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Stewart Lee


Devon Malcolm

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I saw his gig in Birmingham a month or two back and it was by far the best live stand up show I've seen. I took my girlfriend who wasn't a Stewart Lee fan and she came out totally converted after spending the entire show crying with laughter. I loved the way he essentially talked for 2 hours about how he couldn't come up with any material.The way he's dealt with his newfound popularity by dividing his fans up in terms of importance and using it to explore the flaws and limitations of 'mainstream alternative comedy' is a stroke of genius. He's taken something that risked making his entire act irrelevant and used it to make himself even more relevant.Oh, and Stewart Lee went to my primary school. Don't really have anything interesting to say about that, but thought I'd slip it in there...

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Went to see Carpet Remnant World in Dublin last night. My face is still sore from laughing. The guy is a fucking hero.

Having read that last night, I immediately booked 2 tickets for the show at the Royal Festival Hall in a month or so. Can't wait!
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His bit about when he left his job as a librarian in series two of Comedy Vehicle is bordering on genius.He probably doesn't like stand-up very much. Many of the stand-ups that he's talked about over the years as enjoying have been fairly subversive acts. Then again, he's talked pretty openly about liking Dave Allen and Michael Redmond.But I think he enjoys BEING a stand-up more than the medium itself, if you know what I mean.

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Yeah, that's a clearer form of the point I was trying to make. I hope he does the Michael McIntyre show verbatim some time as he's teased doing so. Apparently he doesn't want to have to pay for the rights.

Edited by Mr. Seven
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Gladstone and Sev, have you read How I Escaped My Certain Fate? While a lot of it's transcripts (with shitloads of footnotes that add loads to it), the bits between explaining how he came upon the ideas for each show and put them together are an incredibly good read, and give tons and tons of fascinating insight into his views on comedy as an art form and its place in culture. I can't recommend it enough.

Edited by opcws
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He's so refreshing when the in thing is observational comedy or scripted panel shows. I've only discovered Lee after watching the last few episodes from Comedy Vehicle. I've some catching up to do.

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Gladstone and Sev, have you read How I Escaped My Certain Fate? While a lot of it's transcripts (with shitloads of footnotes that add loads to it), the bits between explaining how he came upon the ideas for each show and put them together are an incredibly good read, and give tons and tons of fascinating insight into his views on comedy as an art form and its place in culture. I can't recommend it enough.

It's a really great read, I know Houchen's read it as well. I think there's only room for one Stewart Lee, if you see what I mean. He's like the Fool, looking in on the whole comedy scene and mocking it. If any other comedian tried to do what he does, it would die on its arse. I also suspect that other comedians don't take his abuse too seriously, it's probably a bit flattering to be called out.
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Subjective and all that, but I've never got why Lee rags on Brand, other than because it's an easy one for his "all the Russells" bit. I love both guys and don't think Russell Brand's act falls into the cateogry Stewart Lee targets the abuse at. In my head, all the comedians I like must love each others own work, and all slag off bellends like Michael McIntyre collectively.

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  • 5 weeks later...

A video of this is going to be an extra on the Fist of Fun Series 2 DVD, but the latest Richard Herring podcast has Stewart Lee on as his guest (you can listen via the link below/or by iTunes etc.)

 

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast- #8 Stewart Lee

 

Some interesting discussion on the difference between Stewart Lee and his stand up character - and the Russell Howard/all the Russells routines

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  • 4 months later...

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