Stepping away from children’s television and onto our phones and computers, Jimmy Rees provided much-needed comic relief throughout the pandemic. His live show proved to be a hit last year, and now he returns with Not That Kinda Viral to the Royal Theatre in Canberra on 9 September. With the show selling out quickly, Rees has added a second evening show for those who may have missed out. CW caught up with Rees to discuss comedy, owls and characters.

1. Tell us about the new show.

The new show is completely different to last year which was Meanwhile in Australia, it was sort of off the back of the content I’d been making for the Covid times.

This time, there will be an element of the format of those shows, similar in a way to last time which has got different segments with different things in it; new material, new skits. At the moment I’m trying to figure out how to get the most amount of Jimmies on stage as possible.

If you’ve seen my videos online, it’s me talking to myself also talking to myself and my other self – that’s the challenge for bringing the skits to the stage. I managed to pull it off last year, so I’m trying to enhance that – more Jimmy talking to Jimmy talking to six other Jimmys on stage in sort of different creative ways.

2. Do you have a favourite character to play?

Yeah, I think one format of videos I’ve been making, The Guy Who Decides which is the character I name Jason who is just lifting up random things. He is making sense and that’s the way the world should go. Obviously, in the world, there are different topics, there are all these random things people would have made decisions for.

Like how the game of cricket was invented, for instance. I don’t know how that came about. When you talk about it in a way of inventing right now, people would think you are actually a lunatic. I just think it’s fun. I assume that the person, if they were deciding these things right now, had had a few too many drinks.

Last year, when I went on tour and I was toying with what to put on the stage, I felt this sense of you can become someone. I do the Fabulous Ladies of Brighton, who are two ladies from the affluent area of Brighton in Victoria, and something becomes of me, becoming this upper-class punching-down of the people below her.

When you’re on stage and there’s an audience to be entertained and you’re playing a character, sometimes you don’t even know what’s possible for you to think of in the moment.

3. How is life different now you’re not doing children shows?

It’s obviously different but I think audiences are pretty similar; if they’re really enjoying something they will really tell you about it.

You can kind of get a vibe even from kids – it’s different stuff – if it’s not silly enough or slapstick enough kids will be like ‘Oh, okay maybe you need more of that or not’ or there is something that makes them laugh hysterically.

It’s the same with adults, I put a show together last year and one of the moments which I was just messing around with the camera and whatever we had projected on the stage, just brought the house down. It’s a physical stupid thing, I just put my face close to the camera and because of the size of the screen you could see up my nose. It was so silly but it was people’s favourite bit almost.

4.What’s Hoot up to now?

He’s going to be put in a museum, I think, in a glass rotating around for all entirety. I think he’s reached that status of an icon. The offer was there for me, but I thought maybe not.

5. Do you have anything on your to-do list while you’re in Canberra?

I would love to drive past the owl penis statue, that’s on my bucket list. It might be awkward with the taxi driver.

6. What’s next for you?

It’s pretty tough to try and put on a show every single year, so I’m going to do this and throw everything at it, it will be amazing.

Everything spawned from me making videos online. I really love it, it’s so much fun. I’ve got a guy that works with me, and we just literally talk crap until we come up with something. Then we go make a costume or buy some props or whatever we need to, and turn the lights and the camera on and shoot something. It’s so much fun, it’s so random and we can react pretty quickly to what is happening in the news or sports.

I’ve had a wild couple of years of all these random things that have popped up that I never thought would have happened having finished Kids’ TV, so I am excited to see what is next.

Answers condensed for publication.

Catch Jimmy Rees in Not That Kinda Viral at Royal Theatre, National Convention Centre Canberra, Saturday 9 September 8.45pm; premier.ticketek.com.au

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