MERRY XMAS!

At this time of winter cheer
Remember that I’m always here
In my books and on CDs
And telling jokes on DVDs.
There’s no need to be alone
With all my products you can own.
You know they really are the tops
Though rarely available in high street shops.

LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE RUN

“I’ve always thought of Stewart Lee’s comedy as doing the opposite of what really good comedy should do” – Toby Young, The Spectator

‘CARPET REMNANT WORLD’
LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE from 15 NOVEMBER 2011
SEASON NOW EXTENDED UNTIL 10 FEBRUARY 2012

Carpet Remnant World is the title of the new full length show from the acclaimed star of the BAFTA nominated BBC2 series: Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (“The funniest thing on television” The Guardian). The show will open at Leicester Square Theatre on 15 November and, due to extremely strong sales already, the season has now been extended by two more weeks and will now play until 10 February 2012. It will then tour throughout the UK.
CRW took about twelve shows to shape up and now it’s cooking. It is also largely sold out in London, and loads of national dates have gone too.
Obviously I’d rather be playing to readers of this than people who have been brought along by their one friend that likes me so BUY BUY BUY!

Formerly stand-up’s youthful iconoclast, Stewart Lee has reached premature middle age. What can this man, with his expanding girth and failing eyesight, whose life consists mainly of watching Scooby Doo cartoons with a four year old boy, possibly find to write comedy about? Lee now gawps blankly at News 24 as Britain burns down around him, and blinks weirdly at vast wayside retail outlets during endless journeys to and from increasingly indistinct provincial theatres. Once he lived on the pleasure planet. Now he is trapped in Carpet Remnant World. And so are you.

LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE
15 NOVEMBER 2011 – 10 FEBRUARY 2011

Tuesday – Saturday 7.30pm Saturday 4.30pm
Additional Matinees Friday 30 Dec Sunday 8 Jan/ Sunday 15 Jan/ Sunday 29 Jan/ Sunday 5 Feb
Additional Eve Perf Monday 23 Jan 7.30pm
No Performances 24-28 Dec & 31 Dec-2 January or 25 January
08448 733433 www.leicestersquaretheatre.com
Tickets: £17 – £22

CARPET REMNANT WORLD TOUR

These dates have been confirmed. But there will be more.

FEBRUARY

Thursday 23rd – The Playhouse, Nottingham – 8.00pm. Box Office: 0115 9419419 Book Online.
Friday 24th – The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury – 7.30pm. Box Office: 01227 787787 Book Online.
Saturday 25th – Town Hall, Cheltenham – 8.00pm Box Office: 0844 576 2210 Book Online.
Wednesday 29th – Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate – 8.00pm Box Office: 01423 502116 Book Online.

