Milton Jones and the Temple of Daft

Known for his deadpan delivery of pun-filled one-liners, Milton Jones returns to the Edinburgh Fringe with his latest show, The Temple of Daft. Using the framing device of a story about a treasure hunt in true Indiana Jones fashion, Milton Jones uses the full catalogue of his comedic genius to throw witty wordplay, misdirected narrative and random, out of the blue gags in a spectacular one hour performance that had the audience in stitches.

Jones is a stand-up comedian with an alien personality and no matter how daft his performance becomes, it’s all part of the character that he is

The beauty of Jones’ performance is that you never know where the next thing is coming from. You can try to predict, but more often than not he will use that to his advantage and deliver something else entirely, keeping the laughs fresh and reactive and, with that result, with much volume. Some you will get from the off, others you sit there for a moment to work out and then the delayed wave of laughter kicks in. There is a great intelligence to his set, even if he does appear to be as mad as a box of frogs. From imaginary rabbits to political satire with flags, Milton Jones and the Temple of Daft has everything you’d expect to see at a Milton Jones stand-up show.

The only thing that threatens to jar his performance is the amalgamation of an overarching narrative with the repertoire of one-liners that he has ready to fire at us. Though there are times when the context of the narrative acts as a build-up for a particular set of jokes, usually they will go off on a tangent, relating to things that have no relevance to the narrative that he has just constructed. His random and unrelated interruptions in panellist shows such as Mock the Week are all part of his weird and wonderful charm, but here it doesn’t quite work in the same way.

For the most part though, this doesn’t matter, and it shouldn’t. Jones is a stand-up comedian with an alien personality and no matter how daft his performance becomes, it’s all part of the character that he is. And the audience love him for it.

Just as the title suggests, this is a truly daft show, but it’s Milton Jones doing what he does best. Though this may not be the best of his best, this is predominately down to the structure rather than the content. He remains on form with his style of comedy and it’s definitely a show not to be missed this year at the Fringe.