Milton Jones - Warming Us Up

Ahead of his 2013 tour, Milton Jones ventured down into Canterbury on a cold, January night. He came came and warmed us all up with his one liners, testing which ones worked, and which did not. Turns out, they mostly all had the audience laughing hard.

Milton Jones' Grandfather (I think it's just Milton Jones dressed up however) came out first and warmed up for the warm up for Milton's warm up show. He came onto the stage in an usual manner, but it shows an increase in his profits as it was more adventurous than pushing a trolley on like like he did last year. It obviously contained lots of his usual top class one-liners.

Milton Jones. You Know, Him With The Shirts On Mock The Week...

The Crazy-haired, obscure shirt-wearer, pun-machine,
that is Milton Jones!

I don't think Milton Jones really suits the surroundings of Mock The Week. The show is a bear pit where comedians race to get their joke heard, and it will sometimes involve a race to the microphone or shouting louder than someone else until they give up. However, he still seems to excel himself. He is much like a senile Grandad who sits in the corner of a room quietly, until you forget he's there. Then, all of a sudden, he says what he has just been thinking about amongst all of the shouting. Everyone stops and listens, and then everyone laughs harder than they have previously to any of the other comedian’s material. He is brilliant and fast becoming my favourite current comedian.

                                                         

Therefore, it won't come as a surprise when I say that I have now seen him perform live for the second time, in a space of under 18 months. I reviewed his first show in 'My Comedy Nights Reviewed' blog at the end of 2009, and I very much enjoyed it. Well, I obviously did otherwise I wouldn't put myself through torture of going to watch him again for a few hours...

The show at Canterbury's Gulbenkian Theatre was actually scheduled for January, but due to 'TV commitments', it got postponed by a month. Also, this date was one of two, with the first one being booked very fast. This I think is a sign of how his popularity has increased since our last meeting. However, he is still different from all other comedians I have seen live. Last time I saw him walking about outside after the show. This time, I saw him wondering around before the show. I have only seen five other comedians live, but none of them have walked through the cafe part of the theatre, to buy a sandwich. Obviously, being the English people I, my friend and everyone else in 'holding pen' are, I don't believe anyone actually acknowledged him.

Anyway, once released from the holding pen into the theatre, and after a few Queen songs played and the lights turned off, the warm-up act came out. This was Milton Jones's Grandfather; or for the more cynical amongst us, Milton Jones wearing a cap, jacket and a gurn, whilst pushing a check shopping trolley, in the guise of the aforementioned Grandfather. Yes, he was his own warm-up act.

Or rather, he was a warm-up act for his warm-up act. After Milton's 'Grandfather' left the stage, a young chap called James 'Giftshop' Acaster took to the stage. In all honesty, I am always cynical about young comedians, so I was feeling anxious about this blonde haired man who has barely stopped using Freederm. He was actually, really funny and I thought him a great addition to the night. A great raconteur who will make every audience member squirm at the amount of detail he squeezes from every story. He also had great audience interaction in which he practically sodomised another young man live on stage. Whether that was a one off or if it always happens, I don't know, but that was a moment which had the entire room laughing. If it wasn't part of his routine, it probably is now. Incidentally, you won't get the 'Giftshop' part of his name unless you see him live.

He left the stage leaving everyone still slightly giggling and the interval happened.

Then the interval ceased, people returned to their seats and on stage came Milton Jones, sporting a blue addition to his collection of fabulous shirts.

His act was obviously brilliant. It was fast paced puns continuously, with him using props such as an overhead projector, a small book and slides to help him seamlessly flit from pun to another. He was only ever slowed down by hecklers, but then when has that never been the case with top comedians? He, and indeed other members of the audience, dealt with the heckler, who was soon put back in his place. One may enquire why people insist on shouting out, when they don't intend to deal with the follow up.

