?" | Voting and British political parties | 27 April 2015 |
3 | "Is there a good reason for NOT voting?" | Abstention | 27 April 2015 |
4 | "What is tactical voting?" | Tactical voting | 28 April 2015 |
5 | "Why don't politicians answer questions?" | Gotcha journalism | 2 May 2015 |
6 | "Who is the speaker of the house of commons?" | Speaker of the House of Commons | 16 May 2017 |
7 | "Why do politicians make that noise in PMQs?" | Hear, hear | 7 June 2017 |
8 | "How do you become a Lord?" | Membership of the House of Lords | 31 July 2017 |
Unfinished London
Unfinished London is a series of educational YouTube videos with the first episode uploaded in 2009. Each Unfinished London episode is roughly 10 minutes long and handles a specific area of evolution of London's infrastructure, urban planning and local government. Foreman describes it, on his YouTube description page as "A show about London's quirky, unexplained unbuilt infrastructure, exploring bridges over nothing, tunnels to nowhere, and borders that don't make any sense." The series has guest appearances from Beardyman, Tom Scott, Suzanna Kempner, Mark Silcox, Dan Bull, Stuart Ashen, Hannah Witton, TomSka, Dodie Clark, and Matt Lucas, amongst others.
Part | Title | Subject | Uploaded |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "The Unfinished Northern Line" | Northern Heights plan | 16 December 2009 |
2 | "London's unfinished motorways" | London Ringways | 11 March 2011 |
3 | "Why does London have so many airports?" | Airports of London | 29 May 2014 |
4 | "Why does Heathrow need to expand?" | 25 July 2014 | |
5 | "Why isn't cycling normal in London?" | Cycling in London | 15 March 2018 |
6 | "Why drivers should want cycle lanes" | 19 April 2018 | |
7 | "What happened to London's trams?" | Trams in London | 4 December 2018 |
8 | "Where does London stop?" | Creation of Greater London and the London boroughs |
1 March 2019 |
9 | "Why does London have 32 boroughs?" | 4 April 2020 | |
10 | "What's wrong with London's boroughs?" | 8 May 2020 |
References
- beardyman (18 December 2009). "Unfinished London – A Documentary by Jay Foreman (Beardyman's brother) and Paul Kendler" – via YouTube.
- "Comedian and musician Jay Foreman winning plaudits after building his career online". Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- "Jay Foreman". jayforeman.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
- Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards Archived 9 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- "Musical Comedy Awards". Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- "The Answer Me This! Players". answermethispodcast.com.
- "Jay Foreman on tour with Dave Gorman! |". www.dittoproductions.co.uk. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
- "The Election Xplained". Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
- Solutions, Powder Blue Internet Business. "Jay Foreman, comedian tour dates : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- Nagi, Jade (14 June 2019). "Two big announcements!!! pic.twitter.com/ZOGZOIKwUz". @Jade_Nagi. Retrieved 26 November 2019 – via Twitter.
- "Jay Foreman: 'One of the most fun things about performing for kids is that it's impossible to out-gross them'". The List. 17 March 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
- "Jay Foreman's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". socialblade.com. Retrieved 1 February 2021.