The early part of Saturday’s comedy program saw three of the finest up and coming stand-ups strut their stuff here at Latitude. Opening the proceedings, cardigan-wearing wildman-lookalike Dan Atkinson breezes through a routine of marvellous comic observations. Much of his gig focuses heavily on geographical differences in attitude, such as northerners views on living in London (“If you move there you’ll wake up every morning finding yourself stabbed in the face”) and the ‘wife-material’ nature of West Country women thanks to the fact they appear low maintenance (an idea he later concedes is gross stereotyping), as well as some intriguing advice on thrush treatment involving Crumble Corner yoghurt. All in all, it’s an extremely solid routine that has the early afternoon crowd on his side throughout, despite him profusely apologising for the apparently crude nature of some material, it supposedly being ‘inappropriate for 12pm’.

If Atkinson’s material is too X-rated for early afternoon, then the following act would make the censors heads implode. Londoner Carey Marx regularly veers well into the realm of political incorrectness – but nevertheless his gig goes down a storm with the Latitude crowd, despite a few parents rightfully  guiding their kids away from the tent to protect the innocence of their young ears. Marx manages to get away with material that cleverly yet crudely uses wordplay to detail some frankly disturbing scenarios by placing a teddy bear on stage. Occasionally he brings it up to the mic to balance out any bad karma generated from crossing the offensive/wholesome divide with some unashamed cutesiness.

Comedy and music seem be increasingly intimate bedfellows these days. Songs make up an integral part of Latitude favourite Bill Bailey’s routine, while The Mighty Boosh and Flight of The Concords have moved from being purely comic into become fully fledged bands. Today’s third act – Tim Minchin – is right up with the aforementioned in using music to generate genius humour. The set sees him deliver songs about the trials of being ginger, the usage of taboo racist words, as well as a fantastically catchy ‘peace song’ aimed at finally solving the Israel/Palestine conflict entitled ‘Let’s Not Eat Pig Together’. Overall, Minchin is utterly hilarious and a fantastic entertainer, closing the opening part of today’s comedy proceedings brilliantly.


Francis Whittaker