Jimeoin brings the pandemonium

COMEDY star Jimeoin is unexpectedly more serious in person. The country’s adopted comic son has built a three-decades-long career as a likeable rogue, with a devil-may-care style and an even more devilish raised-eyebrow punch line.

The stage and screen star brings his new show Pandemonium to Ballina on January 17, and the first thing this masthead asked was whether the name had a meaning or was a quick grab for a fresh title.

“Yep, absolutely, that’s it. What am I gonna call the next tour, for God’s sake?” Jimeoin said.

“It’s harder than writing a joke. There’s such pressure on every freaking new show.

“Pandemonium captures what it is I cannot do because you’re none the wiser at the end of it. It’s not really about the state of the world or politics.

“I just jump from one thing to another. So yeah, pandemonium’s got a nice ring.”

With a schedule the envy of working performers, Jimeoin is in demand more than ever, with regular appearances at major Australian and international festivals, successful sell-out standup tours, and ongoing television work.

Marketing has changed drastically in Jimeoin’s time, and he is forthright in his views about online platforms.

“I think the thing that has benefited the most from social media, especially Instagram and Facebook, is comedy,” he said.

“MTV and the radio did wonders for music, but now people watch 50 seconds of standup and then watch all of it.

“And then their algorithm says, ‘Oh, we’ll give them more of that guy’, and then they know the person’s name and the videos are being shared.

“I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and there’s been a real increase in my popularity in the UK and Australia since social media took off.”

Critics have called Jimeoin ‘a comic genius’, who ‘excels at observational comedy’ and that his comedy was ‘of the highest order and inspired’. Australian audiences adore him.

He is philosophical about his career accolades and the rigours of touring. Even down a phone line, this writer sensed the shoulder shrug.

“I follow a real human existence most of the time. I’ve got jobs to do at home, I’ve been painting, and I keep busy,” he said.

“I’ve worked, drank, and socialised too much for many years, and I’ve had mental health issues.

“At the end of all those things, I burnt out. I have to be, you know, wary of myself and not overdoing things.”

As for the story behind the show’s title, the etymology was revealed during the conversation. The comedian seems happy with the name, meaning a ‘wild uproar’ or ‘tumult’ and denoting a place of old demons in Milton’s Paradise Lost.

“Paradise is lost and full of demons,” Jimeoin said.

As fitting a show description as any.

For tickets, visit ballinarsl.com.au/event/jimeoin-pandemonium