I judge a comedian on how good he is by imagining my own father judging the comedian, and the judge of a comedian by my fathers standards would be how many of the punch lines my father would be jotting down in his pocket diary just below the level of the table, for use in his own stand-up routine later that year in Benidorm.
Simon Evans would probably get a page all on his own, high praise indeed.
By the way, if anyone would like to buy twenty years worth of pocket diaries from the 1960s and 70s each of which is crammed full of politically incorrect punchlines (but none of the actual jokes) then please get in touch for they make no sense at all to me, for example…
Sunday May 20th : Cantona says “oh thats great boss they only gave us a slice of orange at Elland Road”
The joke will have something to do with being pulled off at half-time!
I could have a competition couldn’t I – guess the joke from a random punchline.
Need to find those Gag Books…