...and gets roasted by Jimmy Carr

Jim Jefferies and Kevin Hart have received their Just For Laughs awards at the Montreal comedy festival.

As previously announced, Jefferies won the Stand-Up of the Year and Hart the ‘Generation Award’ previously given to Judd Apatow and Jim Carrey,

Presenting Jefferies with his accolade, Jimmy Carr joked: ‘This is a huge test of my acting ability, to present an award to a fellow stand-up comedian and pretend to be happy for him.’

He then proceeded to roast his  Jefferies, saying: ‘In Australia they will call a mate "cunt" and a cunt "mate". Jim’s a good mate…

‘Jim has the stage persona of a heavy drinker – but in real life he’s an alcoholic. I’m not sure Jim’s a real stand-up comedian. The thing all of us in this room have in common is that we write material, but for Jim shit just happens.’

Jefferies said he was grateful for the accolade, saying: ‘I’ve never won an award. Comedians never get awards.’

‘The Oscars should have an award for best comedy performance but they made us do the slave work hoisting the Oscars and then if we do a bad tweet they fire us’ – a nod to what happened to Hart this year.

Jefferies went on to speak about the nature of comedians, saying:  ‘You’re doing the best thing in the world and you’re still bitter and angry. This is the job you always wanted and you’re still sad!’

But he said: ‘I’ve had TV shows and they can take them away, I’ve had acting jobs and now I don’t. But with stand-up they can never take it away.  They can’t cancel you.

‘You can always perform to ten people in a pub – it doesn’t matter how many people you masturbate in front of. At least, I’m hoping. There’s a lot of stuff about me coming soon…’

Among those he thanked was Don Ward, owner of the Comedy Store in London and Manchester, who sent the ‘grainy tape’ that got him his first Just For Laughs booking, launching his US career.

While Jefferies spoke of the purity and simplicity of performing stand-up, Hart it should be just the starting point of a career.

In a serious speech he told fellow comedians that they should become businessmen like him, saying: ‘When you achieve, some people stop. I use achievements to do more. There’s so much you can do as a comedian, so many doors you can open

‘Some people are content with the one door of the 

stage. I personally am not content with that, never have been, because I understand the business that goes into show business.

‘So much more than comedians, I challenge you to understand not just how comedy works but how business works so you become partners.’

And he said by doing so ‘you enable not just yourself, but others to have bigger and better opportunities because of your achievements.’

Earilier the ceremony, Hasan Minhaj won the breakout award.

It was awarded by Ronny Chieng, who stood in for Trevor Noah to do the honours and mercilessly mocked Minhaj and his Netflix show Patriot act.

First he focussed on how Minhaj was marketed by his Indian Muslim background, joking: ‘The guy’s from Sacramento. What part of India do you think that’s in? 

‘Newsflash: if you want to you can stop being Muslim, I can’t stop being Chinese.’

And then he ‘praised’ his former Daily Show colleague’s originality, saying: ‘ Who among us could come up with the idea of John Oliver’s show but instead of a desk you wear Air Jordans? The ingenuity!’

Chieng also joked that Minhaj took him under his wing on the Daily Show, giving me advice like "you cross me and I’ll fucking 9/11 you". 

‘There is not a man who is more focussed,’ Chieng added. ‘I have never seen a more heartfelt, finely cratered marketing plan.’

But he closed on a note of sincerity, saying  Minhaj  was ‘a voice of a generation and the rest of us are trying to catch up’.

Taking to the podium, the award-winner joked:  ‘Why did Trevor have to be sick?’ before adding: ‘It’s great to be part of an awards ceremony designed to bring Kevin Hart to a banqueting hall at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.’

Also at the event Amanda Seales won the best rising comedy star of the year, and the team behind Netflix’s puberty-based adult animated comedy Big Mouth! – Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett – were named best comedy writers.

Published: 27 Jul 2019