Just Super

Two things – no three - about Eddie Pattinson.  First, they are ‘non-binary’ (something we are told in the first few minutes and a member of the audience is recruited to hold up a sign, when signalled, reading NOT A WOMAN).  Second, they are small, slight, and endearing with hair of brilliant green, a nose piercing and one beaded earing with a cross on it and when they use their face or body to illustrate or counterpoint an idea, we see a fine comedian.  Third, they can deliver very dense, complex material in fully formed sentences at rocket speed without tripping up.  The range and depth of Eddie’s research is very impressive.

Eddie Pattinson is facing some big changes in their life.  They would feel a lot more confident about those changes if they could forecast with some certainty how the changes would turn out.  For instance, there’s gender and what to do about it…  

So, they are drawn to a book - not a ratbag book but a highly praised book, praised by very credible people – Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Predicting.  This book makes the verified claim that the ‘average expert forecaster may perform no better than a dart throwing chimpanzee.’  Here, the ‘average expert’ means people who are paid to make predictions in such places and institutions as military intelligence, banks, the stock market, and so on.  

So-called ‘ordinary people’, like Eddie, may make better, more accurate, more reliable predictions if they follow certain guidelines and if they possess certain personality traits.  (If you want to know what those traits are – and they make perfect sense - see the show – or Google the book.)  So, the question for Eddie is, do they possess these traits? 

That is the question because Just Super is not really, or not just about forecasting; it’s about Eddie.  It’s comedy.  It’s stand-up.  It’s about the performer.  With the aid of a large television screen, Eddie takes us through the very thorough research they did to find out if they could be a super forecaster. 

They selected the people who presumably knew them best: their Mum, their Dad, their brother, their best friend(s), including Ryan, the producer of the show.  They asked each of these people if they possessed the necessary traits.  Things get very intimate and revealing.  We hear the voices of Eddie’s sample.  There are highs and lows.  And we learn a lot about Eddie.

On the way through we are held, we are curious, and we hope Eddie will find out what Eddie needs to find out.  It’s engrossing.  The humour is wry and ironic rather than side-splitting, and there is a just discernible subtext of Eddie’s desperation as they really, really want to know the future.

Michael Brindley