The axing of his Comedy Vehicle TV series might rankle with Stewart Lee – particularly when the BBC can find the money to remake Are You Being Served – but has probably been a blessing in disguise for the country’s most original comedian.
He might have been forced to develop new avenues to rustle up a few quid – he claims to buys his own DVDs online to sell at shows at a mark-up – but his live act has been freed of the shackles of building 30-minute routines for the telly, and is more rewarding as a result.
The passive-aggressive lecturer persona and deadpan delivery of his apparent alter ego remain intact, but the cleverly-constructed show – which as usual Lee deconstructed at regular intervals, supposedly for the benefit of slower audience members – enabled him to develop a theme, run with it, stumble with it, explain it, discard it and brilliantly return to it over the course of a hugely entertaining two hours.
The theme was man’s place in a world of superficial digital consumerism, and pitched Lee as a hero attempting to rise above the chaos like the ‘Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog’ in Caspar David Friedrich’s famous painting. Russell Howard this most definitely was not.
Howard was one of many comics trampled on, verbally and literally – in the form of DVDs strewn across the stage – during the show, which also saw Lee stomping on everything from Trump, Brexit, Boris and Farage to Game of Thrones (“Peter Stringfellow’s Lord of the Rings”), the under-40s and even Deacon Blue as he desperately searched for something of depth in a world dominated by the banality of social media and instant gratification.
It was never going to happen of course – the Content Provider of the show’s title admitting we were witnessing little more than “the ongoing interrogation of a divided soul” – but his self-anointed “metropolitan liberal elite” audience were more than happy to be along for the grilling (in every sense), which was as smart as it was hilarious.
Reviewed by Steve Adams at Warwick Arts Centre
4 Stars on Thu, 04 May 2017
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