Stewart Lee - 41st Best Standup Ever! A comic who splits opinion – so which side are you on?
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle Series 4A comic who splits opinion – so which side are you on?
Maybe he’s right, but let’s give it a go, anyway.
Despite being a comedy craftsman who is quite possibly at the top of his game, Lee attracts the most vicious criticism and abuse from his detractors. I don’t know whether it says more about him or his haters, but he seems to be brilliant at winding people up.
It doesn’t seem to be a case of people saying “I can take him or leave him” – more “Five minutes of Stewart Lee makes me want to kill myself. Completely unfunny, dated, painful S**T”, as one of many non-admirers once said, according to the very entertaining online critiques section of the comedian’s website.
And in this week’s show, Lee recalled how a Daily Telegraph reviewer gave him no stars: “Normally they give you one for turning up”.
The reviewer apparently thought Lee had contempt for the public – a “toxic scorn”.
Although I don’t think you can beat a bit of toxic scorn now and again, I reckon Lee has enormous respect for his audiences – based on the amount of time he takes to hone his shows (I’ve seen many works in progress at the Edinburgh Fringe).
Anyway, how could anyone not like a comedian who says things like “I want you to laugh in spite of me, not because of me” and uses terms like “Brechtian alienation”? Honestly, you detractors need to lighten up – it’s the way he tells ‘em!
Like one of his favourite bands, The Fall, Lee loves the three Rs – repetition, repetition, repetition – and this show’s wonderfully long-winded and repetitive routine was about Graham Norton winning a Bafta Lee had also been up for (“I don’t care, I don’t care” he kept saying, over and over again, before pointing out the reasons why he did, really, care).