Milton Jones: “Glasgow does have a bit of a reputation of killing people from the South"

Fresh from his Best Headliner win at the Chortle awards, Milton Jones will be appearing at the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival for the first time this year. So what can we expect from The Lion Whisperer?

“You won’t learn anything by coming, but people seem to laugh for an hour and a half. Lots of one-liners, music, stupid stories and characters. If you’ve seen me before, it’s a lot more of the same, but different from last time. The last tour there wasn’t music but I think with one-liners you need to break it up a bit.”

In Jones’ recent book, Where Do Comedians Go To Die?, his main character names Glasgow as one of a number of cities where gigs often involve ‘appealing to the hearts and minds of people who have neither’ – could this explain why he’s only making his debut now?

“Glasgow does have a bit of a reputation of killing people from the South but I’ve always got away with it. I usually say the more of an outsider I am the higher my hair has to go up. It lowers my status to some degree and makes people feel less threatened if I look like an idiot. I think the reason that this is my debut though is called “being invited”. That’s probably the main reason. I’m in Edinburgh and Aberdeen around the same time so it fitted in quite nicely.”

In a time where the word comedy has arguably become synonymous with controversy, some might be surprised to learn that Jones is also a Christian. Can it be difficult combining faith and a comedy career?

“Because stand-ups are pretty much in control of what they say it doesn’t affect me when I’m doing my own shows. I don’t use my “pulpit” as a tool to preach to the unconverted. I say what I think will be funny, and I’m employed to be funny first. When it gets harder is when I’m on a show, like Mock the Week where subjects come up where maybe I do feel quite strongly about them. But the opinions I have are far from funny and they’d just cause trouble.”

While Milton’s show may already be sold out by the time you read this, it won’t be your only chance to sample him this year.

”I’m doing a sitcom pilot over the summer for Channel 4 called House of Rooms with Dan Evans. My character is living in a big house with his mother. She used to be an actress but now she’s quite bitter. We’ve got a lot of tenants, some of whom are mad. There are hints of Rising Damp and Father Ted. I’ve also just done a pilot for Dave; we’re waiting to hear if we’ve got a series on that. It’s called Milton’s College of Knowledge and that’s more a factual based thing. I say facts; we’ve made  most of them up so... it’s like QI. Except you won’t learn anything at all.”