How forthright and filthy Aussie funny man Jim Jefferies conquered the comedy world

FILTHY and forthright, crude and controversial: Jim Jefferies is impossible to pigeonhole — and the globetrotting Aussie comedian wouldn’t have it any other way.

JIM Jefferies is a comedy conundrum.

The Sydney-born funny man found fame and fortune first in the UK and then in the US on the back of a brand of confronting comedy that has frequently ventured into the downright offensive in the eyes of his many detractors.

Not much has been off limits to the forthright Jefferies — highly sensitive subjects such as sex (even rape), drugs, alcoholism, depression, religion and domestic abuse have all been fodder for his keen mind and acerbic tongue. Such material, which once scored him a punch to the noggin onstage by an enraged heckler in Manchester, and the fact that his audience for a long time consisted almost entirely of young men, earned him a reputation as a misogynist bogan, and made him an outlier in his homeland.

JIM JEFFERIES’ DUD GIG FOR JAMIE AND MARIAH

JIM ON VEGAS SHOOTING: YOU’RE P---ING IN THE WIND

AUSSIE COMIC BLASTS PIERS MORGAN

Not much has been off limits to the forthright Jim Jefferies.

But in more recent years, having become one of Australia’s most successful comedy exports, his audience has changed, and with it his standing in the comedy community. In 2015, a routine about gun control in the US went viral, and audiences started paying attention to his pointed political satire, helping him land The Jim Jefferies Show, which is now in its second season on US cable TV and puts him in the same conversations as the likes of John Oliver, Steven Colbert and Trevor Noah.

The New York Times called the show “enlightened crudity” — and indeed on his one of his closing monologues last year in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, he called himself out for some of his own more questionable past material. All the same, on his most recent Netflix stand-up special, his spot-on social commentary sits somewhat uncomfortably with jokes that clearly denigrate women — but Jefferies, over the phone from his adopted home of Los Angeles gives the impression he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Australian comedian Jim Jefferies is heading home for his biggest tour yet.

He says he hates having labels put on comedy and that it “should be whatever the f--- you want it to be. If there is an audience for it, fine. And if there isn’t, there isn’t”. His rule of thumb is that the more offensive the joke it, the funnier it has to be. He recognises that he’s a bundle of contradictions, but says that his comedy comes from a place of honesty and “the only thing I write is what I think is funny”.

“I can be a nice guy or I can act like a piece of s---,” Jefferies says. “I can be a great boyfriend or I can be a philandering a---hole. I can be all these things. We are made up of many parts and I figured out early on that I would just say anything that had happened in my life.

“I used to say that people are like icebergs. You just see that ten per cent — and ninety per cent is under the water. I always like to think that people know 90 per cent about me — I don’t tend to hold too much back — and I think that’s refreshing for people.”

And although he describes himself as “a bit of a Lefty”, also realises he’s a bit of an anomaly in that world.

“I never thought that the Left wing would like me because of my crudity or whatever,” he says. “But there are a lot of crude Left-wing people like myself out there as it turns out. But I hate putting labels on people. I think we are more diverse then we think we are.”

After figuring out his career in Australia was limited, Jefferies relocated to London in the early 200s to a take advantage of the city’s thriving comedy scene. It was a hard slog but he persisted, playing bigger and bigger rooms, drawing widespread acclaim and partying hard as he did so. He took that success across the Atlantic a decade ago and hasn’t looked back, becoming the first Australian comedian to land a coveted HBO special, creating the sitcom Legit, which ran for two seasons, followed by Comedy Central’s The Jim Jefferies Show, which kicked off last year and has drawn high-profile fans such as Brad Pitt and Seth Rogen, both of whom agreed to be celebrity weathermen.

Jim Jefferies says he is more informed than he has ever been thanks to his current affairs comedy show.

Like his contemporaries, Brits John Oliver and James Corden, and Canadian Samantha Bee, LA-based Jefferies believes that his foreigner status helps him run a more critical eye over the vagaries of modern American society.

“Being an outsider does mean that you can look at all the topics with fairly fresh eyes, things haven’t been indoctrinated into you since you were a child,” he says. “I’m sure I would love guns if every morning my father had told me that guns were the things that keep us free.”

“I think I get a little bit more leeway because I am Australian. I think if I was Canadian or something I would just be written off in the same way as when a New Zealander wants to tell you about Australia.”

Oddly, Australia’s two hottest international comedy successes of the moment are at completely different ends of the spectrum, thanks to Netflix specials that dropped around the same time. Jefferies’ successful This Is Me show was released in July, just weeks after Hannah Gadsby’s furiously funny, critically acclaimed Nanette. While Gadsby has described feeling “unsafe” sitting in the audience of one of Jefferies’ shows, he describes Nanette as “a fine bit of art” even if it wasn’t necessarily his cup of tea.

“I understand why it’s getting so much acclaim,” he said. “I don’t think it’s made for me but I think it’s a fine bit of art and a wonderful performance and it was very moving. But I don’t subscribe to comedy being a place where you are not meant to put yourself down or you have to be serious all the time. That’s not how I have ever looked at it.”

Jim Jefferies, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, December 6; RAC Arena, Perth, December 8; Brisbane Entertainment Centre, December12; ICC Sydney, December 15; Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, December 17.

Tickets on sale September 14, Ticketek