MARCH
Thursday 1st – St. George’s Hall, Bradford – 8.00pm. Box Office: 01274 432000 Book Online.
Friday 2nd – Waterfront Hall, Belfast – Box Office: 028 9033 4455 ON SALE SOON
Saturday 3rd – Philarmonic Hall, Liverpool – 8.00pm. Box Office: 0151 709 3789 Book Online.
Tuesday 6th – Opera House, Buxton – 7.30pm. Box Office: 0845 1272190 Book Online.
Wednesday 7th – Corn Exchange, Cambridge – 8.00pm. Box Office: 01223 357851 Book Online.
Friday 9th – The Anvil, Basingstoke – Box Office: 01256 844244 Book Online.
Saturday 10th – Royal & Derngate, Northampton – Box Office: 01604 624811 ON SALE SOON
Sunday 11th – Theatre Royal, Norwich – 7.30pm. Box Office: 01603 630000 Book Online.
Thursday 15th – DeMontfort Hall, Leicester – 7.30pm. Box Office: 0116 233 3111 Book Online.
Friday 16th – Derby Theatre, Derby – Box Office: 01332 255800 ON SALE SOON
Saturday 17th – Performing Arts Centre, Lincoln – Box Office: 0844 888 4414 ON SALE SOON
Wednesday 21st – The Dukes Theatre, Lancaster – 8.00pm. Box Office: 01524 598500 Book Online
Thursday 22nd – Journal Tyne Theatre, Newcastle – 8.00pm. Box Office:0844 493 9999 Book Online.
Friday 23rd – King’s Theatre, Glasgow (Glasgow Comedy Festival) – 8.00pm. Box Office: 0844 3954005 Book Online.
Saturday 24th – Theatre Royal, York – 7.30pm. Box Office: 01904 623568Book Online.
Monday 26th – Playhouse, Oxford – 8.00pm Box Office: 01865 305305 Book Online.
Wednesday 28th – St David’s Hall, Cardiff – 8.00pm Box Office: 029 2087 8444 Book Online.
Thursday 29th – The Hexagon, Reading – 8.00pm Box Office: 0118 960 6060 Book Online.
Friday 30th – Symphony Hall, Birmingham – 8.00pm Box Office: 0121 7803333 Book Online.
April
Tuesday 17th – Theatre Royal, Winchester – 8.00pm Box Office: 01962 840440 Book Online.
Wednesday 18th – Hall For Cornwall, Truro – 8.00pm Box Office: 01872 262466 Book Online.
Friday 20th – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield – 7.45pm Box Office: 0114 249 6000 Book Online.
Saturday 21st – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield – 7.45pm Box Office: 0114 249 6000 Book Online.
Thursday 26th – Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury – 8.00pm Box Office: 01743 281281 Book Online.
Sunday 29th – The Lowry, Salford – 7.30pm Box Office: 0843 208 6010 Book Online.
May
Wednesday 2nd – The Dome, Brighton – Box Office: 01273 709709 ON SALE SOON
Friday 4th – Corn Exchange, Newbury – Box Office: 01635 522733 ON SALE SOON
Saturday 5th – Machynlleth Comedy Festival, Wales – ON SALE SOON
Sunday 6th – Hippodrome, Bristol – 7.30pm Box Office: 0844 871 3012Book Online.
Monday 7th – Theatre Royal, Plymouth – Box Office: 01752 230440 ON SALE SOON.
Tuesday 8th – Octagon Theatre, Yeovil – Box Office: 01935 422884 ON SALE SOON.
Saturday 12th – Music Hall, Aberdeen – Box Office: 01224 641122 ON SALE SOON.
Tuesday 15th – Eden Court, Inverness – Box Office: 01463 234234 ON SALE SOON.
WED 16 – TUES 22, IRISH DATES To Be Announced 
Thursday 24th – Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry – 8.00pm Box Office: 024 7652 4524 Book Online.
Saturday 26th – Festival Theatre, Malvern – Box Office: 01684 892277 ON SALE SOON.
June
Thursday 7th – City Hall, Hull – Box Office: 01482 300 300 ON SALE SOON.
Friday 8th – West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds – Box Office: 0113 213 7700 ON SALE SOON.
Thursday 14th – Grand Theatre, Swansea – Box Office: 01792 475715 ON SALE SOON.
Friday 15th – Lighthouse, Poole – Box Office: 0844 406 8666 ON SALE SOON.
Sunday 24th – Northcott Theatre, Exeter – Box Office: 01392 493493 ON SALE SOON.

NEW BOOK – IF YOU PREFER A MILDER COMEDIAN ETC

This will be out on Jan 5th through Faber.
Amazon Link

FIST OF FUN SERIES 1 DVD

You probably know the saga of this. The 1995 series by Richard Herring and me was in the room where the BBC throw things away. An insider asked them why they hadn’t released it.

They said “neither Sales nor Marketing believed that Lee & Herring had much sales potential in the current market”, which probably explains why all my own BBC series are conspicuously absent amongst all the TV comedy tat piled high for Xmas in HMV. Rich and Chris Evans of the Welsh comedy indie label GoFasterStripe brokered a deal to buy Fist of Fun series 1, and now it’s available with three discs of extras, following a superb half page review in The Guardian, Dec 3rd.
If you could buy this rather than steal it it would be good, as all the profits of GFS so far have gone into making it.
Cheers. Buy it here.

ANOTHER TWITTER CUNT

Another fucking twat cunt is pretending to be me on Twitter, confusing people and wasting my time.
He is… http://twitter.com/#!/StewLee68.
Listen StewLee68 if you are reading this I will find out who you are and I will come to where you live and I will smash you in your stupid lying face you cunt.
Close down your account now. I am a 43 year old father and don’t have time to waste with all the confusion this causes you selfish prick.

