Today, we've sat down with none other than Milton Jones: master of the one-liner, king of surreal comedy, and a regular fixture on our TV screens and comedy stages...
Hi Milton, what would you say your spirit animal is and why?
Last time I was asked this I said ‘it’s a long metal thing with a bubble in the middle, that helps with DIY – but apparently that’s a ‘spirit level’. Otherwise, people keep sending me photos of their guinea pigs having a bad hair day! Alternatively, my big exit from the new show is in the form of a giant snail, which takes ages. So to answer the question, some kind of giant guinea pig with a bubble in the middle.
Your current tour Ha!Milton sweeps across the UK. Do you have any favourite venues to perform at?
Obviously full venues are the best! Design-wise – I like the old Matcham style theatres where you have three levels of audience near the stage eg Richmond, Buxton etc. Having said that their dressing rooms are often small and grubby. Also, often those stages have a slight slope which makes you feel like someone’s constantly pushing you in the back to make you fall off the stage. I’m not so keen on municipal halls and arenas – even if the dressing rooms are better. The audience is the important thing of course, and it’s better to have a good crowd in a bad venue than the other way round.
In your eye (or ears), what makes a person funny?
It took me a while to work out that having funny ideas and words isn’t enough. You have to have a persona that makes them want to laugh – putting them in the mood by just the way you look and the tone and rhythm of your voice. Some people just have it. It’s a strange cocktail of being bullet-proof and vulnerable at the same time.
As an accomplished author, how do you approach and balance your writing with work on stage vs. radio?
It’s all about deadlines - whether its people buying tickets for a show you haven’t written yet, or even just promising to do a new material night - with a few hours to go - to give yourself the sudden fear of facing real people! Of course often deadlines for different projects overlap, so the rhythm of work is inevitably quick-quick-slow… On the slow days I look at long term half ideas that may turn into something. Either that or I end up counting leaves in the garden.
What has caught your attention (in a good way!) in the UK culture scene recently?
Ludwig on BBC with David Mitchell is subversively sleuthy.
Sharon Horgan’s Bad Sister on Apple is scurrilously funny.
I’m no musician – as anyone who has seen my show Ha-Milton will confirm - but at the moment I’m a bit obsessed with Dua Lipa and Elton Johns’ remix of Cold Heart.
I also think Harry Baker is an excellent contemporary poet. Check him out on YouTube.
Oh… and the original Hamilton musical is really good actually.
Learn more at www.miltonjones.co.uk.