The Argus: fringe_2011_logo_red_thumb Many a middle-aged man or woman dreams of quitting daily life to chase their dreams.

Few ever make good on that desire.

Three risk-takers who recently threw caution to the wind are 50-year-old Richard Rycroft, 46-year-old Jane Hill and 45-year-old Rob Coleman.

They packed in the trivialities for late nights and laughs. They are now stand-up comedians on the circuit.

Coleman performs 200 gigs a year and clocks up 35,000 miles a year travelling to play shows. He says they are all bold and probably a little selfish.

Unsurprisingly, none of the trio has children or is married.

The three friends, who share the “commonality of being too old”, perform together as the Milky Drink Kids.

Their latest show is billed as a Nice Day Out, delivered by a group who “tell jokes nice and early because they tire easily”.

Coleman says he had been fighting the stage urge for many years.

“I wouldn’t call it mid-life crisis, but you get to the age of 40 and you think if, ‘I don’t do it now, I’m really going to regret it’.

“I’d rather do it and find out I can’t than not do it at all.”

The switch has been fairly seamless, he adds.

“Comedy is such a hard mistress that when you get to our age you are used to the outrageous hours. You tend not to worry as much, go with the flow.”

Stage fright, however, is another matter.

“By God it’s scary. I can’t sing or play an instrument, so stand-up was what was left. When it goes well it is the best feeling in the world. The buzz is better than any experience I’ve had in my life.”

Coleman says they strike a chord with their audiences because they are a little grey and grumpy.

Yes, they have been ground down by mortgages and bills but it means they are unlike the “young whippersnappers who haven’t got that much depth in their life to draw on”.

Rycroft gave up his “proper job” aged 38 to go to drama school and nowsupplements his income with acting (he’s had roles in Casualty, Doctors, Holby City). He is the elder of the three and is struggling to keep up with the world.

Hill was a radio executive who turned her back on a generous salary to pursue a writing career (she’s had three psychological thrillers published) and comedy.

She shares thoughts on being a woman in her 40s but “not in any polemical way,” says Coleman. “Just quirky, interesting things people can relate to.”

The most indecisive is Coleman, who was in local politics as a city councillor in Cambridge (his grandfather was an MP for Twickenham and he thought he wanted to follow in his footsteps), has tried everything from commercial interiors, writing, rowing the ocean and managing bands.

His forte is the one-liner. He lives with Hill in Leicestershire.

“I realised I wasn’t a team player,” Coleman says.

“I was no good working with other people. Living with Jane is great – we are both grumpy, we both do our own thing, we don’t have to talk to anybody at all. Best of all we don’t have to work with anyone else – it’s brilliant!”

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