This is an Excerpt from ‘The Artistry of Stand Up Comedy’, here. Stand-up comedy is so very Brechtian. It is as if all comedians, consciously or unconsciously, exist at this pole of theatrical theory. The frame of comedy itself is a large, obviously unreal, artistic construction, where every element of life is turned on its…
‘No one’s equipped to review me,’ Stewart Lee asserts with his usual mix of certainty and superiority – guaranteeing this very same line will kick-start a dozen critiques… including this one. Because it’s true: there can’t be a line, a pause, a change of tone that Lee hasn’t considered in so much more depth than…
He’s big enough to have sold out two nights at the Dome earlier this year but Stewart Lee’s appearance at Sticky Mike’s this evening is proof that Brighton’s finest comedy nights come thanks to Brian Gittins, of all people. From Harry Hill’s visit last September, through guest slots from Al Murray and Nick Helm and onwards (next…
Mixing unorthodox jazz music with a deliberately screwed up pre-show announcement, and entering the vicinity wearing incongruous trainers, the audience are at once given a clue as to just how complex, multi-layered, and stand alone Stewart Lee’s A Room With A Stew is going to be. Constantly breaking all the unwritten rules about how a…
The Assembly Rooms audience don’t know quite what to make of Stewart Lee. The Edinburgh Fringe veteran has spent the best part of the last two decades inspiring both a dedicated following and an equally ardent opposition with his divisive and heavily ironic brand of tongue-in-cheek intellectual comedy. Luckily, the dramatic difference of opinion towards…