Millennials suck and germophobes can start carrying their weight in garbage in today’s society: I was sold listening to Jim Jefferies on his Night Talker Tour as he strolled through Victoria and stopped at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Saturday, November 16.
As an aspiring comedian, it’s immensely helpful to see a professional work the stage so I can try to sap any knowledge from their performance. So I eagerly picked up my ticket, found my seat next to wine-drunk Ms. Statler and Waldorf, and settled in. The arena was packed, from the front row to the nosebleeds.
Prior to Jefferies, there were three opening acts of comedians who either wrote for his show or performed with him in the past: JJ Whitehead, Glenn Wool, and Tommy Campbell. Each comedian was their own kind of colourful and did an excellent job keeping the crowd hot for the headliner.
There was some chatter throughout the audience during the opening acts, but as soon as Jefferies went on stage, the crowd’s attention was focused; when he talked, you sure listened. Jefferies is a professional—his performance was seamless; his transitions from story to story were so perfect that not even acknowledging someone filming in the front row and gracefully telling him to “live in the moment, dickhead” broke his stride.
Jefferies was dynamic and used the full span of the stage for his interpretations of toddlers dancing or simply pacing while telling his jokes, taking pauses, of course, to sit in a lounge chair centre stage. In his chair, fleshing out a story, it gave the moment a vibe similar to talking to someone at an airport bar.
The way Jefferies was able to weave jokes together in transitions or callbacks to previous jokes—not just once, but several times—in a way that I couldn’t conceive would be relevant was brilliant. I highly recommend catching him next time around.