Jim Jefferies on Sex, Guns and Donald Trump

"Edinburgh has a soft spot in my heart," says Jim Jefferies, leading us on a trip down memory lane. "I think I've had sex with more women in Edinburgh then I have in any other city in the world – normally with someone who was flyering for me. Edinburgh was about being in my 20s and chasing pussy. Now I'm in my 30s – in a relationship and with a kid – those days are long gone. It reminds me of a simpler time."

Despite the power-dose of testosterone that seems to drip from the phone line, it'd be churlish to suggest Jefferies doesn't say all this with a knowing warmth of tone. What's more, he has every reason to be in good spirits. His new Netflix special, Freedumb, has been announced hours before our conversation. And on the Australian leg of his tour he's enjoying the kind of success he's used to in the UK and America, but which remained stubbornly harder to come by in his home country. This is partially helpful when it comes to convincing his mother he is actually making something of his life.

"I just did 10,000 seats in Perth," he says, "and I'm about to do 15,000 seats in Melbourne. But I'm still not on television, and my mother would like me to be on Australian TV. No-one is knocking down my door for me to do that though. As I live in America it'd be hard to anyway. There are no billboards of me around town or anything like that... Maybe I should put some money into advertising so Mum can see it... But yes, I do get a little more respect from my family than I used to."

Yet had Jefferies established his career in Australia first, it may have been in a different performance art to stand-up. That stop in Perth meant a return to his university city, and while it'd be easy to conjure an image of Jefferies as the ultimate jock on campus, he actually studied musical theatre before his ambitions were thwarted. "I'm better at stand-up comedy than I am at singing," he says, "but actually what happened is I got nodules on my vocal chords. I used to be able to sing very well but I can't even hold a tune now. It’s over. But I wish I could still sing, I miss it."

Jim Jefferies' success in the USA

While Jefferies' mother may have to wait a little longer for him to be on Australian television, he is a familiar face on screen in America. His sitcom Legit ran for two seasons before changes at the FXX network forced its cancellation: "I really liked Legit, I think it was a really good show and I think we got fucked in the arse a bit there. It should've run for two more seasons. We tried... but it's gotten too late now to continue and all the other actors are off doing other jobs now. We did write a movie to wrap everything up, but other work got in the way. I wouldn't mind making that movie and putting it on Netflix... but I have a TV deal in the works with another network, and then another for a news-based show which I can't say much about yet."

Then, of course, there's the success of his first Netflix special Bare, which contains the gun control routine Jefferies is now best known for and which expanded his material into a more outward dimension of political commentary. That initially surprised him but, he explains, also helped him develop as a comedian.

"Maybe it is just the pressure I put on myself but I know people want me to do a little bit of a show on sex and something on religion – they always used to want me to do those two things – and then a story from my childhood. Now there is a fourth thing, and that is the fuck-the-establishment stuff."

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This expectation for certain topics can become tricky, especially as Jefferies has always been a comedian to underline the importance of writing new material rather than stick to the safe ground of familiar routines.

"It gets harder every year but then things come along when you least expect it. I remember after I wrote about my friend with muscular dystrophy [which also inspired the first episode of Legit] I thought I'd never have a better routine that was more popular or as good as that ever again. But I think now I'm measured now by the gun control routine. That came to me on stage, I just started talking about it during a gig and within about a week or so it was fully formed.

"I used to think that nobody wanted to hear me talk about politics, and it helped to build my confidence up because now I feel maybe people do want to hear my opinion – even if they don't agree. So now I do talk about politics whereas if you saw me, say, three years ago, I didn't."

Politics, of course, means Jefferies has opened himself up more to people who don't share his point of view, something rather easy to avoid when we surround ourselves with our own friends on social media.

"People see what you are clicking on and feed off the same stuff," he says. "You're not actually getting anything new. So I start to think everyone is a fucking lefty and we are all very liberal, that people should be allowed to do A, B, C and D and help people out, that immigrants should be allowed to come in, blah blah blah blah. But then with gun control... The hate-mail that I received from people! 'This country was founded on freedom, and you don't understand freedom.' I first thought, 'these fucking people are insane,' but then you look on their page and they have hundreds and thousands of friends who are exactly like them. Quintessentially, all my friends are guys or girls like me, who have the same sort of belief systems as me, who all have dirty senses of humour. What happens with Twitter and Facebook is it confirms your beliefs."

Politics, hypocrisy and Donald Trump

Jefferies is keen to stress, however, that indiscriminately being friends with people you disagree with isn't necessarily the solution to the social media echo chamber: "I had an argument with Piers Morgan the other day on Twitter. He's always 'no guns this' and 'the American government is that.' Yet he still sucks the sweat off Donald Trump's balls whenever he gets the chance. 'Oh Mr Trump, Mr Trump' – fuck off.

"I said to him, 'Are you still friends with Donald Trump?' And he said something like, 'I don't agree with his policies but we are good and loyal friends and have been for over a decade.' I said, 'I'm sure Hitler wasn't a bad guy to have a beer with if you just didn't bring up politics.'

"How can you be friends with somebody when you fundamentally don’t agree with any of their beliefs?”

Jefferies doesn't believe the media frenzy around Trump reflects the majority's opinion because – with the exception of Piers Morgan – Trump specialises in alienating people: "He's only in the mainstream in the sense that the people who like him are loudmouth idiots. They reckon he needs 70% of the white vote to win. But 50% of white people are women – so he can't win. Mexicans and black people won't vote for him, Muslims definitely won't vote for him. He can't win.

“With Trump it is all belief: 'These people are rapists, Muslims should be on a register, build a wall and keep these people out.' He doesn't have policies.

"How does Piers Morgan not get into an argument with him over dinner?"

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Jim Jefferies plays Auditorium at ECHO Arena, Liverpool, 7 Jul, 8pm, £28; O2 Academy Glasgow, 8 Jul, 8pm, £28; EICC, Edinburgh, 10 Jul, 8pm, £27; and O2 Apollo Manchester, 16 Jul, 8pm, £30

His first Netflix special, Bare, is available now and Freedumb premieres on 1 July