Alcoholocaust

Jim Jefferies spends the first portion of Alcoholocaust doing everything he can to live up to his reputation as a professional bridge-burner. He sets a frantic pace for profanity, takes aim at religion, and recounts a trip to entertain the troops in Iraq where he panicked over a single handgun while riding in an armored helicopter. The set hinges on its final half hour, an extended story about taking his childhood friend Dan, who has muscular dystrophy, to a brothel to lose his virginity. It is a surprisingly sweet anecdote told by a man actively trying to hide that he has a heart.

Filmed in July 2010 at London’s Lyric Theatre, the set caught the Australian comic right as his career was gaining traction in the United States following his 2009 HBO special. He performs in front of a massive logo of his own initials stylized to look like demon horns, leaning heavily into a hard-drinking, misanthropic persona. Between routines about Michael Jackson and the Holocaust, he discusses his depression and his reliance on booze, admitting to the crowd that he probably needs to quit. Reviews of the era noted that the closing brothel routine proved he was a capable storyteller rather than just a shock comic.