There’s something welcoming and relaxed about Jimeoin’s stand-up; he’s inoffensive even when he swears.

When you see his show, you get a laid-back man on a stage making pithy observations about everyday things. It’s comedy to make you clutch your sides and want to shout “Yes!” at the same time. And it’s magic.

You can tell Jimeoin is a veteran of the comedy circuit. He openly rambles for the first few minutes because “there’s no point wasting good jokes when people are still coming in.” And he’s quick to suggest that latecomers remove their coats before they sit down – it’s too hot to laugh with a coat on.

Then, once he knows his audience is cupped in his palm, it’s all on.

In the 70-minute show you’re taken through more mundane subjects than you can imagine. But in Jimeoin’s hands there’s nothing mundane about them. Making a cup of tea takes on an air of mystery, answering a phone becomes an art and ways to annoy your spouse have never been so alluring.

It’s all to do with his gestures and expressions – no matter where you sit in the huge theatre, there’s no missing them. Yet they aren’t over the top. He’s a true performer – he even plays guitar and sings.

Last night the audience loved every minute from the opening banter to the end of the encore. And so, it seems, did Jimeoin. If you have the chance – go! If you miss him this year, make sure you don’t in 2011. 
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Nearly two years ago I saw Australian-based Irish comic Jimeoin McKeown for the first time. The show got a pass mark because he seemed to be entertaining his audience.

His rambling style, a mix of over-the-top physical comedy and observational humour, is easy enough to like – but it’s certainly not stretching comedy’s bounds. To see him essentially repeat the material, still making it look so very off-the-cuff, is borderline insulting.

This was not just a case of applying the greatest hits, but word for word repetition of the best and worst of his routine.

The best is the slightly surreal glimpses into his psyche – whether it be stuffing lint from the dryer in his belly button to play bedtime pranks on his wife or explaining away his lazy miming ("other mimes have to come on stage after me and clean up; hang up phones close doors").

The worst was 80 per cent of the material: fart jokes, impersonations of Maori accents – comparing them to chickens – and some of the most over-the-top and pointless face distortion since Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura movies. Maybe for some there is laughter in thinking back to the 1980s to embarrassing uncles who had one too many drinks and held court in the family lounge.

Or in thinking back to the embarrassing uncles of others who had a few too many drinks and appeared on the Australian show Hey Hey It’s Saturday.

But this is lazy comedy – the kind you find at most houses, post-Christmas roast, when the paper hats and general tolerance for what’s acceptable and amusing are both stretched to breaking point.

Presumably the real genius of Jimeoin is in his ability – in that cheeky, friendly, charming way he has (mostly reliant on his marble-chewing accent) – to convince audiences they are seeing something new and vital.

There is no threat in his comedy and no worth beyond empty laughs. But empty laughter filled The Opera House.
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Jimeoin gave me a great night out. Laid back and confident, his show begins with a non-beginning because he doesn’t want to use up his good jokes while people are still finding their seats.

He needn’t fear as he quickly proves that he has the rare talent of a patter that is consistently funny. We laugh when he mumbles, when he loses his thread, when he mocks the punters and even when he ties his shoes.

A combination of narrative and observational comedy together with some hilarious half-arsed mime and facial expressions that could be seen from the moon delights the crowd at the nearly full Opera House.

Jimeoin succeeds in being clever, without being cleverer than us; seeing things we haven’t noticed but immediately recognise; and providing material that is universally accessible and non-divisive.

It is a pleasure to see a comic who does not alienate or dismantle any sub-group of humans to find the laughs. I highly recommend the show.  
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