British Comedy Classics

Angelos Epithemiou @ the Latitude Festival Comedy Arena 2010

Best known to most as a music festival, comedy has always played a big part at Latitude, and this the fifth edition of the ‘best small festival in the UK’, with the strap line, ‘it’s more than a music festival’ was no exception.

With each year the Latitude Festival grows some, and each year the Comedy Arena attracts large crowds, especially for comedians that have appeared on television.  Once again the Comedy Arena rivalled the music stages for large, appreciative audiences wishing to see top comedians not only from the UK, but from all over the world.  Emo Phillips was commonly seen on UK TV in the 1980’s but this was apparently his first UK stand-up performance for eight years.  Another American comedian headline act was the wonderfully dry pan and very funny Rich Hall.

Other household names performing over the weekend included Rufus Hound, Phil Jupitus, Ardal O’Hanlon (best known for his part as Father Dougal McGuire in the classic sitcom Father Ted) and Stephen K. Amos, as well as what has become a regular feature at Latitude, the very amusing Early Edition with Marcus Brigstocke and guests.  But there was a jaw aching two hour slot on Saturday afternoon that was truly brilliant.  It started at 3pm with Dominic Holland who, to be perfectly honest I had seen several times on Have I got News For You and never been over impressed with his wit.  But his performance was very good, with material based on married life, having kids, fatherhood and the pains of middle-age.

Kevin Bridges had a tough act to follow but kept the laughs coming with an act that turned up the heat on the adult language and got even bigger laughs than Dominic Holland.  Kevin Bridges recent TV performances on Jonathan Ross and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow meant the Comedy Arena was packed.  As a 24 year old Scot his experiences and anecdotes were somewhat different though there was a common thread between both comedians. Latitude is known to be a middle-class festival as much as a family-friendly festival and the middle-class knives were definitely out!

At one point Kevin Bridges was heckled from someone with a, shall we say, well spoken voice.  This worked in Bridges’ favour, especially when he found out his name was Harvey and he was studying archaeology.

After a quick break and another amusing altercation, this time between a narrow-minded idiot at the back of the audience took offence to what he perceived to be a racist joke from the compere Mark Oliver.  Firstly, the joke wasn’t at all racist, unless using the word ‘turban’ is deemed racism and secondly the twat was made to look like a cock – hope he reads this!

Following on was Micky Flanagan who received rapturous applause as he took to the stage and put a nail in the previous heckler’s coffin by joking he was going to have to change his set as 80% of it was racist, followed by saying ‘blacks, they’re everywhere’.

Though he has been a stand-up comedian for over 10 years, Micky Flanagan’s popularity has increased recently with TV performances on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.

Like Dominic Holland he is another comedian who talks about being in his forties with very funny anecdotes. He also draws on his upbringing in the east end and how he is now middle-class. By taking the piss out of himself there was yet another dig at the middle-class families sitting cross-legged around the arena.

There was a group of young teenage girls in the front row whom Flanagan used to his advantage, explaining how teenagers say they are doing “fuck all” when they are playing around with their computers and Facebook accounts.  But when he does fuck all he does “proper old school fuck all” which sometimes involves just staring at the ceiling.  He then gave some useful tips on how to do ‘fuck all’ around the house.  Examples included watching the bath fill and boiling a kettle.

The beauty of Micky Flanagan is in his delivery and how he makes mundane and everyday observations amusing. And after one part of his act that was particularly rude he said to the parents in the audience that he didn’t know how they were going to explain that to the kids that were present, but that’s up to them as it was their choice to bring them.

Micky Flanagan was very funny and had myself, a friend and my 14 year old son crying with laughter, as were the whole crowd.

The last of four great performances was greeted with an even bigger cheer.  Angelos Epithemiou is the slightly retarded comic creation of Dan Renton Skinner and known to most people for his appearances in the new series of Shooting Stars with Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer, though he has appeared on several other TV shows including The Office Christmas Special, My Family, and The Armstrong & Miller Show.

Angelos Epithemiou walked on stage with an old coat, ankle swinging trousers and a plastic bag.  This was proper stupid comedy performance, not stand-up.  He had the audience laughing with every movement, without even saying anything. This was genius comic stupidity!

It was a show which Angelos Epithemiou had already performed on a UK tour, so I was grateful that I hadn’t spoilt the moment by watching YouTube before seeing him live.  Mixing the show up he played some music tracks whereby he attempted to sing-a-long to UB40’s Red Red Wine, played along with Going Up The Country by Canned Heat and danced to Mud’s The Cat Crept In.

Angelos Epithemiou was brilliant and along with Dominic Holland, Kevin Bridges and Micky Flanagan was a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon at the Latitude Festival 2010.