My first trip to this year’s Comedy Arena was on a sunny Friday afternoon to see the very amusing and original Graham Fellows aka John Shuttleworth.  One man and his bontempi organ, all the way from Sheffield, with a show entitled ‘Smells Like White Spirit’, John Shuttleworth pulled a large crowd and his banal musical muses went down well with the Radio 4 listening Latitude comedy fans.

On Saturday morning The Latitude Comedy Arena played host to the first ever live performance of the very popular comedy quiz show, Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Regular team captains Phil Jupitus and Noel Fielding were joined by guests including singer Paloma Faith and guest quizmaster and stand-up comedian David O’Doherty.

As you can imagine the comedy tent was overflowing with fans eager to get a glimpse of this popular show with its more obscene than usual, adult humour. I stood in the rain for 90 minutes as I watched the performance on one of the large screens adorning each side of the Comedy Arena with my two sons.  The, allegedly, totally unscripted show was hilarious and had us all laughing as we got drenched in a constant downpour.

One of the comedy highlights of Sunday was Mark Watson who appeared to be delivering an unscripted, anarchic live performance which included chasing a member of the audience through the crowd.  He then proceeded to give the majority of his performance from the middle of the audience.

Adam Buxton, of Adam & Joe fame, was brilliant.  His show was based on showing mock music promo videos he had produced and uploaded to YouTube and then simply reading some of the more ridiculous real comments people had actually left.  The highlight was his video for an NWA pastiche ‘Help The Police’ and a selection of the angry comments fans of the hip hop band had left.

I had previously seen the Boy With Tape On His Face and so knew what to expect.  It was still funny the second time but the element of surprise had passed as he ran through the same performance.  Not a word is spoken as the Boy With Tape on His Face invites members of the audience on stage to help with his act.  But once they are on stage he doesn’t perform a magic trick that needs their help, but simply humiliates them by emphasising their awkward embarrassment for laughs.  It’s very original and very funny, but also very limited in its appeal.  To hold an audience for 40 minutes is some feat but he’s going to have to completely rewrite his act before venturing out again.

As always, there were more performances than I could see at this year’s Latitude Festival; and come Sunday evening I felt disappointed to have missed the likes of Jon Richardson, Seann Walsh, Brendon Burns & the Early Edition with Marcus Brigstocke & Andre Vincent.  But that said it was another great Latitude Festival this year; and the one festival above all others I am already hoping to attend in 2012.

A short musical excerpt from the brilliant Nathan Barley. Here Noel Fielding, he of Vince Noir & The Mighty Boosh fame, attempts to impress a girl by playing her his new recording, Where’s The Ice Cream?