Johnson and Boswell – Late But Live - August 2007 On Stage Scotland - By Shona Craven - August 8th, 2007

Some of the most memorable sketches featured on Fist of Fun – the cult BBC 2 series created by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring – involved the pair applying their double act dynamic to historical and biblical tales. Almost a decade later, Lee’s Johnson and Boswell – Late but Live feels like a natural progression.…

Johnson and Boswell – Late But Live ★★★★★ - August 2007 EdFest Magazine - By Caroline Whitham - August 8th, 2007

“I am Doctor Samuel Johnson. You are not.” So Simon Munnery’s self-important Doctor Johnson introduces himself in this marvellous hour of satire, music and banter, staged as writer Stewart Lee explains, at the Traverse, when “it’s too late to put in another set”. The main burden of the piece rests on the shoulders of Miles…

Johnson and Boswell – Late But Live ★★★★ - August 2007 Chortle - By Steve Bennett - August 8th, 2007

It was devised by Stewart Lee, and with Simon Munnery stealing the show as acidly grumpy Johnson, the show evokes one of their most artistically successful former collaborations: The League Against Tedium’s Attention Scum. The arrogantly superior Johnson tosses out savagely cutting put-downs towards the Scottish nation when he returns to present-day Edinburgh to relaunch…

Dr Johnson revival shows that old jokes really are best - August 2007 The Times - By Ben Hoyle - August 7th, 2007

With his rapier wit, caustic put-downs and prodigious appetite for drink, Samuel Johnson is right at home on the Edinburgh Fringe but for one thing: his jokes are 230 years old. In 18th-century London, Dr Johnson was a superstar — the author of the first English dictionary, a critic and a novelist who dominated the…

From Jerry Springer to Samuel Johnson - August 2007 The Telegraph - By Veronica Lee - August 6th, 2007

It would take some lateral thinking to place Dr Johnson on Jonathan Ross’s chat-show sofa, but that was the inspiration for Stewart Lee’s new play, Johnson and Boswell – Late but Live. But then, Lee is the man who made the screaming matches and social misfits of Jerry Springer’s television show into an Olivier award-winning…

Question and answer session with two great wits - August 2007 The List - August 1st, 2007

In 1773 Samuel Johnson, the portly curmudgeon of English letters, accompanied James Boswell on a tour of the Scottish Highlands. The trip was a fruitful one, with each penning accounts of their trip, the Englishman documenting the gradual decay of the clan system and his Scottish companion chronicling their travels in a prelude to his…