WHY is squire of silliness Tim Vine calling his new tour Sunset Milk Idiot?

"Sunsets are in the sky, milk's nice, and Iā€™m an idiot," he explains ahead of delivering his plethora of puns at Saturday's sold-out performance at the Grand Opera House, York.

"I'll be telling lots of silly new jokes, showing off new homemade props, singing some new daft ditties, and all with the appearance of confidence. The following subjects will be touched upon briefly: pixie football, ice cream and nibble feeders. This is comedy without a message."

Back to that surrealist title, Mr Vine. "Apparently people have spent a long time staring at the poster looking for a meaning, but the truth is I'd made a hat out of milk cartons ā€“ I don't know why ā€“ and the poster designer put a nice sunset behind it. So, just as I start a gag by thinking of the punchline first, I came up with an image for the poster before settling on the tour title," says the 51-year-old Cheam comedian.

No hidden messages, then? "Well if there is, the message is just 'let's have a laugh," he says. "Maybe, if you're just doing silly stuff, it's easier to do non-consequential comedy when it's just for the laughs."

York Press:

"This is comedy without a message," says Tim Vine

Such as? "I've joined a team of pixie footballers, but we never play any home games." Why? "I'm always away with the fairies."

Talking of football, Tim, how do you rate our chances in the Russia 2018 World Cup, especially with the Russia versus Britain tinderbox tension at present? "It's highly unlikely we'll win as it's not happened since 1966, and I think we might be subject to some extraordinary decisions with a thinly disguised Putin making those VAR [video assistant referee] decisions!" he says.

As for that political football, Brexit, what are Tim's thoughts? "If you think about it, if the vote had gone the other way, all the these last months, the news would have had to be about something else, so what were those other stories. The fact they didn't give Brexit its own news channel makes you think about the news in certain ways: what were they going to choose for news instead?"

After three weeks off, Tim began rehearsals in early April to resume his tour in May. "I'm not sure it's easier to remember a chatty, observational style of comedy than my one-liner stuff, but once I've learnt the links, then I'm fine," he says. "The flow is very important, keeping it going, and I do use props and songs to break it all up."

Pixie football, we now know about, but you will have to wait until Saturday night to discover Tim Vine's thoughts on ice cream and nibble feeders.

Tim Vine: Sunset Milk Idiot, Grand Opera House, York, Saturday, May 26, 7.30pm, SOLD OUT.