If you have flicked back to my old blog, you would notice that Milton has done the same thing in his last live show, such as dressing as an old man, but it was completely different. In fact, I think Milton was fantastic and I actually never wanted him to stop telling jokes. I would have been happy to sit there for many more hours. This whole evening out only took up two hours of life, and it felt like much longer. I suppose being told a vast volume of jokes in a short amount of time seems to affect how time seems to pass.

If you can go and see him, I strongly recommend it. If you like jokes, laughter, sodomy, old people impersonations, colourful shirts and props, then Milton Jones: Lion Whisper is the comedy show for you.

P.S. I have no real idea why he named it 'Lion Whisper', apart from the fact it's a reference to one of his jokes, which you'll miss if you cough.

My Comedy Nights Reviewed

In recent months, instead of concentrating all my time on my A-levels to try and get fantastic grades and get into University, I've been out sitting in the audience of numerous comedy gigs. The first one was more a magic show, in which comedy was included and that was 'A Night With Paul Daniels' in October. In November I went and sat in the audience of Milton Jones; a one-liner comedian who is the English equivalent to Stewart Francis and a hairier version of Tim Vine. December saw me go and watch Sean Lock who can regularly be seen on Comedy Panel Shows and then Lee Mack a week later who occasionally is seen on Live At The Apollo and on Not Going Out. Also, I've been reviewing these shows...

