Milton Jones And The Temple Of Daft

Theatre Royal Brighton, New Road, Thursday, June 25

MILTON Jones made his name on shows like Mock The Week through his skilful way with a one-liner.

But for this current tour he is adopting a different tack, telling the story of a quest to follow in the footsteps of his great uncle who looks uncannily like him.

“I’ve tried to move on my comedy a little bit,” says Jones on a short break from his intensive schedule of shows – which will see him perform the show more than 170 times this year.

“Turning the show into a narrative gives it a little more momentum and structure. The only thing now is I have to say the jokes in the right order!

“After 15 minutes of one-liners you can feel the blood coming out of people’s ears - there is so much information for them to take in. They end up just watching you rather than interacting with you. I try to do anything I can to break it up.”

It did mean writing the new show was even more of a challenge.

“You work yourself into holes where you have to get out through the use of jokes,” says Jones. “At one point I discovered I was in Africa and needed to get to Egypt in just two jokes – those are hard ones to write. You end up with a lot of jokes you can’t use because they don’t fit, you don’t have enough crowbars to get them all in. I’ve ended up writing more jokes rather than less for this tour.”

And as is to be expected on such a long tour the show is changing night after night – albeit in a very slow way.

“I mentioned the whole Fifa scandal the other day,” says Jones. “Something topical like that can come in suddenly. Sometimes I’ll put an extra line in here or there to make it easier for myself.

“You wouldn’t notice the difference between show two and show three, but you would between show two and show 52.”

As well as the story Jones uses other techniques to break up the show – ranging from sound effects to an old-fashioned overhead projector.

“You can either go high tech or low tech,” he says. “I’m not clever enough to go high tech – I tend to use really basic props.”

He is enjoying creating his own fake family and cast of characters as part of the tour.

“The story is completely made up,” he says. “I have talked about my mythical family for years – every time my mum comes to see me she tells the people around her: ‘Nothing of this is true you know’.

“The Simpsons have the immediate family and then a whole town cast around them. Gradually I’m picking up characters from here, there and everywhere which I can come back to. They have little to do with reality – they’re all about the jokes.”

Being on such a long tour can be a challenge, both in terms of the travelling and the different audiences a comic faces. Ken Dodd famously kept a comedy map to keep note of which jokes landed best where, but Jones feels audiences are becoming a little more mixed now.

“You can go to play a show in Durham and there will be a load of students from Surrey in the audience,” he says.

“I like playing the big cities at the weekend – like Newcastle and Belfast. People are all dressed up to go out, and will have a good time regardless. When I played Barrow I was the only thing happening that weekend!

“London can be tougher – you can get the audience members with their arms folded, because they’ve got so much more choice.

“Normally when people laugh at the offstage announcement I can breathe an inward sigh of relief.”

The travelling can all get a bit much though.

“I went on stage in Blackburn and said ‘Good evening Stockport’,” he admits. “You only see dark rooms, you don’t generally get time to take a tour of the town and see the sights.”

“Writing on the road is quite good – you’re tour-sharp as you’re facing an audience that evening,” he says.

“You’re in the right state of mind for comedy, it becomes all consuming.

“I either run or play football to turn off – you need something to occupy your body so you can’t think properly!”

Starts 8pm, tickets £27.90. Call 08448 717650.