In his book, Before and Laughter (here), and several subsequent interviews Jimmy has made reference to his time working for Shell (oil) and how unfulfilled he felt. He made sure to give credit to a guy called Mike Harle, that had advised him to turn down a job offer from BCG (Boston Consulting Group) to give comedy a go.

Basically, running away to join the circus.

A podcast called Truth, Lies & Work has tracked Mike down (now living in Brno, in the Czech Republic) and he has talked about his role in Jimmy’s change in career on the episode here (also available on Spotify).

The chat confirms what Jimmy has said in the past – about not really making a decision about going to Cambridge and then getting a job at Shell. Drifting into things, doing what was expected of him (career wise).

Interesting to hear the perspective of someone in a senior management role.

What year did this happen?

Before you have a listen, Mike thinks his conversation with Jimmy was around 2000 – but all documented evidence points to it being the year before. I think, after all this time, we can forgive him being a little vague on the year – especially as Jimmy has tended to be a bit absent minded about the date himself.

In the Bio section for Working life & comedy baby steps I lay out details of some early Jimmy interviews that suggest it was actually early 1999. Born in September 1972 his memory of “leaving Shell and starting out in comedy when he was 26” had to have been earlier than 2000 (when he would have been approaching 28).

Mike also says that Jimmy had done “1 or 2 gigs near his home, in High Wycombe”. Again, evidence doesn’t support that aligning with him setting out to be a comedian from a conversation in 2000.

Between Dec 1998 and Dec 1999, I’ve already found 20+ gigs that were documented in press articles / adverts. For the most up to date listing of these early gigs see Pubs and clubs 1998 to 2001 and UK Comedy Circuit. And, on the Awards page, you can see that he had also entered comedy competitions in 1999 (here).