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If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One...Stewart Lee Live in Glasgow

By Kevin Gilday in Geeks.co.uk Posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010

Let’s start off with a simple fact – Stewart Lee is a genius. This is indisputable. Anyone who likes stand-up comedy, knows anything about stand-up comedy or even has the slightest hint of intelligence knows this. Unfortunately for Stewart Lee this equates to a fraction of the population roughly comparable to the amount of pandas not currently interned in Chinese zoos.

This makes Stewart Lee angry; it also makes him very, very funny.

Lee starts the show off with a seemingly mundane anecdote about being refused a free cup of coffee in Café Nero due to an incorrectly coloured stamp on his loyalty card. In the hands of any other comedian this simply wouldn’t be funny but with Mr Lee at the helm the routine builds to a tour de force of deconstructive comedy – all sharp asides and concentrated bile.

It is this trademark deconstructive style that holds the show together. There is not an overall theme that informs the show, as there was with his previous show 41st Best Stand-up, but rather it is Lee’s measured anger that provides continuity between a disparate range of subjects that takes in everything from Magner’s Pear Cider to the Queen’s vagina.

His acerbic wit was also targeted at Richard ‘not a real hamster’ Hammond in what was the show’s standout routine. Being able to call for a man’s head on a stick in front of a live audience is a bold piece of comedy but one Lee pulls off with ease – mostly due to his respect for his audience. He knows we’ll get the irony, that we’ll understand the social comment being made. But he also knows that expecting your audience to be intelligent is a sure fire way to never be invited on Live at the Apollo.

We are also treated to a characteristic Stewart Lee rant. A wonder to behold, he meanders through the aisles jabbering incoherently about the proper plural for a pear, stolen family sayings and illegal downloading. He storms out a door only to reappear on the balcony with his stream of consciousness rant still in full flow.
This is live comedy at its most vital – a million miles away from the observational comics who have taken over the mainstream.

Be thankful we have him ladies and gentlemen, and – secretly at least – be glad we don’t have to share him. Stewart Lee: too good to be popular.

Written by Kevin Gilday in Geeks.co.uk on 19th March 2010. Filed Under: If You Prefer A Milder Comedian Please Ask For One, Reviews
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