Jimeoin returns to Edinburgh

IRELAND and Australia collide at Musselburgh’s Brunton Theatre on Wednesday when Fringe favourite Jimeoin returns north of the border for what he calls a “good old fashioned laugh”.

The show, entitled Lovely!, finds the laid-back comedian promising “no gimmicks”, just “pure and simple great craic”.

Admired by audiences throughout the world for his brilliant wit and his razor-sharp take on the absurdities of everyday life, Wednesday’s gig will find Jimeoin explaining, among other things, his concept of the Speed Of Cheese, the more useful and alternative measurement to the Speed of Light.

Surreal and relaxed, Jimeoin left his native Northern Ireland for Oz two decades ago.

Recalling his decision to up sticks he once revealed, “There was no big reason. I had spent four years in London and fancied a bit of a change, and it was Australia’s bicentennial year so I thought that would be a good time to give it a look.”

Recent appearances on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and Jason Manford’s Comedy Rocks may have introduced him to new audiences in the UK, but it was in Australia that Jimeoin first discovered his ability to make people laugh.

“I got pushed into it. One evening I went to a bar and there was a comedy night on. We were there playing pool and a girl I was with put my name down to be in the try-out section. As a result of that I ended up going on stage. I just told these three jokes. I knew that night that I just had to do it again, although it didn’t occur to me that I could earn a living from it.”

Jimeoin: Lovely!, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Wednesday, 7.30pm, £14, 0131-665 2240