Dave Jay, mimicking a famous Beatles album cover…
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September 23, 2009
He has not played the new video game nor has he shelled out for the remastered catalogue of albums, but Dave Jay did find a way to pay homage to his favorite musical group.
In JohnPaulGeorgeRingo, Jay — born David Gerstein — channels each of the Beatles in an 80-minute one-man show, which he brings to the 13th Street Repertory Company Theater in Manhattan for six performances, beginning Sept. 25.
“I morph between the four characterizations,” he told NJ Jewish News in a telephone interview. “The whole show is improvised with the audience. I play some of their songs, and work in some of my originals, and they can ask any question of any Beatle.”
Jay created the show about five years ago and has performed across the United States and internationally, including in Liverpool, England, the Fab Four’s home turf. “It wasn’t the most appropriate venue because it’s a very intimate show and this was a sweaty place, full of drunken Liverpudlians.” Nevertheless, the show “went over pretty well,” he said.
Timing is everything: With renewed interest in the group, thanks to “The Beatles Rock Band” game and the rerelease of the albums, Jay finds his program gaining more interest — including on the college circuit. He said he tries to tailor his material; there’s one version for an older, knowledgeable group and another for those just coming to the table that includes a more involved “introduction” of each musician. Performing as all four Beatles has its challenges, but Jay modestly calls himself “the laziest hardest working man in show business.”
“Some audiences ask a lot of questions and get into it; others don’t really want to ask questions at all, and I’ve got to work on my feet there. Every now and again, you’ll get what I call a ‘stump-the-Beatles guy,’ who asks the most inane questions, like ‘George, how many raisins did you eat in 1966?’”
Jay, 40, was born in Queens but as a child moved to Livingston, where his family belonged to Temple Beth Shalom. He proudly claimed the distinction of being the first bar mitzva in New Jersey to participate in a “twinning” ceremony with a youngster in the Soviet Union, sharing the event with Aleksandr Goldberg of Moscow in December 1981.
Jay “discovered” the Beatles via a circuitous route. “When I was a little kid in the ’70s, they were rerunning The Monkees TV show. When I found out about these funny characters who played great pop music and were chased by girls, I said, ‘That’s what I wanna be.’” The brother of a close friend introduced Jay to the more serious work of the original mop-tops, on whom the Monkees were loosely based.
As he became a fan of the Beatles’ music, he collected every book and magazine article he could get his hands on to learn more about their back stories. “So many combinations of amazing things had to happen for that height of success that it’s just mind-blowing,” he said.
As far as he knows, neither of the two surviving Beatles — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — have caught his act, although Sid Bernstein, who booked the band for their first Shea Stadium concert in 1964, did attend one of the shows.
For more information on JohnPaulGeorgeRingo, visit davejay.com.
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