Paul Daniels I saw on the 9th October at the Village Hall which is about a 30 seconds walk from my house, which is surprisingly close for a famous person to be from my house. I was surprised to learn that not many people of a similar age to me know who he is. He is the last of the proper performers in my opinion. This was just after Derren Brown's shows on Channel Four so magic was fresh in my head. One of the tricks Derren Brown done with the nation was make them stick to their seats, something which Daniels done on a smaller, similar scale. He had two men onstage; one of which was sat down and the other standing behind a chair and holding the back of it. He made them convinced for about 10 minutes that they could not move, which was a funny experience to watch.
Paul Daniel's brought his wife and assistant Debbie McGee with him as well, and between them they worked the audience well, but after doing this for 30 years, you certainly would hope they could. He is actually rather a funny man, with lots of interesting thoughts. He also allowed audience members to ask him questions, some were rather appalling and others were very good which left Daniels demonstrating his wit and making the audience laugh - not bad for 71 year old it has to be said.
On the 6th November at the Gulbenkian Theatre, I went to see Milton Jones. It has to be said, he isn't particularly well known with the stereotypical teenager, what with him having a show on Radio 4, but a recent appearance on Mock The Week, replacing David Mitchell who replaced Frankie Boyle, made him briefly known. I've known of him for a long time, and after listening to a few shows, decided I liked him. He is a very funny man and not for people who aren't fast to get jokes. By the time you've understood the first joke, you would have missed the following three.
The warm-up act was a man called Paul Kerensa from Devon. What do I remember most about him? Is it his any of his jokes? Nope. Maybe it's the fact he has ginger hair? No It's the fact he showed us his belly, to prove that he doesn't have a belly button. To be honest, he could have just walked on stage without a shirt on and he'd have made a lasting impression on every single person in that theatre. It seems people (including me) are mesmerised by people with deformities.
After that Milton Jones came on stage (dressed as an old man) to tell some awful, but hilarious bad jokes. This was my first exposure to a proper live comedy gig, so I was disappointed when the person in front turned out to be a heckler. This is a man who we concluded was a cross between Jimmy Saville and an unfunny Vic Reeves. Why people pay to go and watch a show to then shout 'You're rubbish' half way through makes no sense to me. Luckily comedians have a quick wit to deal with idiots like that. Apart from that, I really enjoyed it and I urge you to find out who he is if you don't already know who he is.
The best bit for me was when it had finished and we were standing outside when who should walk past... That's right, Milton Jones. I felt the need to ask 'How are you?' before saying 'Good show'. Not my proudest moment, but he's added to my list of comedians I've spoken to, with Vic Reeves being the only other name on that list.
Monday 7th December came along and that evening I went to see Sean Lock; warming up for next year’s tour - and we were on the fourth row. I have always considered him to be my favourite comic, and seeing him live was a proud moment in my life. I’ve also always considered him to be 'The Panel Show Whore' with him doing shows from BBC's 'Qi' and 'Have I Got News For You', to Channel Four's '8 Out Of 10 Cats' and even Dave's 'Arguemental’. It’s good to just go and see him on stage by himself instead, and I think he is funnier by himself.
As obviously expected, he was very funny. This time the hecklers where much nicer, with one shouting out 'I love you'; how sweet was that? Another heckler who sat behind us was like Rayman - she knew the position of every seat in the theatre - so naturally this provided some comedy for him for a few minutes. From the show we also learnt that Canterbury people get very nervous when asked to think of a letter and also don't like it when someone steals their turn to talk to the man on stage. In a part of the show named 'Audience Battleships', he would shout out a seat number and whoever is sat in that seat he'll speak to. However this isn't a good game to play to a room full people who don't know where they're sitting.
The best image I got from that evening was possibly the idea of Nick Griffin being on fire, and Sean Lock 'having a service station piss on his feet' to put his feet out; then the idea that an Asian paramedic coming and Sean Lock sending them away also 'tickled my funny bone'. So watch out for that gag on Live At The Apollo next year... There are loads of other jokes of course, but the problem I have is that I walked out of the 2 hour gig knowing it was amusing, but only being able to remember a handful of jokes.
A week later, Monday the 14th December, I went to see Lee Mack. How lucky was I, being able to watch two very funny comedians on two Monday's running. Lee Mack is well known for his show 'Not Going Out' and appearing on 'Live At The Apollo' pretty much every series. He has always been one of my favourite stand-up comics, but after seeing him live he has now become my favourite stand-up comic - Live he is hilarious. The warm-up act was Simon Evans and he is one of the writers of 'Not Going Out' along with, coincidently, Paul Kerensa (The warm-up act from Milton Jones), also writes and directs 'Not Going Out'. ALSO, Milton Jones has written the odd bit for Not Going Out; I only just found all this out and that is why you should do research before publishing writing. It amazed me.
Anyway, Simon Evans is a very funny man. A posh man dressed in a waistcoat who swore created quite a funny juxtaposition. Also, with good old fashioned racist jokes about the Welsh, how could he go wrong?
Back to Mack, and he started his part by locking someone in a box and calling a man on the front row a paedophile - I think if a comedian can do this without getting punched in the face, then he's very good. This is what has made him my favourite stand-up act; he's ability to involve and bounce off of the audience. A comedian having a five minute rant at a local area named 'The Isle Of Thanet' is hardly something he could have prepared for and it is his ability to do this which makes him great. Then going behind the curtain and realising there is Pantomime staging behind it brought on more laughs, with him resorting to kicking it to annoy the staff. At the end he lets the audience ask him questions, but it ended up with him just being asked to repeat gags from his last tour, none of which he done, but then why should he?
This show ended up being nearly 3 hours long, and was the most I've laughed all year. This was also a warm-up for his gigs next year, so if you're going to see him you'll have a great time. Two piece of advice though: The first, if you're claustrophobic, don't sit on the front row. The second is if you suffer from incontinence and have the need to go the toilet during the show, don’t back chat him because he’ll always win. The amount of people who done that was actually very surprising.

To be honest, I think you should all be bloody jealous of me and my comedy social life. All four evenings cost me £33 pound overall, so I'm not complaining. What wonders I'll see in 2010 we'll have to wait and see, but hopefully it might include names such as Stewart Francis and Sarah Millican, but we shall have to wait and see.

This blog has turned out to be one of my longest – these blogs aren’t just thrown together you know; hours of effort goes into writing and I had to sit through around 9 hours of comedy to review just for you!

It’s not all fun fun fun...