Words by Richard Thompstone

Posters for forthcoming shows adorn the entrance of the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells – comedians such as Richard Ayoade, Ellie Taylor, Jason Manford and Rhod Gilbert – all mere youngsters when compared to Jasper Carrott, who took to the stage on Sunday (April 27), having just celebrated his 80th birthday and still going strong.

Jasper freely admits that his heyday was way back in the 1970s and 1980s when he was a regular on television. While his name fails to resonate with younger audiences, there are still enough pensioners to enable him to continue playing to full houses up and down the country.

It’s a reality that Jasper recognises. He knows his audience and his material is tailored to those seniors. In the first half, he talks about health problems and coming to terms with new technology, highlighting the trials and quirks of ageing to people who grew up with him.

It’s a theme that gives him the opportunity to counter a heckle with the line: ‘It’s no use heckling – these days I can’t hear you’.

The first 20 to 25 minutes of each half is given over to Abba tribute act, Strictly Abba, who make way for about 35 minutes of patter from Jasper – a less exhausting format for him than a full 70-minute single set.

Jasper gets more into his stride in the second set with several well-worked fuller stories about bungee jumping and dinner with Princess Di.

A return to his motor insurance claim forms routine, which he’s been rolling out since he started out in folk clubs in the early 1970s, brought huge cheers. The jokes revolve around the unintentionally hilarious things people write as to what caused their road accident. After three old favourites, Jasper turns to more recent ones.

An unseen person in the wings telling him time was up at the end of each half seems to catch him unawares and brings the fun to an abrupt end. He’s been in full flow and apparently ready to move on to more observations, so it leaves one with a slightly uneasy feeling that, rather than being able to time his own act and tailor material to fit, he’s being hauled off.

However, the ‘wing man’ allows him a five-minute encore, which is when the guitar comes out for a few short song parodies.

At an age when most comedians have long retired, Jasper continues to work – he says that, like Ken Dodd, he has no intention of retiring – and he’s proving that he’s as funny as ever and that humour does not diminish with age.