Ahead of his just-announced Australia tour later this year, Jim Jefferies joins this week’s episode of the Rolling Stone Uncut podcast!
The comedian sat down with Editor-in-Chief Neil Griffiths to talk about a number of topics, including the current political landscape in the US, where the Sydney-born comic currently resides, meeting some legendary names like Dave Chappelle and Tony Hawk and his rise to the top of Australian comedy.
Watch or listen to the full episode below!
An unfortunate encounter with Tony Hawk
“I just came in from England. I landed, I went on stage, and then afterwards, I was drinking, and I was literally drinking vodka from the lip. Because it’s an arena, they gave me the dressing room where the boxers would be. So it was all lockers with those wooden benches. I got paralytically drunk in the interval after my set.
“Tony Hawk was in the audience, and Tony Hawk had asked to meet me because he’d seen some of my stand-up and he enjoyed the show. I get a knock on the door from the promoter, who said, ‘Tony Hawk wants to meet you.’ And Tony Hawk came in, and I was so fucking legless. I couldn’t string a sentence together. I remember watching an episode of Cribs, and I’m into pinball, and I said, ‘You have a South Park pinball machine. That’s a good machine with the toilet and everything. It’s one of the rare ones from Stern that has a five-ball multi-ball.’
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“He didn’t ask for a photo or anything. He goes, ‘You should go to bed. It was very nice meeting you.’”
Meeting Dave Chappelle
“[Chappelle] was playing the Hollywood Bowl two nights in a row, and I got the ‘Dave wants to talk to you. So I went off to a room, and I met Dave, and he’s obviously smoking a cigarette and all that. He goes, ‘I was just chatting to Bill Burr, and he showed me the video of you being punched on stage. What was that like?’ I told him the whole story. We chatted for about five to ten minutes. He’s very friendly. He knew some of my standup, it was all very pleasant.
“Anyway, the next night, he gets rushed on stage by that guy with the fake knife. The next night, like 18 hours later, he gets attacked on stage. The coincidence was fucking insane.”
Staying humble despite the success
“I’m not going to be selling out these big venues in Australia in my eighties. Hopefully, we can play this footage back when I am selling these stadiums out in my eighties! To quote John Candy from Cool Runnings: If you’re not happy with it, you’ll never be happy without it. I’ve got to learn to be happy without it.
“My future is it’s not always going to be like this. I put so much of myself into stand-up comedy, and so much of my identity of self-worth is whether an audience likes me or not. And I’m trying to be very zen about it these days. I’m trying to enjoy my family while they’re young. If I’m at home in LA, the best night I can have is watching movies with my kids and having an edible.
“I’m trying to be humble, man. That’s where I’m at. Things could be going a lot worse, and I hope I deserve what I’ve got in life, and if I don’t, I’m very thankful for what I’ve got.”
