LONDON ¨C ¡°OK, let¡¯s kick off with a question for you, in time-honored tradition,¡± Jimmy Carr says to me at the outset of our interview. ¡°Do many comedians make it over to Japan?¡±
Not comedians like Jimmy Carr, no. In the U.K., the 44-year-old stand-up, writer and TV host is a household name with a stellar CV: over 1 million live DVD sales, nine sold-out tours, a series of hit TV shows and a sackful of awards over his 15 years of cracking wise. His anachronistic approach ¡ª Carr¡¯s shows are peppered with quick-fire, deadpan one liners ¡ª seems niche in an age of personal, narrative comedy. So, too, his taboo-busting black humor, which has more than once caused (mock) outrage in the British tabloids. A real scandal ¡ª the discovery in 2012 that Carr was involved in an aggressive tax avoidance scheme ¡ª was genuinely offensive, for a short period making him public enemy No. 1.
Not that the controversies have harmed his career, nor his exportability. Carr enjoys a growing profile in North America (he recently signed to Netflix), has gigged in 30 countries across four continents and, to answer his initial question, he¡¯s at least among a first wave of British comedians of such stature to perform in Japan.
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