Jim Jefferies May 31, The Joint
One line more than any other from Jim Jefferies’ set sums up the Australian comedian: “I’m really good at telling stories and my girlfriend is really bad at telling stories so it bothers me when she talks.” It’s funny, it’s quick and it tells you who he is. Jefferies has always been labeled “controversial,” but I don’t see it. He’s foul-mouthed, he talks about hot-button issues and he presents his material from a misogynistic point of view, but that’s his point of view!
His bits are long and peppered with laughs throughout. On the equality of pay between men and women: “Women only earn 70 percent of what men earn in the workplace. Now of course that’s disgusting. How dare women earn so much money.” Then the bit twists and turns until it gets here: “I’m not saying that women don’t work as hard. I’m not saying they don’t do as good a job. I’m saying they don’t deserve to earn as much money as men. Men need that 30 percent to hold the economy up. That 30 percent pays for things like dinner and drinks and Jim Jefferies shows.”
Reversals, misdirection and precision with his wording, that’s what Jefferies does best. Gun control, holidays, Oscar Pistorius, parenthood—Jefferies locks in on his targets and goes hard at them. Not even the venue’s late-night headliner, Guns N’ Roses, could avoid his dry wrath: “I have to be off at a certain point and time because Axl Rose doesn’t like his show running late.”
Even though Jefferies’ underrated TV show Legit got canceled (it seemed doomed ever since it was moved to the FXX desert island from its original home on FX), if the rabid live crowd was any indication, Jefferies will be just fine. And while I hear the GNR show was rocking, I can’t imagine their fans were any more enthusiastic.
