Fully Functional

Jim Jefferies recorded Fully Functional just as his career was pivoting from touring club comic to American television fixture. Released on EPIX in 2012, the hour catches him refining the brand of filthy, long-form storytelling that would anchor his FX sitcom Legit the following year. The standout is a sprawling bit about dating Michael Phelps’ ex-girlfriend, a premise he uses to complain about the sheer impossibility of following up an Olympian who burns 10,000 calories a day. He also builds an extended case for why it takes more effort to be a stud than a slut, and recounts a threesome where he starts out feeling like a champion before realizing he is a massive disappointment.

He spent the year touring the act, including a well-reviewed run at the Edinburgh Fringe. The material relies heavily on his established persona as a belligerent atheist and unapologetic drinker, but the structure is tight. Jefferies takes setups that sound like standard barroom bragging and stretches them into narratives where he is almost always the punchline — usually a wheezing, chain-smoking one.