If you aren't partial to baby-killing jokes told by someone who looks like an extra from Grease then it is probably best to give Anthony Jeselnik a miss. The Pittsburgh-born comedian starts his gig as he means to go on with a couple of quick quips about dead infants. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you like your humour dark and pretty relentless and Frankie Boyle is too darn Scottish then Jeselnik may be just your cup of sick.
He certainly knows how to deliver a well-constructed gag, with a relaxed, deadpan manner that never actually comes across as aggressive even when the material is pretty vicious. I suspect that contrast is part of the secret of his success, that in the same way that Sarah Millican looks like the mum next door but is a smutty as hell, the clean-cut, good-looking Jeselnik resembles the guy you’d want your daughter to date.
The material certainly goes to places other comedians fear to tread, from the obvious Holocaust and Tyson rape riffs to somewhere much nastier, such as serial killer and child molester jokes. He takes a perverse pride in pushing things as far as they can go: “People get real mad at me. I don’t care. It’s how I make my living.”
Actually the open-minded Soho audience didn’t really have a problem with him and during a mid-set Q&A there was no critique of his style, instead they asked him the kind of fanboy questions you might get at a sci-fi convention, ie what's your favourite joke? The funniest moment was when someone who had clearly missed the memo asked Jeselnik what a roast was – Jeselnik is probably best known for his appearances on the roasts of Charlie Sheen and Donald Trump.
As for people who get real mad at him, he probably had the population of New Zealand in mind. He started his closing routine by explaining how he likes to tell bad taste jokes as soon as possible after tragic events. In one instance he did a TV skit on his TV show about a recent shark killing which upset a Kiwi family who had lost someone in a shark attack. Angry antipodean letters followed.
Unlike unpleasant controversial comedians of the past such as Andrew Dice Clay in the 1980s, there is something strangely amiable about Jeselnik. Despite his satanic soul he is also a bit of a charmer. I guess that’s how he managed to get away with the answer of “English beer” when someone asked him what the second worse thing was that he had ever had in his mouth. Not for everyone, but a hoot for the broadminded.
Anthony Jeselnik is at The Soho Theatre until August 2. Tickets here.
