Gig review by Steve Bennett in Montreal

By rights, Big Jay Oakerson should be a horrible comedian, trading in broad racial stereotypes, wilfully politically incorrect language and absolute filth.

Yet there’s a lot of craft to his crass, and charm to his cursing. He’s one of the most likeable men ever to talk in graphic depth about pussies.

Certainly, there’s a playfulness to the way he insults his front row. He’s renowned for his crowd work and even has a Seeso show dedicated to it, uncompromisingly called What’s Your Fucking Deal?, that was showcased at a separate event this festival.

At the start of his conventional stand-up show he targeted a young Asian couple, throwing every potentially offensive archetype he could think of at them, as well as prying pruriently into their relationship, all of which was taken in the affectionately piss-taking spirit it was intended – by both the ‘victims’ and therefore the rest of the audience. Oakerson improvised a good ten minutes out of this.

Speaking grubbily about sex is his other forte, from porn to his teenage daughter’s sexuality, with the comic not only hoping she’ll turn out lesbian but actively encouraging it in a way you won’t find in any good parenting guides.

As an unreconstructed middle-aged white man setting out to mix howls of outrage with his laughs, Oakerson is swimming against the increasingly inclusive tide of comedy, but the jokes are strong enough, and delivered with a forgiving glint, for him to emerge the victor in his frequent battles with good taste.

He certainly refuses to be cowed by political correctness, although him defending the right to use the word ‘retard’ – a right he exploits at every opportunity – is troublesome. He evokes the old argument that he’s not going to police his language because you never know what will trigger individual people, which is disingenuous in this case. The only reason he’s using the word with such abandon is that he knows a lot of people find it repulsive, and that gives it its power.

That diversion aside, it’s not long before Oakerson’s back below the belt, with a closing set about cunnilingus that revolves around an icky observation probably never before commentated on in stand-up. 

He certainly makes it his own, coining a memorable phrase and plenty of vivid descriptions, while ramping up the significance of his findings into a fundamental truth about men compared to women. It’s a masterful example of stand-up construction, taking a crumb of an idea and exploiting every angle, building on the funny with each sentence. He is the Beethoven of dirty jokes.

Review date: 29 Jul 2018
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