Night Out

Last week, I found myself billeted in close proximity to the Edwardian elegance of the Southsea King's Theatre.
I noticed there was a show by the Cornish comedian "Jethro" on Wednesday night.
I couldn't resist, and immediately snapped up a ticket at the box-office.
Support live comedy and all that kind of thing!
I was in the stalls quite near the front, and was enjoying feeling relatively youthful compared to the bulk of the audience.
Result.
The lights dimmed.
A bald man with a beard wearing jeans and a waistcoat walked on to the stage.
I assumed he was going to make sure the guitars on stage were in tune, before the arrival of Jethro.
I was wrong.
He immediately started singing the Bill Withers hit "Aint No Sunshine" to a pre-recorded backing track.
He had a pretty decent singing voice.
However, I was utterly hypnotised by the way he moved the mic away and back from his mouth during the song, depending
on whether he was at a quieter bit or a crescendo.
I've never seen microphone technique like it, and I've seen a lot of microphone technique in my time.
I used to get told to move the mic away a bit when I shouted into it, but decided to stop shouting, as I kept using the technique in reverse.
He got a polite smattering of applause, then said "Thank you, and this is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs ever written",
and then sang "Vincent" by Don McLean.
Just as he finished that song and started heading off stage, another man walked on.
I was surprised to hear him start telling jokes.
The reason I was surprised was that there was no recognition applause whatsoever in the fairly full theatre.
I was puzzled.
It all seemed very quaint...no intros for anything...just a sequence of unannounced events.
Jethro's act was something of a mixed bag...
He has a number of undoubted belters, but also a large number of jokes which were likely shared by the crew of HMS Victory in the days leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar.
There were also a few uncomfortable moments in terms of