It might have been a Sunday but it was no day of rest for the comedians at the Machynlleth Festival. One of the reasons that the weekend is so laid back is that there are no Foster’s-style prizes, so nobody feels like they are in competition. Tom Craine, however, would have won the prize for Earliest Comedian when I spotted him outside the box office around 9.30am. It turned out that he was rushing off home and had a morning train to catch. He would have also have picked up a prize for the roughest-looking stand-up in town, but then that’s the price you pay if you go to the late-night indie disco and dance the night away.

As the morning progressed it was hard not to bump into comedians. Nish Kumar was outside a shop on the phone to Romesh Ranganathan comparing how unprepared each of them were for their next work-in-progress gig. Josie Long declared that the festival was brilliant and was contemplating going for a swim. Machynlleth is one of those old medieval towns that consists of a high street and not much else. Lucky punters got B&Bs in pubs, otherwise there was camping in the park round the back. All the venues, in various adapted shops and rooms, were within a five-minute walk of each other and start times were gently staggered so that there was never any frantic running from gig to gig. In fact it says something about the vibe that I didn’t see anyone run all weekend.

Oh, sorry, there was one person, but I’m not sure if I can legally show you a picture. During an open air set at the Woodland Pavilion a succession of stand-ups were given a hard time by a small boy called Toby. Adam Hess dealt with it pretty well, but when it came to Fin Taylor the E numbers proved all too much for Toby and he decided to chase Taylor around the stage and repeatedly headbutt him in the arse. You don’t get that at the Comedy Store. Just after that a passing Rhod Gilbert appeared. He hasn’t performed stand-up for over a year and I guess seeing what was going on he wasn’t tempted into making a comeback here.

There are also a number of novelty gigs at the Machfest, but having arrived late it was impossible to get a ticket for the Shed of the Year show, or a trip with stand-ups on a mini-steam train or get into King Arthur’s Labyrinth, a gig in a nearby South Snowdonia cave with comedians popping out from behind rocks to do surprise sets. I pinned my hopes on a Golden Ticket for the gig in the local sweet shop, Loisin Lush. You had to buy a lucky chocolate bar for that, but unfortunately they were all gone by the time I got there. Somebody had bought an entire batch in the hope of being one of the fortunate 20. I asked if I could take a picture through the window but was told in the nicest possible way that it was not allowed. I think you might just be able to spot Josh Widdicombe’s legs (picture, left) in the guerrilla snap I managed to grab. 

Widdicombe was at the festival trying out new material, but seemed more interested in swapping Panini stickers in the park near the big top and took great pleasure in pointing out that they were printed up so early the England team did not have sponsors' logos on their shirts. And for that matter they weren’t really the England team anyway as the squad hasn’t been named yet. He was also swapping stickers on behalf of Mark Olver who was doing a quick comedy course for beginners.

Olver’s lunchtime course sounded like fun so I popped in, expecting to lurk at the back. Instead it turned out to be pretty immersive. Olver actually believes that pricey, lengthy courses are not that important: “Don't be a dick, be funny, work hard” is his mantra. In 60 minutes he got everyone in the room to unearth their inner Michael McIntyre by encouraging us to tell stories to bigger and bigger groups of listeners. By the end we were performing to more people than you might on an open mic night. I suspect there is probably a bit more to stand-up, but it was certainly a good way of kick-starting a career. And also getting rid of any lingering hangovers. 

And so to the final gig of the night at the local Bowling Club. Apparently Brian Gittins had slightly split the crowd at the showcase gig on Friday night and sure enough he pulled off a similar trick in his second show of the weekend, a chaotic, anarchic game show called Challenged. Gittins was joined onstage by a bizarre crowd of helpers including a bow-tied Tom Bell, Holly Burn, Mark Silcox as head of security and, most disconcertingly, a seven foot cyborg called Charles Petrescu. There weren’t any general knowledge questions but competitors did have to end sentences with a cackling laugh during one round and also had to lob a grubby rubber willy into a sieve. Oh, I forgot, I’m not allowed to review shows. Hopefully this accompanying picture will give you a flavour of the disturbing evening. You can probably work out for yourselves which one is Charles Petrescu. A suitably surreal way to end a pretty surreal weekend. 

Click here to read Part One.