There was an interval between their appearances, but it seems safe to say that it will probably be the last time Gordon Brown and comedian Scott Capurro share a stage. More surreal still, there were some worrying similarities between their respective acts.

Mariella Frostrup guided our soon-to-be Dear Leader to his seat, being slightly gushing in her intelligent-despite-blonde kind of way. Actually, she scared me a little, snapping at ringing mobiles and weeping babies (possibly Steve Bell was offstage doing his impression of her guest). Perhaps she was meant to make Gordon seem warm. He did well initially, open-shirted and all smiles, receiving warm applause. He even told a few jokes himself.

The best way with making friends with a Hay crowd is to insult Americans. Capurro wanted us to know that he wasn't one of these friendly poofs you get on Friday night television, describing his Southern family tree as more of a circle. Brown stuck to safer ground, retelling the old tale of Ronald Reagan inquiring as to whether Olof Palme was a communist. An aide explained that he was, in fact, a strong anti-communist, whereupon the President barked that he didn't care what kind of communist he was. Frostrup was missing the requisite drum kit.

And, of course, there was the one about Gordon and Hilary Benn getting their Tonies mixed up when Nelson Mandela enquired as to Tony's health (he was surprised to hear that Blair had just turned 83). The old ones are the best ones.

But then Gordon decided to test the water a bit. He wanted to make clear he wasn't one of these light prime ministers who used to play in rock bands or enjoy a simple game of sport; no, none of that frivolous stuff. Brown got into life by reading. And not any of this fiction or poetry nonsense; he sat down and read an encyclopaedia, at the age of ten. Funny, that.

Capurro is famous on the comedy circuit for pushing his luck and treading progressively thinner ice until everyone in the room is offended. The crowd let him get away with saying the "Koran is Mein Kampf without the jokes." At one point, he referred to a boyfriend as "so black he's purple; I can't wait to see what colour he turns when he dies." He generally gives a good impression of an ironic Bernard Manning, and cocks an eyebrow at the end of every racial slur that seems to say - "it's OK! I'm a gay!"

But what really pushed the boundaries was when they both admittted how they quite like Tony Blair. When Gordon began to champion his old rival, the heavens opened and rain poured down on the festival. Capurro explained Blair was a good guy and Iraq isn't that important; and it's not like any of us were going to go there, he said.

Having lost their way a bit, they both seemed to plod on for the final ten minutes - proving Shelley's line, which Brown so often quotes, that you can lose the art of communication while retaining the gift of speech. At Hay, they learned, you can get away with a lot - but never with mentioning your friend Blair.

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