Stewart Lee: Vegetable Stew review - October 2010 The Observer - By Stephanie Merritt - October 31st, 2010

Few contemporary comics divide opinion like Stewart Lee. For long-time fans and comedy obsessives, he is touched by genius, a maverick whose deep-rooted fascination with comedy lies in seeing how far he can stretch the boundaries of the form while still making an audience laugh. For those who prefer a more obvious strike rate of…

Stewart Lee, Leicester Square Theatre, WC2 - October 2010 The Times - By Dominic Maxwell - October 29th, 2010

Tonight, Stewart Lee tells us, he will be tackling three main topics. Charity. The Government. And Adrian Chiles. Normally, he’d try to be more seamless than this. “Why hasn’t it got”, he asks himself on behalf of his fans, “a narrative arc like the other shows?” The answer is that he is working up material…

Stewart Lee, Leicester Square Theatre - October 2010 The Arts Desk - By Kate Bassett - October 29th, 2010

Stewart Lee is pretending to be mildly crap. He keeps discussing how he is none too funny, but the point is that his commentary on his own shortcomings thereby turns into a droll running gag. He achieves this with deadpan relish. His delivery is, of course, characteristically sardonic, albeit with an amused glint in the…

Review: Stewart Lee – Vegetable Stew - October 2010 Spoonfed - By Mike Stephenson - October 29th, 2010

Stewart Lee breaks all the rules. Not the rules you’re supposed to break. The other rules are the ones Stew breaks. The proper rules. You wouldn’t expect anyone to break these rules but Stew breaks them. He breaks the rules that are proper. That’s what industry practitioners call the ‘in’. Illustrating the process behind the…

Digging deep for laughs with Stewart Lee - October 2010 Evening Standard - By Bruce Dessau - October 28th, 2010

If you’ve never been to a stand-up gig, Stewart Lee is probably not the best place to start. But if you’ve recently been bitten by the comedy bug and yearn for something more considered than the McIntyre, Manford and Bishop brigade, Lee’s latest show, Vegetable Stew, is perfect. After two decades in the trenches this…

Escaping Our Certain Fates - October 2010 Sitcom Geek - By James Carey - October 28th, 2010

I was in a meeting recently when someone who makes more money than me told me not to be cynical, and to hold fast to original ideas and not make my ideas fit into holes that I may have perceived commissioners and controllers think they have in their schedules. It is infuriating to be told…