A BEARDYMAN live show is always different and every single show is completely unique because it’s completely made up on the spot.
In his own words you can expect anything from stand-up comedy to serious rave to reggae-slash-techno songs about donkeys.
What exactly is Beardyman? One minute he’s winning the UK Beatbox competition, twice, next he’s winning best MC at Breakspoll, and then he’s playing a sold-out run of solo comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe.
A leading light on the Beatbox scene since he landed on it with a bang in the mid noughties, Beardyman,
(real name Darren Foreman) has always pushed beatbox way beyond what most beatboxers consider its limits.
A uniquely gifted performer, his refusal to be put in a box has seen him beatbox all over the world including support slots touring with Groove Armada and hosting huge festival main stages.
However, all this was not enough for Foreman. Frustrated with the restrictions of the human mouth, but still obsessed with it’s unparalleled capabilities, he quickly became a leading figure in the emerging trend of live-looping.
He became the first to appropriate the Korg Kaoss Pad as a live-looping tool and pushed his beatbox-based art form into the entrancing and uncharted realms of live-production.
“Beatbox for me is just the quickest way of getting the ideas in my head out into the world where people can hear them,” he says.
Now, when playing to screaming fans all over the world, he uses an ever-growing arsenal of sound manipulation technology to take the ever-growing crowds with him on full-length musical journeys.
These can dart from exhilarating ad-hoc rave-up to comedic musings and interpretations and mash-ups of classic tunes from a huge range of genres.
With a new single for 2018 and a brand new album in the pipeline, expect to hear a lot more about the enigma that is Beardyman this year.
Beardyman (plus guests) will be at Whelans of Wexford Street on Sunday, July 29.
