If I'd known it was going to be one of the hottest days in years, I may not have booked for the Maltings, a nice, but very old venue, with no inbuilt air conditioning, but we went along anyway.
The event had sold out in under an hour, but when I'd tried to book over the phone I ended up with seats in row T (in the ramped seating at the back), rather than row G. This was a long way back and row G, annoyingly, had a mobile air conditoner right where I thought I'd book seats! I'd gone along, though, and was relieved to see that the seats were steeply enough arranged that we could clearly see over the head of people in the rows ahead.
The venue was packed and at a few minutes past the 7:30 start time, Jack appeared on stage with an upright microphone and did a 'warm up' routine, moaning about life in general, as his usual irrascible persona and he was pretty funny, if you appreciate that type of humour (I do or I probably wouldn't have booked to see him).
After 30 minutes, though, he said we all needed an interval and most people made their way back to the bar or outside to try and cool down.
We managed to go to the bar quickly enough to get a drink and then, after about 25 minutes, an announcement was made that the performance would recommence in 5 minutes.
We hung around for a few minutes and then returned to our seats, clutching our rapidly warming drinks.
When we got back, there was a small table and a couple of chairs on stage with a small lamp and what looked like a pint of beer, although it remained untouched during the performance.
Jack explained that we were amongst the first people ("You could be amongst the last, too!" he quipped) to see his Edinburgh Fringe show, where he was going to recount his life through the jokes that had stuck with him.
The first was the first joke he could remember his father telling him (I would provide many details because, for one, I don't remember many of the numerous jokes and it would be a shame to spoil them for anyone else who goes along.
It was a good joke, though, and this set the tone for the rest of the evening. Jack spoke about how he worked in restaurants and on building sites (he failed his A Levels "Well, I say failed, they came back ungraded, so we'll never know!") to try to get into acting (and later, comedy) and the jokes that people told in those places of work.
He spoke of his love for the humour of Dave Allen and told a couple of his religious jokes.
He explained how he finally got into comedy through a open-mike session at the Comedy Store in London.
Of course, these days, he's probably best known as the compere of "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" and many of his stories came from regulars from that show, Barry Cryer (a few Parrot jokes) and Graham Garden, along with an off stage one-sided conversation with 'Samantha', who prompted him to tell a couple of risquer jokes.
Most jokes got a great reaction, while a few you could see coming (and that elicited its own quick laughter) and one or two, but no more, I knew.
There was a running joke, too, about a group of school mates, who returned to a pub near Guildford every 10 years, to celebrate their joint birthdays and the performance ended with the punchline (A good one) to that joke and then the very last joke his father had told him, just before he died.
The show was a lot of fun and, while I do like his grumpy humour, most of the main set was far more jokey and upbeat and, I'm sure, would make people of most ages laugh.
There was little bad language (I won't say none, but you could safely bring a 12 year old along and they'll have heard, and probably, used far worse) and, aside from the stiffling heat, it was a great hour and a half (with an extra 30 minute break) of entertainment.
If you can catch "Jack's Joke Show" on tour or at Edinburgh, you'll probably have a fun evening and a good laugh.
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