Latitude new comedy act award runners and riders
July 15, 2011 by Such Small Portions
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Jimmy Bird won the Latitude new comedy act award this afternoon. Here's what SSP made of the other acts. We did have some lovely photos but we've unfortunately lost the camera cord. Sorry about that.
Angela Barnes
The schtick: Short, sharp jokes with great ideas. When it really worked, like a sort of female Tim Vine.
How she'll be remembered: Those lines: “Everyone loves Brighton, it's so optimistic. All the shops have buckets and spades. It's a pebble beach.”
Biggest clunk: Drifting into slightly arch, Meera Syal-esque territory halfway through after an awesome first half. Nicely pulled back by the end, though.
Audience appreciation: Well-received, especially for the first act of the day. 8/10.
Matt Richardson
The schtick: Puppyish, enthusiastic, looks about 12. Like a limbier Russell Howard.
How he'll be remembered: by the young, favourably: lots of material about being at school, living at home with the parents and paedophile jokes. By everyone over 25: he seems good, but he goes so fast it's a little hard to tell. So like Zane Lowe, really.
Biggest clunk: Pretty clunk-free, really. Even the weaker material was held together by a full-force delivery.
Audience appreciation: Certainly the audience favourite: 9/10.
Suzi Ruffell
The schtick: Jokes about being a lesbian for a mainstream audience. The girl deserves credit: on a mass stage, it's not an easy sell and she made a good fist of it.
How she'll be remembered: Having the most distinctive material of all the nominees. And for having a surname that sounds like ROFL.
Biggest clunk: Opening by declaring she tells every festival that it's the best festival. Probably the clunkiest clunk of the show.
Audience appreciation: Slow to warm up to Suzi, then into the act, and then drifting a bit by the end. 6/10.
Jimmy Bird
The schtick: Looks like an everyman, sounds like Rafe Spall did in the Shadow Line. Didn't see it? Imagine a drunk Columbo with mild Alan Carr undertones.
How he'll be remembered: confident and well-worked jokes on suffering at the hands of abusive IT staff and trying to pick up women.
Biggest clunk: Talking about old kids' TV for a bit too long. Normally, that would be slightly tired territory; here, it went clean over the head's of an audience that largely still watches CBBC.
Audience appreciation: 7/10.
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