Milton Jones – De Montfort Hall

Despite winning the 1996 Perrier comedy award for best newcomer, and various shows on Radio 4, Milton Jones has only become a household name since he started appearing on panel shows like Mock The Week.

Clearly the television experience has boosted his profile, yet panel shows are not the best environment to experience Jones's comedy, which tends towards tightly constructed one liners. Very few performers - Stephen Wright comes to mind - can manage to do an entire show of just one liners, and Jones was no exception, adding little bits audience interaction and using props to give some structure to the show.

Initially, he came on in character as his own grandfather performing some of Milton's gags. Later, in his trademark Hawaiian shirt, he used a slide projector to tie together some vaguely geography-related gags. What was often apparent, despite their fleeting nature, was the level of intelligence at work. One liners had sub-text that had you admiring their cleverness even as the next one was arriving to bust your guts. One liners also suffer from the fact that they are easy to remember and so get repeated down the pub or on Twitter, yet Jones’s delivery is so unique and integral, that it’s hard to imagine too many getting lost in this way.

The audience was hugely appreciative, and the large size of the venue didn't appear to phase him at all. A tour de force of puns and whimsy, Milton Jones seemed simply unstoppable.