Latitude review: Josh Widdicombe

Widdicombe is making observational comedy palatable again.

Five years ago Josh Widdicombe was dying on his arse, to no more than 12 people, in this very tent.

But TV has done remarkable things for Widdicombe’s career as, this year, he’s got an audience – and it’s spilling out of the Comedy Arena here in Henham Park.

It’s no surprise that Widdicombe’s stock is rising; anyone who can get five minutes out of the back of a Super Noodles packet deserves a round of applause.

Unlike the chewy, meal-for-one he so wonderfully dismantles, Widdicombe’s material is pretty damn tasty, with oodles of genuinely original lines that today’s crowd lap up.

It’s just about enough to overlook his cack-handed ‘don’t you just hate it when…’ feedlines, which stick out like a sore thumb in an otherwise assured set.

Widdicombe ends today’s show with the same piece of material he performed five years ago, as if to prove it wasn’t the material at fault but the audience. Judging by the reaction today, he’s got a point.

Date of live review: Friday 19 July 2014 @ Henham Park, Suffolk.