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Vegetable StewCambridge Corn Exchange, March 6

No-one is safe from a metaphorical rotten tomato in the face at Lee's Vegetable Stew show, says Lizzy Dening.

By Lizzy Dening in Cambridge News Posted on Monday, March 7th, 2011

It’s 7.30 and Stewart Lee is grumpy. Late comers (perhaps a result of the show’s incorrect listing on the Corn Exchange website) are holding up his introduction, and his microphone isn’t working.

The famously curmudgeonly comedian can barely contain his glee, telling us the show is already ruined, and he’ll never manage to win us back around.
Analysis of his audience is a signature trait of Lee’s, and he frequently highlights which areas of the crowd are failing to laugh.
Throughout Vegetable Stew, there’s room for him to improvise; he shouts at spectators who choose ill-timed moments to leave the room, or points out that while the Cambridge crowd laugh knowingly at a joke about tax evasion, we aren’t as mirthful at the idea of celebrities not giving enough to charity, teasing: “I don’t know how you filled a room this big with so many people who don’t agree with what I think.”

Lee unpicks his show bit by bit, forewarning us that it will “contain four jokes and a song”. The absence of traditional jokes barely matters, as Lee’s turn of phrase and rage-fuelled persona lead to non-stop waves of laughter from the crowd.
Vegetable Stew covers charity, Adrian Chiles, and the government, with each section taken from an upcoming episode of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle.
He tells us the BBC warned him that 25 minutes talking about Adrian Chiles counted as a sustained personal attack, “It wasn’t, but it is now,” he says, his eyes glinting, before describing him as “a man who would be cast as a pig spirit in a Japanese fantasy film.”
Other attacks are in store for Russell Howard (responsible for world famine), David Cameron (and ‘Chihuahua’ Nick Clegg) and Al Qaeda (not as polite as the IRA).
Support came from the delightful Simon Munnery, whose true confessions of Sherlock Holmes and football chant for Sainsbury’s had everyone in a jovial mood before the interval.

Lee has such a natural wit, which shines through in moments of improvisation, that he has his audience eating from the palm of his hand. His style may not be to everyone’s taste, but Vegetable Stew is a meaty enough show for any true fan – and he wouldn’t want anyone else there anyway.

Written by Lizzy Dening in Cambridge News on 7th March 2011. Filed Under: Reviews, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Vegetable Stew
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