Elisabeth Champion
A viral online sensation will be bringing his show to the Blue Lake city, promising a night of laughs.
Jimmy Rees is best known for his online videos, particularly Meanwhile in Australia and the Guy Who Decides…, but now, he is bringing his comedy show to Mount Gambier/Berrin as part of his ‘Let’s Get Regional’ tour.
Rees’ will shine a light on the silly parts of life, through his unique brand of observational comedy, which he said is inspired through his own observations of the world and people around him.
“It’s from a bit of everywhere to be honest,” he said.
“I’ve got three children, they provide a lot of situations, which are pretty random, so I’ve jotted those down.
“Also the discussions my wife and I have with each other about the kids or parenting are quite funny.
“Life is pretty silly when you break it down – some of the characters, like Guy Who Decides, that is exactly that.
“It’s like, what if we invented netball in one conversation? – you invent all the rules right now between a person who’s trying to come up with a fun game and someone who’s just being obnoxiously ridiculous.
“When you break it down into like that one conversation, that’s quite funny.”
The comedian’s Meanwhile in Australia videos made waves in 2020 during the Covid pandemic, for the humorous recounts of Australia’s lockdowns and social distancing laws.
Those videos garnered Rees four million social media followers, 43 million likes on TikTok and 200 million viewing minutes last year on Facebook alone.
The videos, and his live show, are a far cry from Rees’ former life – performing as Jimmy Giggle, the human half of the well known children’s duo Giggle and Hoot.
Having performed for children for many years, he said the audiences are certainly different.
“It’s interesting, because I’d say that adults are little more subtle if things are going well or not,” he said.
“Whereas kids, if they don’t like you, they’re asleep, or they just wander off, they’re just out the door.
“If things aren’t going well, they’re like, ‘See ya, I don’t like this. I’m crying. I’m out of here’ and if they love it, they wet their pants. They literally wet their pants. So that’s a little different to an adult audience.”
Audiences can expect to see a range of Rees’ most well known characters.
“I try and bring all those characters and the things that people have enjoyed online to the stage,” he said.
“The way I do that is different every time – you know, like the Guy Who Decides kind of thing is two characters so I put the glasses on, hold up the glass and change my voice sort of thing -I can switch between the characters pretty quickly, but we do that live.
“There’s a bit of audience participation – I do talk about my life and my family and my time at Giggle and Hoot and find some funny moments, which have happened to me over the years so there’s a bit of everything in there.”
He said he was looking forward to hitting the regional towns.
“I’m really looking forward to getting out – I don’t think that a lot of these places I’ve been to before, even with Giggle and Hoot – we got out to some regional areas, but not a lot of them.”
The ‘Let’s Get Regional’ tour will hit Mount Gambier/Berrin on July 26 at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre.
Visit www.frontiertouring.com/jimmyrees for more information.
