FORGET James Bond, Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt – there’s a new spy in town. And he’s not dressed in a neat tuxedo or head-to-toe camouflage. He’s wearing a garish Hawaiian shirt.
That’s right, Milton Jones – ‘Mock the Week’s resident oddball, Radio 4 regular and king of the surreal one-liner – is back on tour, stopping off at The Hexagon in Reading in November 2020, and this time he’s an international man of mystery.
The wild-haired joke-teller might not be the obvious choice for a secret agent, but in ‘Milton: Impossible’ the 55-year-old comic will be taking his audience through an action-packed story via hundreds of his trademark, exquisitely-crafted pieces of wordplay.
The comic says he came up with the title of the show before he had even decided the material he would perform.
He said: “I made a rod for my own back by theming it. But sometimes it’s easier to write to a theme than have a completely blank page.
“The show is based on ‘Mission: Impossible’, but ‘Mission: Impossible’ has a huge budget and lots of special effects. My show is just me and some hats and about 250 jokes. It’s low-tech instead of high-tech.”
Like Milton’s last two tours - ‘Milton Jones is Out There’ and ‘The Temple of Daft’ - there will be a narrative element to it.
He said: “If you’re going to do a show for over an hour you can’t just tell bits. That’s what I do on ‘Mock the Week’ and ‘Live at the Apollo’, which is fine, but you want something with the veneer of satisfaction, otherwise it’s too fragmented.
“This show’s got an interrogation scene, a car chase with a swivel chair, and I end up escaping on top of a Vince Cable Car. It’s not strictly realistic, but it’s as daft as ever.”
Fans of the one-liner comic can expect to enjoy around 250 jokes during the show - but he always writes more than those that feature.
He said: “I reckon I end up writing about 350. A lot of them are then used somewhere else – in the next tour, on radio, on ‘Mock the Week’ – so they’re never wasted.”
Milton Jones comes to The Hexagon on Saturday, November 14, at 7.30pm.
Go to whatsonreading.com/venues/hexagon/whats-on/milton-jones to book online.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here