Jim Jefferies - The Y

Australian stand up Jim Jefferies first came to national prominence after he was assaulted by an affronted audience member at a Manchester comedy club and the resulting video became a viral hit on the Internet. He later incorporated the footage into his act. 

Jefferies was a curious act, being an offensive comic, playing up to a hard-living image (he has given up drinking due to an inflamed liver) that revelled in assaulting society's niceties yet also revealing his humanity in a series of unsentimental anecdotes that revealed his own flaws, and problems, such as a discussion of his bi-polar disorder. He seemed slightly ill at ease on stage, as a consequence of a heavy cold that meant that he performed large portions of his act from a chair.

His resolutely un-PC material certainly didn’t go down well with everyone. There were moments which lacked any sufficient purpose or insight that would justify them. Material about Jordan’s disabled son, much like similar recent comments by Frankie Boyle, seemed unnecessary, whatever one thinks of his mother. However, when he rounds on an audience member for only finding a joke about Madeline McCann merely "a bit offensive" it is apparent that he has at least considered the offence he is giving. 

Jerry Sadowitz, who is a more offensive comedian, can at least hide behind the fact that his audience are supposed to be laughing at his misanthropy, not with him. With Jeffries, there isn't such a clear line - while he readily admits to being an imperfect human being, he doesn't invite the victim status that Sadowitz does. He seemed to suggest that the audience is to blame for buying the tickets, but that does rather rely on the audience knowing what it is they're going to get, and I suspect Jeffries knows full well that isn't a convincing justification. He also remarked that the audience was the smallest of his tour and reflected that his material is much more difficult to do when the atmosphere is so intimate and it's easy to imagine how any offence might be less charged in a larger theatre.

There was no denying that Jefferies was very funny and able comic but it's equally undeniable that a good proportion of the laughs came with a hand held over the mouth in genuine shock. Very definitely not one for Michael McIntyre fans.