Jimmy Rees on what makes Victoria special and his Sydney Opera House wardrobe malfunction
Kids’ entertainer turned comedian Jimmy Rees on what makes his home state of Victoria so special, and his Sydney Opera House wardrobe malfunction.
![Comedian Jimmy Rees: “The vibe [in Victoria] is “we know the weather is annoyingly unpredictable but we will defend our position with great coffee and culture”.](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/22c85d82e8483bc7874049080de198f5?width=650)
Kids’ entertainer turned comedian Jimmy Rees, 36, tells Bridget Cormack about Victoria’s defining qualities, his fear of umbrellas and life advice for his three sons.
As far as Australian states go, Victoria would have to be … hilarious for the fact that it has wonderful beaches with a water temperature pretty cold to swim in until February. A river that runs through the city with E. coli. Is the self-proclaimed sporting capital but refuses the Commonwealth Games. And a place where you can turn right from the left lane. It has its quirks. The vibe is “we know the weather is annoyingly unpredictable but we will defend our position with great coffee and culture”.
My upcoming tour is making me …excitedly nervous and overwhelmingly grateful. Right now as we speak I am putting all the pieces together for the show. I am not a stand-up comic with a mic and a stage. There are a few more moving parts to get multiple “Jimmys” on stage at once for the skits and segments in the show. It gets a little stressful but we are almost there. Performing live is an amazing adrenaline rush as you get the feedback instantaneously, unlike an online audience. It’s great, I love it. Hitting the road and discovering what different cities laugh harder at is always great fun, too.
If I found $50 on the street I would … wonder how someone could have dropped $50 worth of 20c pieces and not realised. Then I’d pick it all up, which would take a while. Look around. Ask the nearest person if it was theirs. Then probably just put it back and hope the owner came back for the 20c pieces.
Not on my CV is the time I … was dancing and split my pants clean down the butt when I was dancing at a New Year’s Eve event at the Sydney Opera House. Luckily I had a pair of shorts so I was fully dressed in black tie except for … the shorts!
The last thing that had me in stitches was … The Play That Goes Wrong! It’s a very silly play where everything goes wrong. My kind of stupid, silly humour. It was impressive how it was put together; sets fall over, it’s physical, Monty Python-esque. A really good mate, Luke Joslin, who I met when I was on Giggle and Hoot, was in the play and is very talented. He is working on my tour as well.
The dumbest thing I do is … leave my wallet and keys in places. Then proceed to look for them for an exorbitant amount of time before remembering that I put AirTags on them and I can just search for them on my phone!
When people yell out “Jimmy Giggle” in the street I reply … with a “Hoot Hoot” (laughs). The show is still on air. I have no idea how long they plan to show it for but I’m happy because I’m in still in my 20s on that show. It’s great that people call out.
Here’s praying that … my recurring dream of being poked in the eye with the spokes of an umbrella doesn’t come true. When I was younger I always dreamt of having my own TV variety chat show kinda thing, but I think I am doing a version of that right now.
If you swoop in and steal my parking space, I’ll probably … be really angry but avoid all confrontation and flip you the bird just below the window line so you can’t see it while smiling and mouthing the words, “it’s OK you take it”.
If there’s one piece of advice I could give my three sons it would be … to be yourselves. Now this is hard to explain to an eight-year-old and two four-year-olds but we try. It’s hard not to compare everything in this world of constant content. Kids watching other kids do trick shots online, draw perfectly, and open boxes and boxes of toys. Is it trying to get your kids to listen to that little voice in their head, their gut feeling? Whenever our kids show an interest in something we explore that. My wife is excellent at organising this.
Jimmy Rees’ national Not That Kinda Viral tour kicks off in Melbourne on August 30.