Q&A: Comedian Jim Jefferies to bring his standup routine to the Palace Theatre Oct. 27, Here's what to expect
Jim Jefferies isn’t afraid to spark controversy, so long as he’s funny.
The comedian, the first Australian invited to do an HBO comedy special (”Swear to God” in 2009), first achieved international attention in 2007 when an audience member, upset by a joke, attacked him onstage.
His standup tours and comedy specials continue to cover the gamut: religion, politics, culture, sex, marriage, children, double standards and his autism diagnosis.
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“Legit,” his semi-autobiographical 2013-2014 FX sitcom, was widely praised for portraying autistic and disabled characters as real people.
Originally announced to perform here in January, Jefferies rescheduled his appearance when his family got COVID.
Jefferies, 45, spoke in advance of his Oct. 27 show at the Palace Theatre.
Question: Is it riskier to raise controversial subjects today?
Jefferies: Yes and no. It’s harder than ever to please everybody because everyone has a voice. Those people who are angry were always angry, and never liked you in the first place. They just couldn’t leave a thousand comments before.
My belief is you can’t really do comedy without someone feeling like they’re the victim. I try to make myself the butt of the joke, but don’t always succeed.
Q: You draw much from your life. How much of that will you share in Columbus?
Jefferies: There’s a lot going on in my life right now ― I’ve gotten married and had a baby, my mother passed away, my father has a terminal illness ― and a lot to talk about, plus stories from being on the road.
I tell jokes about my wife; she loves me anyway.
My theory of comedy is that, if you talk about yourself, you can relate to people and they can see themselves in you.
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Q: How has your comedy evolved?
Jefferies: My old story was being on the road a lot and taking cocaine. Now I’m a happy, married, 45-year-old husband and father. I don’t get drunk every day and don’t wake up with remorse anymore. I accept less excitement for fewer hangovers.
I’m more at ease with myself, nowhere near as angry as I used to be. In my earlier work, I was always talking about being an atheist. . . . I still don’t believe in God, but I’m more chill about it. All I want to do now is make people laugh as much as possible.
Q: You were diagnosed as autistic at 36. How do you view that?
Jefferies: I’m of two minds about this. I think the autistic spectrum thing is like a percentage. Let’s say I’m very low on the spectrum, maybe 3 or 4%. Doctors tell me I have a few social cues I miss out on. I have a hard time looking people in the eye. My wife helps me keep that in check a bit.
But aren’t we all a little odd? . . . I’ve met people easily as odd as me who claim to have nothing wrong with them.
Q: You’re a native Australian. Why did you become a U.S. citizen?
Jefferies: I have two American children now. If I’m living here and paying taxes here, and I have no intention of moving, then it felt like the right thing to do.
It wasn’t just paperwork. I feel proud to be an American, to live here, travel this country and tell jokes.
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Q: What do you like about living here?
Jefferies: America has given me a great career, first HBO and then Netflix with the specials. When people say America is the land of opportunity, that’s proven to be true for me.
America has its faults, like state income taxes and guns. But I also lived in Australia and Britain, and they have a lot of flaws . . . There’s no utopia.
Q: Years ago, you were called “one of the most offensive comedians” of your generation. How do you deal with such criticism?
Jefferies: I’ve always sort of encouraged that type of comment. You want that press. Some comics were telling me what balls I have for telling certain jokes, but I never had that fear in me of how I was going to be perceived. I always assumed that people knew I was joking.
To be a good comic, there’s nothing better than being divisive.
You have to take the good and the bad, some people liking you, some not liking you. I often put the bad quotes on my posters. Part of the fun of this job is getting into trouble.
@mgrossberg1
At a glance
Jim Jefferies will perform at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St. Tickets cost $39.75 to $179.75. (www.cbusarts.com)
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Comedian Jim Jefferies to perform in Columbus on Oct. 27