CULTURAL ROWN DUP

It’s the time of year when e-listers like me tell you what floated their boat in the last 12 months so…

10 RECORDS OF 2011
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
The Advisory Circle – As The Crow Flies
The Dirtbombs – Party Store
The Fall – Ersatz GB
Lewis Floyd Henry – One Man And His 30w Pram
Mars Classroom – The New Theory Of Everything
Josh T Pearson – The Last Of The Country Gentlemen
Alan Wilkinson – Practice
Crumbling Ghost – Crumbling Ghost
Derek Bailey – Concert in Miwaukee

5 BOOKS OF 2011
AS Byatt – Ragnarok
Simon Reynolds – Retromania
Dave Graney – 1001 Australian Nights
Pauline Black – Black By Design
Ian Sinclair – Ghost Milk

5 GOOD FILMS 0F 2011
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Herzog)
Pina (Wenders)
Attack The Block (Cornish)
Way Of The Morris (Plester)
Thor (Branagh)

6 GOOD FILMS OF 2010 THAT I SAW IN 2011
Crying With Laughter
Dead Snow
Shed Your Tears And Walk Away
Archipelago
Cherry Tree Lane
Rare Exports

WORST FILM
Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, w Gary Stretch

5 LIVE GIGS (of 25)
Nic Jones tribute (Austerity Binge, South Bank Centre)
The Nightingales (Austerity Binge, South Bank Centre)
Alan Wilkinson/Steve Noble/John Edwards (Cheltenham Jazz Fest)
Patti Smith/Stooges (Hop Farm, Kent)
Eddie Prevost & Lol Coxhill (Hungarian Cultural House, Berlin)

10 EDINBURGH FRINGE THINGS (of 35 seen)
Jerry Sadowitz (Assembly)
Josie Long (Pleasance)
Michael Legge (GRV)
Paul Foot (Underbelly)
Henry Cluney of SLF solo (Sneaky Pete’s)
The Burryman (living folk art in Queensferry)
Cry Of The Mountian (solo female theatre piece, Pleasance)
La Putyka (Czech physical theatre, Zoo)
Nick Pynn (some language school)
Paul Sinha (Stand)

WORST EDINBURGH SHOW
Sensational Circus Of The Orient

5 TV SHOWS
The Trip (BBC2)
Rev (BBC2)
Holy Flying Circus (Tony Roche, BBC4)
The Story Of England (Michael Wood, BBC4)
A History Of Dark Age Britain (Neil Oliver, BBC2)

WORST TV SHOW
Daybreak w Adrian Chiles

1 CERAMICS SHOW
Grayson Perry at the British Museum

WORST THING OF 2011
Sensational Circus Of The Orient

IT’S GOT BELLS ON

Comedian Stewart Lee explores and celebrates, rather than mocks, the morris and other traditional English dances.

BBC Radio 2 Monday 12th December 10.00 -11.00pm

‘Strictly’; ‘Britain’s Got Talent’; ‘So You Think You Can Dance’… there is extraordinary enthusiasm for dance in many forms. But there’s one dance that never gets featured, and its England’s own – the morris.
Stewart Lee puts this to rights in ‘It’s Got Bells On’ and the usual scornful jibes won’t appear because, although he’s a comedian, Stewart is an enthusiast for English traditional music and dance. This is the stand-up who had the Black Swan Rappers (dancers not MCs) open for him at a gig in Yorkshire, and the Forest of Dean Morris Men at his wedding reception.

A couple of years back even The Morris Ring said the tradition would have come to an end in 20 years because no young people were joining. But Stewart discovers that the best young folk musicians, such as Jim Moray and Laurel Swift all dance and all develop the form, that hip hop and morris merge in the work of The Demon Barbers and that contemporary choreographers are turning to the tradition. When danced by athletic young men, or women such as the Belles of London City (in their corsets) the morris becomes as sexy as salsa, as fearsome as flamenco.

Stewart hears from Ashley Hutchings and John Kirkpatrick, who gave a boost to the revival in the 1970s with classic albums ‘Morris On’ and ‘Battle of the Field’, when morris went electric. He also hears from Tim Plester, whose film ‘The Way of the Morris’ tells the story of the Adderbury side, all but one of whom were killed in the First World War, and how the tradition was revived in the village.

There is lots of fantastic music, including some from William Kimber, from whom Cecil Sharp collected his first morris tunes in 1899. All this, and a quick glance at rapper and clog dancing, too.
“5,000 morris dancers,” quipped Sebastian Coe, when he was asked what the British would do to match the opening of the Beijing Olympics. In ‘It’s Got Bells On’ Stewart Lee takes the idea seriously: 5,000 morris dancers; why not; what could be better?

Producer: Julian May