Jimeoin : Renonsense Man
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Jimeoin : Renonsense Man

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Most people probably have a bucket list. It’s that list of things we want to achieve or experience before we eventually die, crossing things off as we go and adding more as new ideas appeal to us.

Jimeoin has an opposite kind of list. “I have a fuck-it list. It’s just shit I don’t want to do anymore,” he says. He starts muttering with a not-quite-faux bitterness as he gives an example: “Going to social gatherings that are just there as some sort of work shit that aren’t really social gatherings at all, they’re just awkward social environments. Fuck it, I’m not doing them anymore…” He pauses, changes tone. “Probably will.”

Little foibles and contradictions in human behaviour such are these are a big part of Jimeoin’s comedy, which has made him a household name in Australia for decades now. While he may be taking plenty of things off his to do list these days, fortunately for his legions of fans, the ex-pat Irish stand-up still keeps returning to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

His latest show is called Renonsense Man and the poster image is a piss-take of the famous Renaissance man himself, Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, where a man is superimposed on top of himself, arms and legs at differing angles, encased by a circle and square. “I thought, ‘I’ll just be that person, maybe that will be funny for a poster,’ ” he tells Beat from Canberra, where appropriately enough, he’s spending his day looking at art galleries and museums.

So what will we see in Renonsense Man? “The red underpants,” he says, referring to the only thing he’s wearing on the poster. “I wanted to do it naked but no, they wouldn’t have it.

“It’s nonsense, really. Classic nonsense. The shit I do. I try to put things under a banner but it’s more just the human condition; the animals that we are. The animal that I am is getting old and I’m the idiot really. I talk about my own frailties and get my laughs out of that.

Although Jimeoin has had plenty of experience on TV and has a couple of feature film credits under his belt, these days live work is his main focus. “I’ve been touring the UK a lot, and touring the UK and Australia and NZ seems to be enough,” he says.

“That’s high on the fuck-it list, the meetings with TV executives to do TV shows. That’s number one on the fuck-it list although I used to do it quite a bit for free lunches. That was always a nice little scam. Some production company wants you to do something so you go and meet with them, so they can say they’ve met with you, and just order the steak.”

While he might not be doing TV again anytime soon, you can catch him during the festival at ACMI.

 

By Joanne Brookfield

Venue: ACMI – Beyond

Dates: Thursday March 30 – Sunday April 23 (bar Mondays)

Duration: 60 minutes

Tickets: $38 – $45

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