Jethro, the Cornish King of Comedy recently paid a visit to the Sands - and we were there with our clap-o-meter ...

Introduction to Jethro
Me and Jethro go back a long way, although he doesn't know it. I was first introduced to him well over 10 years ago, when meeting up with an old school friend and his wife in - you guessed it - Cornwall.

As well as remembering the excellent King Prawns at the pub we were eating at, I also remember howling as Ratty (my friend) and his wife ran us through some of the best comedy moments from Jethro, who I'd never heard of at the time.

I was hooked - and first thing I did was seek out his audio cassettes to listen to in the car. In those days these were pretty hard to find. But having heard his routine for myself, I loved it and I've been a devotee ever since.

Jethro on stage at The Sands

Blue rinsers ...
It's great to be able to go and see him performing in a Northern venue. It only seems a short while ago that he was at the Sands Centre, but the seats were pretty well packed and the audience extremely appreciative as he ran through his repertoire of hilarious and bizarre stories.

I first went to see Jethro live in Great Yarmouth 6 years ago, whilst on a boating holiday. We saw he was on at the pier and couldn't resist.

The big surprise was, we were the youngest people there. There were four of us - all under 35 - and everybody else was well over 50. The seats were littered with blue rinses, yet the comedy can be really crude. The old dears were laughing their heads off - it completely changed my view of older people ... until then I thought they didn't know anything about sex!

The Carlisle audience was much more mixed - everybody from 20-somethings to 60-somethings. Either Jethro is now hitting a wider audience through TV exposure, or we picked the wrong gig at Great Yarmouth.

Drop the songs ...
The biggest surprise is that Jethro sings at his gigs ... and it's incredibly corny too. You go from the crudest joke you could think of to a Daniel O'Donnell style song within the space of 5 minutes. One minute Jethro is talking about 'splitting whiskers', the next minute he's singing a corny song that wouldn't be out of place on an old Val Doonican show. It's so incongruous - and for the younger members of the audience, totally pants.

I've noticed he's changed his style over time too. In the 'old days' Jethro's Cornish accent seemed to be much harsher, and you really had to listen hard to catch what he was saying. He also used to repeat lines for 'comedic' effect - and it got a bit tedious actually.

His accent seems to have softened now and he doesn't repeat the lines. He also uses his catchphrase 'what happened was ...' less frequently, if at all, and this makes the whole show more entertaining. The one thing he's kept in the act which always did work was Denzil, his best mate, whose adventures are always incredibly entertaining. You're also left wondering what Jethro's real wife is really like!

Something old, new, borrowed and blue ...
In Carlisle, Jethro mixed old and new material and even popped in a few topical gags. I heard some hilarious new stories - the one with the wife stuck on the bathroom tiles was my favourite - and dare I say it, I even liked the comedy song about dogs' bottoms (okay, you had to be there!).

I'd just like Jethro to leave the cheesy songs to Daniel O'Donnell and get on with what he does best - tell great stories in his unique style, and entertain the audience with what they came to see. I was a great comedy gig, but if I want old songs I'll listen to Saga radio.

Review by Paul Teague