Australian comedian Jim Jefferies brought his “Freedumb” tour to the Danforth Music Hall for a five show stand over three days, which should probably serve as his last visit to the intimate venue before moving onto bigger and better places.
The funnyman’s profile has risen greatly on this side of the pond, mostly due to his stance on Americans and their guns, I won’t ruin it for you but you should check out his special from 2014, Bare.
I caught the early Friday show, the second of his Toronto stand. I’ve seen him before and think I’ve caught all his specials, but this tour was the most consistent gut emptying night of laughs I’ve had with Jefferies. He wasted no time in getting down to business as soon as he sauntered onstage, first addressing Bill Cosby. Depending on your sense of humour, Jefferies could make you uncomfortable right from the get-go, but it seemed those were largely at home already in bed, as he had the vast majority of the crowd in his palm. Jefferies called out a woman in front of me filming on her cellphone, pointing out how easy it is to be taken out of context.
And he’s right, while the couple beside me seemed to have been punished by being forced to sit there, I found Jefferies to be a nice tonic to how serious and reactionary most have people become, especially without any context. So while he might not be for everyone’s taste, I was in stitches from start to finish for his almost two hour set. I’ll also admit I could watch the man for hours. He wouldn’t even have to say anything. But thankfully, he has brains as well and while some of his rants could be biting, they were spot on.
He liberally stalked the stage, doing his signature pace ranting like a drunken buddy. What amazed me the most was how fresh the material was, with next to nothing repeated from the aforementioned Bare special, aside from talk of his girlfriend and their child. The crowd was boisterous, almost baiting the viper tongued comedian to spar, but he wouldn’t be derailed. In return we got almost two hours of smart, side-splitting commentary from the rising star who really seems to be hitting his stride.
