Tonight: Songs Trump Fortune Cookies

"The Ego & The Oracle" w/ Jim's Big Ego
Lizard Lounge/Cambridge Common
9:30 pm
$10 / 21+

If one had asked "The Oracle" if this show would ever return, it may have chosen "New Lang Syne" by Jim's Big Ego whose lyrics include, "Next year will be better." Believe or not, songs can predict the future!

Although it's been more than a year since "The Ego & The Oracle" had its last extended run at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater, this metaphysical music/comedy show described as where "Ouija Board meets iPod Shuffle" returns for one performance tonight.

It's a humorous mix of music, audience participation, and prognostication. The band is "The (Jim's Big) Ego", and the Wheel of Song is "The Oracle" which answers your question from dozens of ditties written by the prolific and uber-talented Jim Infantino -- like the rock 'n roll version of I Ching.

At the beginning of the show, everyone writes down a question about the future. It could be something serious or a goofball question normally reserved for a Magic 8-Ball. The "magic" begins when a question is chosen from the box and the wheel is spun to pick the soothsaying song to be performed by Jim's Big Ego.

Every JBE song is a different combination of articulate, funny, poignant, and melodic. Diehard fans wait for the wheel to land on one of their special song, while newcomers walk away with head full of new favorites from the band's jazzy/folk/rock will come up.

After each song, the audience member sits on stage with "The Interpreter" (Shawn Peters, reprising his duties from the last production), to analyze the meaning that may or may not be hidden.

It's amazing how a random song can respond to a random question in such relevant ways. Other times, the link can be tenuous yet often very funny.

It's likely to follow the previous format of an approximately 2-hour show with an intermission. All questions can't be addressed during the show, but the remaining items are pulled out of the box as the impromptu lyrics of the closing song.