Milton Jones at the Spiegeltent

Sunday night and with a couple of mates we took in Milton Jones at the Spiegeltent in Russell Square. Must start with a word about the venue. According to the promoters:

"Originally built in Belgium in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these circular, mirrored tents are wonderfully atmospheric and authentic."

Well yes fair comment. Of course its what they don't say that is most telling.  Perhaps I should leave it to Milton Jones in his valedictory remarks at the end of his show. "Thanks for inviting me to your oven." Yes it was absolutely sweltering. A warm evening outside turns into an utterly oppressive one inside a tent.

Milton was of course his offbeat self. You have to get his humour. There are no stories, its mostly one liners. Or more accurately two liners. One to set up, the second to deliver. Typical was hos opener. My full name is Milton 43 Acacia Avenue Brentwood Jones. My father was told it was a good idea to put the house in his son's name." Or "I come from a family of failed magicians. I have two half sisters."

This was a one hour gig trying out new material. It was a little disjointed, as one would expect, and at times he seemed to be making up stuff as he went along. The only real routines were one involving flags about Brexit (which was genius) and a slide show, which was hit and miss. 

One thing about the show is yoiu need a lot of cultural references to be able to get all the jokes. You need to know the lyrics of popular songs and all sorts of other quirks. The Joke "I like George Best. Well, no actually I like Zippy best" went over the head of my young mate. You needed to remember kids TV show Rainbow to recognise that as a joke at all.

He doesn't do a lot of audience interaction but did get stuck with a drunken middle-aged heckler. Got into particular trouble with "I always wondered why NASA didn't put a woman on the Moon. After all, there is all that dust up there..." Never entirely sure why people like that come out to shows rather than stay at home huddled around their cauldrons making up spells.