In 2009 The Times referred to Stewart Lee as “The comedian’s comedian, and for good reason” others have labelled him “Marmite” but love him or hate him tonights show at The Gatehouse was to a sell out crowd.

Before he got going Stewart explained the running time for the show and asked people not to use mobile phones or ‘wander’ around. He warned anyone using a mobile would have it confiscated, then it would be smashed into pieces on stage, taken back stage for further unmentionable acts before being finally returned. Within 5 minutes he’d spotted someones face light up from their screen and he ‘leapt’ from the stage and came tearing into the audience and straight to the culprit. The phone was seized and he made his way back to the stage whereupon he placed the phone down the back of his pants, where it stayed until the end of the first half. I sensed at this point there would be no heckling from audience members!

Content Provider is Stewart Lee’s first full live tour for 5 years. In that time he was of course busy writing and performing his BAFTA-award-winning BBC 2 TV series Comedy Vehicle, but the BBC’s decision to cancel the show, despite, in Stewart’s words, “it being unprecedentedly critically acclaimed, whilst also being incredibly cheap to make” is the BBC’s loss, and the stand ups fans gain.

Perhaps still a little bitter by their decision he continues “I notice there is enough money at the BBC for a remake of Are You Being Served.”
“The irony of remaking Are You Being Served is that the British retail industry no longer exists. The new Are You Being Served should be set in an Amazon warehouse, with Mrs. Slocombe standing in a massive shed just off the M6 and making cat-based double entendres to poorly paid, and soon to be deported, East European workers.”

The stage set was made up of / littered with heaps of other stand-up comedians DVDs, purchased from the Money Magpie website or Amazon for 1p.
“The cheapest you can buy a second-hand copy of one of my DVDs is £3.67!”
As he tramples and crunches over the penny priced DVD’s he explains “They were actually the cheapest building material available.”

In one routine he repeats, and repeats, the voice of a young comedian “Uh Mate, mate, why are you having a go at Russell Howard mate?”
Then defensively explains “I don’t know why people keep bringing this up, I’ve only ever had one joke about Russell Howard, years ago, although it did go on for 59 minutes!”

He noticed one empty seat about six rows back and assured us they had all definitely sold, but probably to ticket touts.
“That’s my dream… to perform to an entirely empty sold out theatre, which will eliminate the problem all live art has to face, the public’s inability to appreciate what is happening.”

He’s made a career from criticising his audience for not being bright enough to comprehend the joke, and how one small section of the audience is “getting it”, while the rest is made up of people’s friends, who’ve been dragged along, or even come by mistake, thinking they were actually off to see Lee Mack.

If a joke falls flat he’ll go back over it and dissect it bit by bit, he made an imaginary triangle shape in the air to point out where the audience should have laughed, of course it’s all part of the act, but at this point the tears were already rolling down my face.

In typical Stewart Lee loveable arrogance he declares “This show has got five-star reviews, maybe a three tonight. If you don’t find it funny, the problem is certainly not on this side of the stage.”

Stewart picked up a canvas and explained that originally when he’d penned the show back in August, he’d wanted to write it around this 19th-century painting
“It was going to be the idea of an individual in a digitised free-market society based around an image of Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above The Sea of Fog. But then Brexit happened, and as I don’t know how Brexit’s going to pan out, I can’t write anything about it, just in case it goes out of fashion or out of date, and I can’t use that bit for the full 18 months of the show, and monetise the work I’ve done.”

He did of course continue with Brexit, some may say a brave move in Stafford, a town that chose overwhelmingly to leave, but Stewart was keen for us not to make massive generalisations of leave-voters, as people voted to leave for many reasons
“Not everybody who voted to leave was a racist….. some of them were just *****!”.

He suspected the residents of Abbot’s Bromley, with their Horn Dance, had probably voted to leave, but then admitted he actually knew nothing of the village and had simply driven past it on the way to tonights show, the oldest gag in the book? But i guess it’s they way you tell them!

Writing for the show about the divisive nature of Brexit was always going to be tricky “Oxford, Monday night, round of applause; next night, Lincoln, glassed in the face, and that was by the Mayor!”

Brexit aside, Stewart finds time to pass comment on
Jimmy Carr, Nigel Farage, Game of Thrones (which he admits he’s never seen but had gained all he needed to know from the back of a merchandised mug) Gary Lineker, David Cameron and the under 40’s. From the latter he connects to the selfie taking obsessed narcissism and consumerism abundant in modern day society.

The under 40’s, with a courgette spiralizer in one hand, a smartphone in the other, slurping yoghurt drinks for breakfast, have access to instant gratification. Though he feels sorry for them, as they no nothing of the lengths people had to go to in the past to partake in niche activities or interests. Stewart used to carry a wants list of vinyl LP’s everywhere he went, and every town he played in he would visit the local record shop to try to acquire one from the list, when he did it felt fantastic, special. Then in 1997 he got connected to the internet, and within 30 minutes had found all those records on his list, but that magic of unearthing them was lost, they no longer seemed special. It’s the same for anything, stamp collecting, fishing, S&M sex, the magic is lost.
Stewart explains how for his grandparents to enjoy their interests they would have to walk for miles to find an empty potato sack that they could shape into a gimp mask, but it meant so much more than one arriving in the post with next day delivery.

The show comes to an end with a clever and poignant monologue of how our modern society has “turned away from the wider world and is looking inward.”
as Stewart climbs the mountain of DVD’s to recreate the Wanderer Above A Sea Of Fog, yet instead of looking outwards he turns to the audience, selfie stick in hand to capture the moment. Genius.

Stewart Lee – Content Provider continues until March 2018.
For full details and tickets visit https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/