review star review star review star review blank star review blank star

Jimeoin: Something Smells Funny

Note: This review is from 2010

Review by Corry Shaw

Jimeoin returns to the Northern hemisphere fresh from his seemingly unstoppable domination of the Australian comedy scene. His relaxed, low energy Irish charm, his very gentle observational comedy and his safe subject matters make for a popular choice for a wide range of comedy fans.

It is just a bit disappointing that Jimeoin has very little new to say, revisiting subjects that have been done to death over the years. There are occasional new slants on his trademark routines that enable him to show off the flexibility of his facial muscles as he gurns out several mimes between him and his partner, him and a man on a plane, him and just about anyone else that will allow him to contort his face to elicit a laugh.

Hidden amongst the 'men and women are like cats and dogs' and 'duvet covers are tricky to put on' lines there are some gems of subtle observations. The notion that cheese will only ever cut at one speed regardless of knife or force was a particularly inspired routine which was topped of nicely with a decent punchline rather than just a raise of the eyebrows.

Another promising section suggested that countries inhabitants should only use their national dance to move from place to place. This led to an amusing skit about Flamenco'ing to the shops. There is room to expand this routine as it felt underworked and didn't quite live up to its initial potential, a few more countries and a few more laughs would have been easy to achieve.

But we are back to farting, forgetting to take the bins out and Australian accents. All of which are dissected comfortably and with skill but even Jimeoin seems to have little faith in the hack topics, apologising several times for the show being 'patchy' and admitting that the closest he'll ever come to satire is defacing a photo of David Cameron in the newspaper.

Jimeoin's talent has always been his ability to spot the obvious and make it funny and he achieves this again, but it does feel like it’s all becoming a little too obvious, and the redeeming quality of his superb performance skills will only carry him so far.

Review date: 6 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Corry Shaw

Live comedy picks

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.