Milton Jones - Lion Whisperer - DVD review

Milton Jones here presents his second stand-up DVD, Lion Whisperer, just in time for the burgeoning Christmas DVD market. Whilst his popularity in recent years has no doubt seen a boom due to his appearances on Mock the Week and his performances on the BBC's stand-up output, Jones has been carving a unique niche for himself on the stand up circuit for nigh on twenty years.

Coming out to the crowd with his manic stare and trademark garish shirt, he gives a customary 'Good evening' and ploughs straight in to his litany of one-liners. From the off, his delivery is flawless and his mastery of his material is self-evident. The sheer number of jokes he remembers and performs is an impressive feat in itself and each joke is rewarded with a range of audience responses, from cackles of laughter accompanied by rounds of applause to groans accompanied by chuckles of appreciation, all fairly accurate in reflecting the quality of material.

His style of humour is clearly accessible for everyone, as shown by the DVD's universal rating. In reality, however, it may be best left for those who are already fans of Jones and know what to expect. Although there is certainly variety in subject matter, to a viewer used to his television performances, the format of the jokes could become slightly tiresome and predictable when his act is performed over an hour long show. In apparent recognition of this Jones appears in character as one of his seemingly infinite grandfathers. While this is a fairly novel idea and potentially gives Jones scope to experiment, he really just delivers the same jokes in a different costume and different voice. It seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity and even though the appearance changes the pace, it does not really add too much to the show. Jones further tries to shift the pace and dynamics of his performance by employing a projector and slides of naively drawn images, thoroughly in keeping with Jones' stage persona. This works really rather well and is allows Jones to add a more visual element to his gags and to his set.

I do have one gripe with the DVD itself, which is wholly due to the editing. The panning camera shots whizzing over the audience are obviously trying to inject some flashiness in to Jones' set, but they just do not work. Perhaps the producers are trying to appeal to an ADHD riddled youth audience but it just seems a bit out of place with Jones' stand up style and, judging by the age of the crowd at the recording, his audience too.

At his best, Jones' linguistic playfulness conjures up some sensational images and ideas but, by the very nature of a an hour long show of one-liners, it feels as though at times the importance of quality is surpassed by that of quantity. The jokes suffer a bit from diminishing returns and even though you might be telling some of them tomorrow, as Jones himself notes, there will also be a lot that you forget or will want to forget. All in all, however, it is a solid show with some excellent jokes and consistent laughs, proving Jones to be a master of his form. If you can survive the onslaught of one-liners, there is much to enjoy in this hour of stand-up.

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