Comedian Tom Houghton had his work cut out for him as the warm-up man for main Aberystwyth Comedy Festival act Milton Jones on Friday, 4 October, but the star of Netflix show, ‘The Circle’ handled the arts centre audience well.

He asked audience members a number of questions and, more often than not, received one word answers followed by silence, but Tom, who has also been on Channel 4’s ‘First Dates Hotel’, handled it well and with good humour.

I haven’t seen Tom before but I found him charming and interesting. I am intrigued by his upbringing, living in the Tower of London with his father (General the Lord Houghton GCB CBE DL) and his mother – who made an amusing screen appearance in Tom’s act dressed as Spiderman. Tom’s videos have millions of views and I will be seeking them out following his enjoyable turn at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

It must be hard to be a warm-up act, knowing that, as Tom said, the audience don’t know who he is and haven’t turned up to see him, but he weaved his material well with some audience interaction about bread and South Africa, and picked up a few more fans and social media followers on the night.

After a short interval it was Milton Jones’ turn to shine on the Great Hall stage and shine he did.

His quirky one liners, puns and dead-pan delivery had people in stitches. His use of props also entertained throughout.

In the run up to Milton’s stand-up show, called ‘Ha!Milton’, the star, who has appeared on Mock the Week (BBC2), ‘Live at the Apollo’ (BBC1), ‘Michael McIntyre’s Roadshow’ (BBC1) House of Games (BBC2), and ‘Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ said: “This is not a musical. I am tone deaf and have no sense of rhythm, but at least I don’t make a song and dance about it. This is a whole new show of daftness. You know it makes sense.”

This was indeed “a whole new show of daftness” and the audience loved it.

Review by Julie McNicholls Vale.