Jimmy Rees is one of Australia’s most popular comic performers, making the move from children’s television to an impressive career online. His eight-city Australian 'In Reel Life' tour is hitting stages around the country this October-December.
The title tells you at the start; Australian stories told at cinematic speed. Blink and you’ll miss it, but another joke is hot on its heels.
His recent award of the OAM is a tribute to his popularity, but his impressive online figures show that he’s caught the attention of the world. So how did it begin, and could he ever have done something else?
He had, as he says, a pretty fun childhood in country Victoria – which set his future career direction. His English-born father introduced Jimmy and his two brothers to British humour: 'Monty Python', 'The Two Ronnies', 'Hale And Pace'. He also had a camcorder.
“My brothers would be just doing a puppet show or something weird and silly and [dad] was laughing along and we could all look back on it. He’s got the tapes. So you know, maybe I was destined to point a camera and put some stuff online.”
Destiny maybe, but being the one person chosen out of five thousand applicants for a job on the then new ABC3 was pretty impressive. That job was as one half of 'Giggle And Hoot'.
“That was a bizarre time,” Jimmy reflects. “I was just 21 and I knew I wanted to get into the entertainment industry. . . Then the audition call went out and my mum and my then girlfriend, my wife Tori, pointed me in that direction. My DVD eventually got passed along to a team looking for someone to host a children's show. They liked me and teamed me with Hoot.”
The rest, they say, was ten years in Australia’s lounge rooms. The show introduced him to Australia’s families, and was a regular date even for people without young children.
Now, the children who were his core audience then, are his fans on TikTok.
“Yeah it's quite bizarre actually. It does make me feel old when there's a 21-year-old or something driving a car, can buy a house, get a home loan and they're like, 'yeah you put me to sleep every night mate'. They start singing the song or going, at the end of a conversation, ‘see you in the morning…hoot hoot!’”
Saying goodbye to Hoot gave Jimmy the freedom to express his natural talents, and the internet brought him a huge new audience hungry for his bite-sized and high-impact sketches of contemporary urban life with an appreciative response around the world.
He’s fond of taking on – and taking apart – the regional characteristics and rivalries that mark Australia. One Jimmy interrogates another Jimmy. A Jimmy at the checkout tells you everything you need to know about your home city. A Jimmy at border control asks searching questions. A world leader, Trump for example, is reduced to an ill-fitting hair piece and an accent. Jimmy’s physicality is exhilarating and seemingly spontaneous, but his material is meticulously crafted.
“I think the genesis of a lot of the videos that we make here is that it spawns from observation and also contrast. If you can pick the contrast between a couple of things that are everyday, we see them every day and it's pointed out in an interesting, creative way, then people can laugh along,” Jimmy says. “I think it's a bit manic. I think it's probably chaotic. It's an interesting way to describe the videos I post out there, but on the other hand, you know, we work hard and especially spend a lot of time writing scripts.”
“It's a lot of work behind the scenes you know. A lot of it seems off-the-wall and definitely there is a part of that, but it's definitely calculated and you also have a chance to vent your feelings about other places in Australia.”
The transition from screen to live performance is daunting as Jimmy prepares for the upcoming live shows, but it is something he really looks forward to.
“I've got to write all the content and make people laugh every 12 seconds or so, you know. I definitely make a bit of a local gag to open the show, with a little Instagram video. There is usually some self-deprecating humour about the city that I'm in, and a little bit of a roast. That always goes over so well. It gets people in the mood. It's like they've got the first lap out of the way in a little opening package.”
“There’s definitely some fun to have with the audience as well. In the last show, I had a kiss cam style sort of video where we pointed the camera at the back of the audience and got some people up on stage to answer some questions and go through a few skits to help out. Stuff like that, so that's definitely interactive and silly – I'm looking forward to it.”
He takes care to learn the latest gossip and issues of every city he arrives in: “Go to Reddit with a question about the things that annoy people in Adelaide for instance, and you’ll get fifty sub-Reddit threads about their buses.”
There are more than giggles and hoots in store for Australia’s lovers of his stand and deliver comedy. His brand of what used to be called larrikin humour, and his sharp-eyed observations and sharp-edged tongue makes Jimmy Rees uniquely placed to bring you an unforgettable evening on his 'In Reel Life' tour.
Jimmy Rees Australia Tour Dates
25 October – Wrest Point Entertainment Centre (Hobart)7 November – Fortitude Music Hall (Brisbane)
8 November – The Star (Gold Coast)
21 November – Thebarton Theatre (Adelaide)
22 November – Riverside Theatre (Perth)
28 November – Palais Theatre (Melbourne)
29 November – Royal Theatre (Canberra)
14 December – Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Words: Ewart Shaw
