EdFringe Review: Jamie Finn: Nobody’s Talking About Jamie (Taylor’s Version)

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Jamie Finn”s ‘Nobody’s Talking About Jamie (Taylor’s Version)’ is a deceptively clever one-man play. Blurring the lines between reality and fiction, Jamie plays himself, but tells a story inspired by, but not true to, his lived experiences. Understanding this is a play is critical – if you’re looking for a gag-fest, look elsewhere. It’s extremely funny, but the play’s the thing here…

This ‘true but not true’ basis for the show lends him complete authenticity. He doesn’t have to reimagine himself, or his feelings, he only has to wrap them up in a story adjacent to his real history.

The play opens with a break-up. Cordelia was his university dream girl, one whom he had built an entire life around, kids, house and pets – the only problem being none of that had happened yet. Abruptly dumped, Jamie takes to his guitar, inspired by the phrase, “You were the right guy at the wrong time”.

It’s immediately clear that Finn is an extremely competent musician-composer, with a knack for comedic lyrics. His songs are catchy, though prone to abrupt changes of direction to good effect.

However, ‘Nobody’s Talking About Jamie’ is hoodwinking you. Much as Cordelia left a mark upon his life, her impact pales in comparison to Lily, the excessively glamorous and artistic Amazon who recruits him for a flatmate.

From there, Jamie takes the audience with him into the ‘Factory’ where they live, and a life of early morning Spin classes, afternoon photo shoots, and nighttime adventures amongst the avant-garde London elite.

Finn deftly mixes a delicious cocktail of dramatisation and storytelling, often from the saddle of the spin cycle dominating the stage. It’s a totem of the ‘thing’ that binds him and Lily as the most intimate of friends. It’s ‘their thing’. Such is Jamie’s fresh-faced happiness in those classes, that it becomes the audience’s ‘thing’ too.

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and no one writes songs about breaking up with a friend…are you even allowed to feel sad about it?Myy only criticism of ‘Nobody’s TalkingAboutt Jamie’ is that, given it is a play and not a blow-by-blow true story, the ending could have more weight, and less throwaway humour.

Before that, and through it, Jamie takes to his guitar several times, whether it’s an embittered serenade to Cordelia’s new boyfriend, or celebrating the ‘new’ Jamie who emerges under Lily’s tutelage. Each is a highlight, fun and funny without being the least hackneyed.

The drama/story is also just as funny as it is fascinating, the touches of tragedy only making it more human and relatable. Self-deprecation underpins the comedy, whether it’s opining over his resemblance to child actors and dead celebrities, or misadventures born of his wide-eyed naivety and hunger for human connection.

Look out for a particularly memorable first encounter with hard drugs. It’s a disaster of laugh-out-loud proportions.

In the end this is a fine dramatic monologue created and performed by a a talented Jamie Finn. The subject matter is just as relatable, perhaps more, than one of conventional love. I can’t imagine anyone disliking this show, but I can imagine plenty of folks being utterly delighted.

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