Jaded as I am, I’m genuinely excited that tomorrow, I’ll be going to see Milton Jones (interview on Page 25) at the New Theatre.

A true original, Jones trod water for a while after his early success, despite several radio series. At last, he’s playing really big theatres. Sometimes the craft, skill and sheer hard work in some of his jokes are not immediately clear in their impact but he’s the king of one-line weirdness.

Ironically, after recently bemoaning the lack of women stand-ups appearing locally, I find that no fewer than three are appearing on the same day as Jones. Jo Caulfield is at Chipping Norton, Shappi Khorsandi at Didcot’s Cornerstone and Shazia Mirza at Oxford’s North Wall. Jenny Eclair is also at Banbury Mill on the 21st.

On the 8th and 9th, Harry Hill hits the New Theatre. At the beginning of his career, it would have been difficult to predict that he’d be an ITV Saturday night mainstream hero for a decade. While I don’t suppose he will go back completely to his offbeat roots on this tour, expect him to make audiences work a bit harder than his followers did on TV Burp.

Banbury also hosts Damian Clark on the 13th and Mark Thomas’s Brave Figaro tour on the 20th. Clark explores familiar Aussie themes, but he does it in a fresh way. Thomas moves away from his usual political content to discuss his relationship with his opera-loving but brutal late father. In an excellent fit, he’s also at Oxford’s North Wall on the 16th.

Glee has settled on Friday and Saturday dates for the whole month. Owen O’Neill is there – again on the 1st and 2nd – but also hits Didcot on the 23rd.

The revelation of Michael McIntyre’s enormous tour earnings doesn’t really surprise me as I’ve heard similar stories before about Peter Kay. In society generally, the gap between what the highest and lowest are paid has been increasing for many years, so it’s not surprising that the same applies to comedy.

You could argue that a stand-up comedian entertaining in a big theatre should get more than one talking to a few punters in a pub backroom. But, remember, they’re doing the same job.

Likewise there’s discussion as to whether comics are going too far in mocking prominent personalities. On the whole, I’d say no, but with two riders: first comment should be not alcohol-fuelled, and secondly some comics’ personal behaviour has lost them the right to criticise anyone at all. Step forward Jimmy Carr, who is at the New Theatre on Saturday.