Review – Stewart Lee

”Nobody is equipped to review me,” Stewart Lee boasts with his trademark unrelenting, deadpan irony. Although he may not have been entirely serious, the idea is not without merit; where other comics might treat Islam, urine, nationalism, and suicide as areas for cheap laughs, Lee’s meticulously crafted material is not only devoid of any semblance of easy humour, but is often highly original and thought-provoking. The task of trying to recapture, let alone dissect his act, is a frightening one.

As a staunchly politically correct comedian (a real oddity in comedians anywhere near today’s mainstream), Lee unsettled the audience immediately by announcing that the first 30 minutes of his act were going to be ‘anti-Islamic comedy’. Of course, it quickly emerged that this was a satirical move to discuss attitudes towards Islam (once again, how often do you say this about mainstream comedians?). Lee feigned the audience’s internal monologue making demands for anti-Islamic jokes, and read imaginary letters from fans that hope he will apply the same acerbic wit to Muslims as he does to crisps and the Daily Mail. The whole routine diffuses a lot of tension around the subject of Islam in comedy, and had the entire Hall almost keeling over with laughter while doing so.

The rest of the first half was then spent trialing other ideas that he was developing into full, 30-minute pieces to be recorded for his next series of Comedy Vehicle on BBC Two. Those who are planning to watch it (and I highly recommend you do) will be treated to a structurally ingenious-and-yet-sophomoric series of plays on the phrase ‘water off a duck’s back’, and a 20-minute rant in which he blames the audience for failing to get his jokes, claiming that most of the bad things that happen to comedians are the audience’s fault. I won’t spoil the surprise of the exact subject matter here, but Stewart Lee is one of the very few comedians who can not only get away with blaming his audience for a joke failing, but blame them for just about anything and make them laugh at it.

The highlight of the show, however, must be Stewart Lee’s 40-minute routine on national identity. Beginning with a seven-minute short segment, in which he claims that his imaginary friend is a ‘racist parody’ of their own national identity, Lee moves on to the more familiar target of UKIP. Anybody acquainted with Lee’s past material is likely to remember his absurdist discussion of immigration and ‘Paul Nuttals of the UKIPs’; this is much in the same vein. While drawing attention to the ambiguity and problems with national symbols like the English Flag, Lee reveals that he has named his cat ‘Paul Nuttals of the UKIPs’, and recalls a comment that his cat’s namesake made about “no comedians being allowed to make jokes about UKIP in publicly-subsidised arts venues”. Not only an extremely entertaining sequence, but one that speaks to the uncertainty over the future of comedy with the upcoming general election.

An excellent evening of entertainment is what you expect from any entertaining comedian, but one that simultaneously has you in fits and considering the state of the nation is a rare treat. Stewart Lee’s blending of form and content is something you expect to see in high-level theatre pieces, not so much in stand-up, and particular not in regards to contentious subjects like perceptions of Islam. Alongside Lee is a whole generation of alternative comedians who are really beginning to challenge the boundaries of traditional stand-up, and while I don’t claim to be ‘equipped to review’ him, I hope I’ve convinced you to seek him out live, or at the very least watch his new series of Comedy Vehicle. I relish the thought that the material on it may be even better than what I saw at the Butterworth Hall

Stewart Lee continues to tour the UK until early March.