It can't be easy to be the first stand-up act of the day in the Latitude Comedy Tent, but if anyone can pull it off it's Jayde Adams. The Bristol comic is no slow-burn, shy, retiring performer. She is more of a force of nature, pounding the audience into submission. Sporting flaming red hair and a trouser suit that by her own admission made her resemble a cross between Adele and the Riddler she was hard to ignore.
Her set took a little while to get going – well, a couple of seconds – as she went through the usual Latitude trope of middle class skewering, by asking if there is a Waitrose on the site. But for Adams this material about class isn't tokenistic, it dovetails neatly with her regular, polished material about previously working in Asda. But like Micky Flanagan and Jason Manford Adams has gone up in the world. She now drizzles truffle oil on her Spam.
And she swiftly had everyone on side, with a mix of smut and intelligent, honest humour. And inappropriate daytime swearing. Spotting a child in the audience she decided on a different kind of swear box: "Every time I swear your dad has to give you £10."
Occasionally the material veered towards the easy - doing Liam Neeson's Taken monologue in a Bristol accent, for example, was very funny but a little too close to Bill Bailey's routine about serious things said in West Country accents. But there are plenty of flashes of original genius wit too. Explaining what the old TV show Blind Date was to younger members of the audience she said: "Cilla used to be Tinder in the form of a ginger woman" and had every reason to be pleased with the off-the-cuff remark.
And of course Adams finished with her well-honed story about a traumatic trip to the Edinburgh Fringe on the Megabus Gold. If you haven't seen or heard it as a lot of this stunned audience clearly hadn't it builds to a genuinely showstopping – "is she for real?" – moment. I can only assume she turns down Britain's Got Talent on a daily basis. They would love this finish and there's plenty of clean material here too that could make Adams a star if ITV got their hands on her.
The Divine Ms Jayde is at the Pleasance Courtyard from August 1 - 27. Tickets here.
