Review
TITLE: Milton Jones
VENUE: LBTREVIEW: by Chris Roberts REVIEW: by Chris Roberts
“I’VE got a cousin who lives in Fartown. He keeps all his cash under the mattress. That’s pretty clever, because none of the burglars would think to look in the front garden!”
And so the jokes began... one after another, after another, after another...
But that’s just what you’d expect when British comedy’s best one-liner merchant hits town.
Milton Jones was at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, hence the reference to Fartown, and proving just why he’s up there as one of the very best in the business.
Ok, some proud Huddersfield folk may not like the immediate put-down of one of their areas, but it became clear as the evening progressed that it was nothing personal. To emphasis that point, one of Jones’ parting shots to the sell-out audience was: “There’s a place between murder and suicide ... it’s called Merseyside.”
By that stage, many of his enthusiastic listeners were struggling for air, trying to catch their breath after another bout of infectious laughter.
The relentless pace at which the quips kept coming were not exactly what an asthmatic would have craved, for instance.
But even they would have forgiven him, given the vast array of side-splitting material in Jones’ armoury, which also included an hilarious slide-show of images with a commentary to match and the fantastic involvement of the audience, who regularly added comments to the set that without question enhanced the evening’s entertainment.
In that regard, however, up-and-coming comedian James Acaster is already a master of audience interaction.
In between Jones’ two sets, the first when he played the role of “Milton’s grandfather’ and the second for an hour-long stand-up set, Acaster delivered 30 minutes of fun and frolics, with one poor audience member – or victim – taking centre stage for one piece about skydiving.
There’s no doubt that those who were at the LBT were delighted. As well as seeing one of the future comedy stars in Acaster, they were also privileged to watch a comedy genius at work in Jones, whose facial expressions are almost as funny as his one-liners, if that were possible, of course.
