Skip to content
Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy
Cover image credit: Thumbnail: YouTube · ShutupAndLaugh

Alcoholocaust

Jim Jefferies

Comedy Central · 2010 · 76 min

A hard-drinking comedian takes his disabled childhood friend to a brothel.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

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.

The set list

4 bits
  1. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Taking a friend with muscular dystrophy to a brothel closer

    An extended, emotionally sincere and hilarious narrative detailing a trip to a Melbourne brothel to help his severely disabled 33-year-old childhood friend Dan lose his virginity, told with matter-of-fact honesty rather than sentimentality.

  2. Entertaining troops in Iraq

    Recounts his experience performing stand-up for military personnel in Iraq, frankly admitting to being terrified by dangerous situations that soldiers considered routine.

  3. The folly of western ambition

    Contrasts his own escalating ambitions for showbiz success with the basic survival needs of an impoverished person in Africa, challenging western entitlement.

  4. Atheist morality and religion

    Argues against the existence of God and defends the show's controversial title against religious backlash, advocating for a basic moral code of kindness.

How it plays

Tone
Caustic, boundary-pushing, foul-mouthed, and nihilistic, balanced with playfulness and life-affirming humanity.
On stage
Hard-drinking, unapologetically offensive rock-and-roll comic trampling over social niceties, combining crass bluster with disarming warmth and sincerity.
Pace
High-momentum, Hicksian heavy-metal energy; booze-fuelled delivery involving drinking flat beer on stage throughout the set.
About
alcohol and heavy drinking, disability, sex and brothels, atheism and religion, depression, ambition

What the critics said

Critically praised as a tour de force of narrative stand-up; reviewers noted that while the show is relentlessly crude, offensive, and full of foul language, it is anchored by exceptional storytelling skill, genuine depth, and unexpected warmth.

In the room: An ecstatic, sold-out West End theatre audience responding enthusiastically to taboo-shattering, shocking material.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, chortle.co.uk, tv.apple.com, filmbooster.co.uk, comedy.co.uk, list.co.uk, thenorthernecho.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org, oxfordstudent.com.

Backstory

Facing personal alcohol dependency, Jefferies vowed this would be his last special recorded while drunk, planning to quit drinking after years of alcohol abuse and liver damage.

Details

Released
Taped
Lyric Theatre, London
Runtime
76 min
Where
Comedy Central
Topics
Before
Contraband Live (2008)
After
Fully Functional (2012)

More from Jim Jefferies

If you liked this