After a sun-kissed opening day in the comedy tent, the heavens opened for day two. Well, not exactly opened. If anything it was worse than that, it was simply a constant drizzle that never let up as the day went on. Not that this was a problem for the tent. In fact of anything it boosted attendances as people sheltered from the rain and were increasingly determined to enjoy themselves. If they were feeling a little gloomy at the start the stand-up soon brightened their mood.
The first act I caught was Suzi Ruffell who was a real force of nature on the Latitude stage. At times there were echoes of Russell Kane (see yesterday) as she was also very nifty at throwing bendy, angular shapes to illustrate a point.
Ruffell's high energy set mixed and matched old material with latest bulletins from the Suzi front. She recently became a mum and moved to Brighton, both of which are naturally a fertile source of humour. Actually she must've become a mum a while back because her child is already talking. And, for some reason, often talking with a French/Spanish/Italian accent, which made for a hilarious routine involving a misunderstanding with a man who had merely come to fix the Sky box. Ruffell, like Kane, has the ability to glue together pure crowdpleasing entertainment with food for thought and social comment, plus a mandatory bit about mental health and anxiety. Definitely another of my favourites at Latitude. And anywhere else for that matter.
One of the problems of seeing so many comedians back to back is that the material can start the blur together. Looking back over my damp notes I can't work out whether it was Ed Gamble yesterday who had a routine about getting a cat or Suzi Ruffell. I'm pretty sure Suzi said that you can't adopt a cat, that ultimately all cats are adopted. But maybe Ed said something similar.
Jordan Gray made a splash last year by flashing her penis on Channel 4's Friday Night Live. I fully expected she would strip off and do it again onstage here, but maybe the presence of children in the audience made it unviable. Or maybe the autumnal climate might have made shrinkage an issue. But during her powerful short set Gray proved that full frontal shock tactics clearly aren't remotely necessary for her to make an impact.
Gray's mix of songs and stand-up was positively bursting with fun, wit and positivity. One song - I won't go into detail or it would spoil it – had a similar rug-pulling style to Tim Minchin's song about ginger-haired people, but that did not make it derivative, it was a powerfully pithy number in its own right. Striding up and down the stage and chatting to the audience there was more than a hint of Russell Brand about the mix of gesticulations and Essex accent, but Gray definitely has something going on that few comics have.
After an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination last year she is very much on the cusp of breaking through into the big-time. She finished by hammering the piano keys while balancing on one leg. Maybe not as headlining worthy as stripping down to the bare essentials but it was still a memorable end to a breathtaking set.
Michelle De Swarte has also been getting some good press lately and made her debut on Live at the Apollo last year. De Swarte has an intriguing back story – she was a successful model discovered as a teenager before turning to stand-up – but somehow she seemed to have difficulty connecting with the audience. It was hard to see why. Maybe her stories about her working class roots, drugs and getting wasted just didn't chime with the audience. She did OK and was not badly received but compared to earlier sets from Gray and Ruffell the applause felt more polite than spontaneous.
I worried that Fern Brady might struggle too. She is a distinctive, uncompromising stand-up and certainly not a natural crowdpleaser. But earlier in the day I'd seen her talking about her book Strong Female Character in the book tent (Reader, I bought a copy) and this put her stand-up set into a much better context. Brady was receently diagnosed as autistic and now has a greater understanding and insight into why she finds certain social situations difficult. But it maybe it is also partly what makes her such a good comic. Performing onstage she is in control and one-to-one social interaction is less necessary. It also helped at Latitude that she had some very funny, albeit rather dry, dark material about her previous job as a stripper among other things.
As for the prickly subject of relationships she was bleakly funny about her feelings that now in her mid-thirties her body was changing and maybe certain things may not happen in her life. For anyone who saw Brady on Taskmaster this was a set that maybe put some of her awkward behaviour on that show into context. For others this was just a wonderfully succinct example of brutal comedy. Certainly not your typical cuddly Latitude stand-up set but one of the best act of the weekend.
If there is such a thing as the perfect Latitude comedian it was probably Bridget Christie. Currently riding high with her Channel 4 comedy The Change there was a roar of appreciation when she came onstage, And not just from women of a similar age. Although there were clearly lots of them squeezing under the canvas. Christie hit the ground running with her chat about how women become invisible when they hit 50, to the extent that she had to write her own programme to get on TV. She also found time to have a playful swipe at Davina McCall who she suggests is her main rival when it comes to being TV's Ms Menopause.
Christie's style is to make very serious points by being sarcastic and silly. There was a sublime story about her mother being forced to give birth to her at home because the hospital was dismissive when she rang up. The deadpan pay-off is positively priceless. Another highly relatable section of her performance was about the brain fog that means she forgets the names of famous actors and even the name of "orange extract" when trying to bake a cake. Her efforts to find the right word while getting increasingly flustered had the entire audience in hysterics and large swathes nodding in recognition.
I don't know how you get the freedom of the city but if it's doing good deeds that everyone agrees with, after this set maybe Bridget Christie should get the freedom of Latitude.
Review of Day One here.
All pictures ©brucedessau
