Jamie Kilstein

Jamie Kilstein really doesn't make life easy for himself. At a time when US comedy success seems to rely on telegenic comics delivering wacky ethnic humour (Carlos Mencia) or inoffensive pap (Dane Cook), Kilstein follows the tradition of US satirists such as George Carlin, Bill Hicks and David Cross in using comedy as a tool to inform as much as entertain; and, refreshingly, his own work is not exempt from his dispassionate examination. The political landscape in his home country has changed dramatically in the last six months, which means that he's looking at his own fiercely political comedy in a new light.

"Well, Melbourne [Comedy Festival] wanted me to do the show I did in Edinburgh [There's No God and That's OK], which was really religion-themed," he sighs when asked about his current show. "But now I'm kinda going through this transition. The show is just bashing religion, which I think it was necessary during George Bush's presidency. In the US Richard Dawkins, when he wrote The God Delusion, was always asked 'do you think people are ready to talk about religion?' and he said 'I don't think they were ready until eight years of George Bush', and I think that's totally accurate. When you see the worst of something, it's time to start criticising."

However, the new spirit of change in the US has Kilstein wondering whether his comedy is actually... well, helpful. "I think it was a necessity to have these hardliner atheists representing their side just to contrast the lack of science, the homophobia, the lack of respect for women and all that stuff. But there's another part of me that feels like right now things are so bad around the world that... I mean, Obama won because things were fucked, but now I feel like there's this rare opportunity to bring people together."

Warming to his theme, he continues. "I went to Riverside Church in New York City, the first time I've been to a church since my crazy evangelical grandparents dragged me along to their crazy evangelical mega-church - and Riverside is where Martin Luther King Jr gave his 'Beyond Vietnam' speech [where he called for the US to end the war], which doesn't get talked about so much because that was where people really started to turn on him, where the media essentially said 'hey, black guy, stick to talking about black guy shit'," he spits. "And the Riverside Church has always been this pillar of social justice. We went and saw Desmond Tutu speak out against the death penalty, and the church was packed. And the first thing that happened was that the Reverend came out, and he said 'here at Riverside Church we fight on behalf of minorities, we fight for social justice, we fight for the gay and lesbian communities: people of all faiths and people of no faiths are welcome here' – and Allison [Kilkenny, Kilstein's partner and co-host on internet radio show Citizen Radio] and I looked at each other and were like 'holy shit!'"

He pauses, choosing his words carefully. "So Desmond Tutu gave this really impassioned speech where he basically just pleaded with us: 'We looked up to you during apartheid; what are you doing? How can you still have this barbaric practice?' We were moved to tears, and as we left I was thinking 'you know, I've never seen fucking [high profile atheist and Vanity Fair columnist] Christopher Hitchens come out and do something for social justice."

So, if Kilstein has doubts about the benefits of half of his current show, where does that leave his comedy?

"I think right now it's gonna be a whole lot of [puts on wacky comedian voice] 'hey, women be crazy!' Actually, that's gonna be the name of my show next year. And there are several As in 'craaaaazy'," he laughs. "I don't know what I'm doing, really. I mean, the stuff that I'm angry about has gotten angrier, but I mainly want to go after people who are hurting other people. The wrong people profit when we're all divided. Andrew P Street

Jamie Kilstein is guest of Glenn Wool 6-10 Oct, and then headlines his own Comedy Store run Oct 13-17. Citizen Radio is available for free podcast download at wearecitizenradio.com.