On Saturday night I ventured northwards to Islington
to have my sides split at Union Chapel. The comedy evening featured a range of
comedians including headliner and one of my faves, Milton Jones.
I've been to Union Chapel before, and think it's an
absolutely super venue. Previously I'd seen Sir Tom Jones performing his gospel
album, for which the converted church was the perfect setting. Whatever you're
seeing there, Union Chapel is intimate, relaxed and usually has reasonably
priced tickets.
Whilst on the way up there on the bus, two tube lines
shut down, meaning the streets, buses and roads were heaving. This
unfortunately meant we arrived at the gig about 20 minutes late, and so we
missed most of Joe Lycett. But from what I heard from the people around us,
he'd had a very successful set, and I did like his last skit about loans and
interest rates (Yeah, maybe that was a "had to be there" kind of
joke...)
Union Chapel was packed
out, so I was surprised to get such great seats; up at the back, but directly
opposite the stage. The night was organized by The Invisible Dot, who had
brought in comedian Charlie Baker as host. His boisterous and brash jokes
certainly had us chuckling, not to mention the skilled musical interludes
between him and the house band. They played and sang jazzed up versions of all
the Christmas classics, but then again, Charlie’s rendition of “(Cock In The)
Eye of the Tiger” would take some explaining!
After the first break came Colin Hoult, who you might know
from Being Human or Life’s Too Short. He took us through the horror film “The
Rite” and all the reasons we shouldn’t see it, and re-inacted when his family
used a ouija board, only to find they were being haunted by a gorilla. His
humour was dark and witty, but with some great family impressions thrown in.
I knew of Josie Long before my night at the Chapel (remember
the careers advisor in Skins?) but it was great to see her do her stand-up.
Having had a landmark birthday last year, her set focused around MSN’s online
list of “What To Do Before Your Thirty”, intertwined with some great anecdotes.
She’s brilliant with audience interaction, and confessed that her ideal gig
would be a thousand specifically tailored jokes and a thousand single, big
laughs. I’d love to see Josie perform again.
Then came the act we’d all been waiting for. Dressed in his
signature white trainers, jeans and Hawaiian shirt, with bird’s nest hair and
deer-in-the-headlights eyes, Milton Jones was everything we had hoped for. I
love his play on words and his pace when joke telling, and it's a joy to follow him on Twitter. You’ll be convinced it’s
going one way, and you’ve got him sussed, but then from out of the blue he hits
you with a completely unexpected punch line.
“I did a gig in Ireland recently and at the end, they all
threw shamrocks at me. Turned out, they were real rocks.”
You’re still laughing at the first joke when he’s telling
you the fourth. Some were incredibly clever, and others just plain stupid, but
I was enjoying them all the same. Most of the one-liners were new, though there
were a couple of the classics, like :
“When I was young I had a condition which meant I had to eat
soil three times a day. Good thing my older brother told me about it really.”
Like Josie, Milton is also great with a crowd.
Milton : “I was bullied at school…”
Audience : “Awwwwww”
Milton : “… by pirates. You’re not helping.”
Though he was only on stage for half an hour, we must have
heard a hundred jokes. He sloped back off stage just like he’d sloped on, leaving
us all mopping our eyes and trying to hide our embarrassing snorts.
Great comics, great gig, great venue. I can’t wait to return
to Union Chapel in the New Year.
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