Mock the Week’s recurring panellist and Radio 4 comedian Milton Jones stood on the stage of Devizes Corn Exchange on Friday, with the setter, “it’s great to be here, in the past!” And thereafter, everything which came from his mouth was utterly hilarious. Thank you Devizes Arts Festival, a fine chortling choice; I’m still chuckling now…..
Our antiquated town, the maturity of the audience and the country bumpkin stereotype had already been fired at us from the support comics, all in the name of banter. Slight heckling with calculated precision might’ve offset these London comedians, who seemingly learnt no lesson from the backfiring of Francis Grose’s quips which spawned the moonraker fable. Yet, with the timing perfection of Spike Milligan, God of Funny, Milton could’ve said anything you’d consider corny from the mouth of another comedian, and still come up trumps.
I could debate all day that if Milton thinks our town is old-fashioned, so too is his humour, and neither are bad things. While surreal conceptually, Milton delivers deadpan puns based on wordplay, and while genius, the lengthy observational storytelling of Dave Allen, Billy Connolly or Richard Pyror, and the madcap and shock factors of eighties alternative comedians like Mayall and Edmondson, for Milton, appears omitted in favour of the previous generation’s one-liner joke telling. Even the hair suggests Ken Dodd.
Milton neurotically fumbles with the microphone stand, but not his wordplay. As is his bed hair, any emotional instability or self-doubt is part of the act; he has us under his spell from the off. You couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of his thought-process. I’m now of the opinion his manipulation of language and layered humour is second to none currently in comedy. He has nearly as many relatives as jokes, each one with their own punchline funnier than the next.
Some gags he divided into repeat opening lines, “isn’t it awkward when…” or in evaluating the audience’s reactions with pretend test jokes, and he occasionally returned to a thought, but each gag was separated by subject so vastly, and fired as fast as bullets, the mind boggled to keep up, and ordered minimal laughter relapse in fear of missing the next punchline. I could recite some gags, but I’d just ruin them; Milton is proof delivery is the crucial element.
The first support, Dave Vaughn, however either failed to assess the audience or didn’t have the arsenal prepped to adapt. What might’ve appealed to his peers, a younger city audience didn’t wash here unfortunately. Maths, a subject he came out with, was mildly amusing, but this matured audience isn’t going to identify with nostalgic observations of growing up in the nineties; that was yesterday to them!
Finishing on Trump jokes I hoped, for his sake, would elevate reaction, but they weren’t refined, nor as risque as they could have been, as if Dave was holding out on provocation in fear of being overly offensive, which he might have gotten away with in his comfort zone. He repeatedly said “yeah,” to compensate for “please giggle,” but Trump is his own joke, and just because the audience might look Conservative, doesn’t mean they needed modesty in this matter.
In many ways the compere was better than Dave, but he too felt like he had landed on an alien planet and was expected to entertain the natives. Milton called it later, “isn’t it awkward when…”
Thankfully this pattern was erased by the quirky dressed alternative girl in the middle. Undisputed UK Pun Champion Adele Cliff may not have fitted with the Arts Festival attendees, but would in the wider Wiltshire demographic, hippychick!
And she certainly delighted them. A self-confessed nerd, whatever Adele sourced she turned into magic, even corny quips, or geeky subjects like Doctor Who and Toy Story were delivered so perfectly, it produced the desired effect. I loved her, the audience found her hilarious as she lifted the spirit in preparation for Milton with stars, cherries and everything on top. Combined with Milton, they made my drizzly week, because laughter is the best medicine.
Another great night in Devizes, thanks to The Devizes Arts Festival. Today, Nothing Rhymes With Orange make their hometown reunion, and I’ve been hopeful it will attract a younger audience to the delights of our arts festival; we wait in anticipation, just wishing Milton could see it, for these lads originate from Devizes, and are the future.
devizine.com 