Rock and droll star is on to a winner at Warwick Arts Centre

ANY comedian who tells a joke at the expense of Sarah Millican is automatically on to a winner with me.

Demonstrating his trademark deadpan delivery, Francis put her up there with his favourite comedy drag acts, Lily Savage and Mrs Brown, before admitting that he’d made a mistake. He didn’t actually like Lily Savage.

It was typical of an evening of deadpan humour where the one-liners came think and fast but not so much that you were struggling for breath.

He may be similar to Tim Vine in the way he uses clever wordplay. But whereas Vine’s puns come at machine-gun pace, Canadian Francis at least takes his time to take aim before firing.

Despite having plenty of ammunition, when targeted by a heckler ruining his punch lines, it wasn’t Francis, but a fellow audience member who shot them down.

‘Shut up you pr**k’, came the shout.

‘Me or him?’ was Francis’ quick reply.

Two encores showed the answer to that one, with Francis’ rock-star pretensions seeing him leave the stage with a towel draped around his neck and the audience still wanting more.

Paul Okey