CityLife

Interview: Jim Jeffries

Jim Jeffries

SINCE the last time CityLife spoke to Jim Jeffries, the Aussie comedian has upped sticks from the UK and taken himself off to LA. One of the consequences of which was that getting hold of him for interview proved tricky.

West coast USA being eight hours behind, the usual manner would be to call late in the working day here making it bright and early morning there - but anyone who knows anything about Jeffries would know that he’s not the type to do mornings.

So the first time we attempted to call we woke him up, despite the fact that he was meant to have two interviews before us.

Not to worry; instead an early morning for us was scheduled in, making it an early hours of the morning for Jeffries. That’s more like it.

Graphic humour

“Quarter past one? Yeah I suppose it is, eight hours behind, yeah?” responds Jeffries of LA time as we establish what the clocks say in each of our respective time zones.

Still, he’s not moved just to confuse those of us who he used to live amongst - as well as living in London while he was in the UK, he lived in Manchester for a few years too - but to explore other projects, not least a HBO special that aired earlier this year; and a series of his own that is still at the decision-making stage as yet.

So how’s LA then? “Ah, it’s all right. I live on Venice Beach,” he notes, his voice brightening. “Not near Venice Beach; on Venice Beach - the most famous beach in the world. I haven’t been out in the water yet, it’s autumn now so don’t think I’m going to. I like to look at it and walk past it occasionally. I actually prefer the weather in England, I’ve got to be honest…”

Not surprising that he’s not making the most of any early autumn Californian sunshine. In performance Jeffries is at his best ranting about life and the injustices it’s dealt him. Pathos-imbued, no-holds-barred, often graphic humour makes him one of the most insightful and exciting comedians around. It also got him punched on stage at the Manchester Comedy Store the other year.

'Interesting people'

In a typical routine last year at the  Edinburgh Fringe, bitter at the amount of couples in his front row, he berated them for being loved up. ‘You think that’s a happy ending? Well, let me tell you, one day one of you is going to die and leave the other alone." Coming from the mouth of any other comedian it could easily sound just plain nasty. From Jeffries - who had recently lost a friend to suicide - it was heartrendingly poignant.

This tour, which has played five nights at the Fringe this year already, is meant to be - as the name ‘The Hits’ gives away - a greatest hits.

“I was meant to be doing just old material, but pretty much wrote thirty or forty minutes of new material for it. I told them that if I do any of that stuff in the next shows to forgive me because officially that was the old material. I’ve probably written the best routine of my career since April so [come] just to see that. I’m not going to be coming back telling stories about America; you do this, they do that. It’s really just stories, things that have happened to me.”

Though some of the LA life has been creeping in. “There’s a little bit of name dropping, you can’t help it. Sometimes funny things happen and you’re with a celebrity. I always feel like a bit of a idiot, but the people that make you feel like a idiot are the people that never meet these people. And you meet a lot of interesting people here, especially living out in Hollywood and all that.

Relief

"There’s always someone famous in the crowd, you know? I always find that when people have their photos taken with me - which happens quite a lot now since the HBO special - but when I meet people who I want my photos with, I feel like I’m in a position where I can’t ask because that wouldn’t be cool,” he laughs.

Meanwhile, he’s hauling himself all over the place with the tour to do “50 dates in 60 days across 40 cities”, but he’s particularly looking forward to Milwaukee tomorrow. “I’m going to see the Bronze Fonz which is a statue of the Fonzie next to the river there. Actually, I might not have time to see the Bronze Fonz and then do the gig - I’ve got to fly back out to LA at nine o’clock in the morning. The road in this country is a lot harder than the road in Britain - it’s time zones constantly.”

So it’ll be a relief to get back to the UK for a bit. “I’m going to drive to most of the gigs, except for the gig in Manchester, because I’m going to stay a couple of nights - have a couple of days off - so I think I might get ****** up at that gig.

"Afterwards," he counters, “I’ll put on a professional show. I like Manchester.”

That’s all right then.