Comedian Jim Norton bringing unique brand of misanthropy to Jim Thorpe

JIM THORPE — He’s been directed on film by Scorsese alongside the likes of DeNiro, Pacino and Pesci, portraying the late, great Don Rickles in the wildly popular “The Irishman.”

He’s written two New York Times bestsellers. He’s been willingly roughed up by Ultimate Fighting Championship legends.

He’s been lighting up stages with his brash, unapologetic and fearless brand of humor for over three decades. And on June 3, he’ll be bringing his hour of brand-new material to the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe.

Bayonne, New Jersey native Jim Norton is knocking on the door of 54 — an age which he said, “beats being dead.” To some, perhaps they’d consider it an age of slowing down, but Norton stays active with an array of projects.

“I do a lot of things and none of them really well,” Norton said, though his accolades suggest otherwise. “I’m really bad at focusing, so I bounce from thing to thing because … I get very bored, very fast.”

That said, with that downtime over the last few years, Norton has had time to work on his material, and admittedly has a good chunk of pandemic-related stuff at the ready, just don’t expect anything political.

“I detest the left and the right equally,” Norton noted. “I always find that the thing I enjoy attacking the most is people and how people react in these situations.”

Norton also spoke on the nation of “monitors and tattletales,” who will try to get someone in trouble for jokes or old Twitter posts.

“We’ve turned into a country of the people we hated in school. Like, nobody liked the guy that tattled,” he said. “That’s what the whole country is doing. We’re just watching each other get in trouble and rejoicing. It’s really disgusting.”

It’s certainly a dangerous time for jokes, considering two recent incidents of big names in comedy being rushed onstage, as well as the rise of ‘Woke Culture’ but Norton remains steadfast in his unique brand of misanthropy.

“Woke Culture is just as dishonest and inconsistent as political correctness was 25 years ago or as any new fad in the culture is. It’s no different. It’s a little more extreme, but you know, it’s just the new generation of the young people scolding the adults,” he said.

And, if one may have an urging to rush Norton’s stage, just make sure someone gets it on camera. “Feel free to stab me if it helps me sell out the Hollywood Bowl,” he said with a chuckle.

Joking aside, Norton remarked, “Free speech does not mean agreeable speech. It means a guy said their opinion and makes fun of things how they want to, or talk about thing how they want to, and you can enjoy it or not enjoy it. Like, there should be no punishment (for the speaker) when you don’t enjoy it.”

For those who do enjoy it, Norton’s brand-new hour promises a lot of laughs as he tries to relay his dislike of mankind. “I talk a lot about my personal life and I try to explain why I hate everybody,” he said of what the crowd can expect on June 3. And don’t fret, Norton has faith in his audience. “People aren’t stupid. Like if you talk about this stuff in front of the audience and you give a logical reason as to why woke culture (for example) is nonsense, or why being offended in jokes is a lie … if you explain yourself well, they’ll go with you.” But don’t come out to the show for a TEDTalk-esque presentation.

“My job is not to go up and change hearts and minds. My job is to be funny. And if I can give my opinion while I’m doing that, that’s great. But being funny has to be first and foremost,” Norton said.

You can catch Jim’s raucous comedy elsewhere via one of his five, hour long specials including the most recent ‘Mouthful of Shame’ streaming on Netflix, where you can also find the aforementioned ‘The Irishman’, with the others available on Hulu, Amazon and HBO.

He’s also in Netflix’s ‘The Degenerates’ and the Comedy Central documentary, ‘Call Your Mother’. His books, ‘I Hate Your Guts’ and ‘HAPPY ENDINGS: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch’ are available to purchase via your favorite retailer or online.

You can also tune in to Jim’s podcasts, UFC Unfiltered Podcast with Jim Norton & Matt Serra as well as The Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show on Sirius XM’s Faction Talk channel Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and his Chip Chipperson Podcast, which landed him on The Interrobang’s ’11 Innovators Who Changed Comedy in 2017” list.

For tickets, visit jimnorton.com or any other major ticket vendors, as well as Mauch Chunk’s box office.