thu 14/11/2024

Miles Jupp, Touring | reviews, news & interviews

Miles Jupp, Touring

Miles Jupp, Touring

Superb mix of personal and political material

Miles Jupp is a charming comic who can be deceptively waspish

It's a mark of Miles Jupp's charm that he can do a show with a long segment about being the father of four young children and win over both non-parents and those who wish to forget for two hours that they have left their own offspring at home with a babysitter.

But in Miles Jupp Is the Chap You're Thinking Of, which I saw at the Ambassadors Theatre in London, the comic expounds at length on life chez Jupp, which appears to be a whirl of cleaning Weetabix-encrusted crockery and finding faecal matter in inappropriate places.

Many will know Jupp from Rev. and The Thick of It, and he's also building up an impressive film-acting CV that includes appearances in Made in Dagenham and The Monuments Men - although he disarmingly says his audience may recognise him from the first Sherlock film, “as the waiter who has all his lines cut”. Actually Jupp sends himself up royally; his tweediness, his poshness, looking and sounding years older than he actually is (he's 34 but has always looked about 50, he says) and his out-of-touchness with modern youth all provide decent jokes at his own expense.

Much of the humour covers familiar territory (Twitter, stacking dishwashers), but Jupp can be deceptively waspish; several celebrities, including Matt Damon, Claudia Winkleman and John Bishop, get neat putdowns and anyone foolish enough to heckle may get more than they bargain for. In the lengthier set-pieces of the show, meanwhile, Jupp builds from mild-mannered asides to spluttering outrage, much of it faux but comically so.

Jupp is a wonderfully clever comic and references his most famous role – that of Archie the Inventor in children's TV show Balamory - to talk about not only the nature of fame but also individual identity; when travelling on the Tube in London a young fan recognised him and couldn't separate the character and the actor playing him. Jupp put him right, but I suspect the poor lad may be damaged for life.

In the second half of the show, which he opens with an inspired callback, Jupp moves from the personal to the political - and here he pulls the rug from under those who think his plummy tones and minor public-school education mark him out as a natural Tory. Quite the opposite, as he fillets the present government in an eloquent but still highly comic state-of-the-nation section; this time the anger is real.

There are one or two anecdotes that go on too long, and a couple of payoffs that one can see coming, but this is a superb show from a comic in cracking form.

Jupp sends himself up royally; his tweediness, his poshness, looking and sounding years older than he actually is

rating

Editor Rating: 
4
Average: 4 (1 vote)

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters