Being Scottish

At the Glasgow Comedy Festival London preview show 2010

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Stewart Lee: If You Prefer A Milder Comedian Please Ask For One, London run
Live Review
Leicester Square Theatre

Stewart Lee is past it. Ensconced in comfortable middle-age, the essential anger of comedy has deserted him. It’s time for him, at 41, to retire gracefully.

Or so Frankie Boyle would have you believe.

The Mock The Week star’s comments that no stand-up over 40 is funny was the spark that ignited these 90 unforgiving minutes of perfectly-measured sarcasm, using deconstruction, repetition and moral superiority as the sharpened tools with which to slay the very idea.

Boyle’s proposition is conclusively refuted, while he becomes the object of Lee’s scorn, his supposedly controversial line about the Queen’s vagina being meticulously picked apart, revealed as ridiculous under the scrutiny. This is Lee’s usual MO, and it’s as effective today as it has ever been.

The show’s title, as well as serving as a warning for those who like their humour lass challenging to stay away, comes from the sign behind every Caffe Nero counter. It was there that Lee was embarrassed when his loyalty card was refused because of an irregularity in the accumulated stamps.

The incident is typical of the sort of minor irritant that middle-class comics of a certain age – the very people Boyle was presumably thinking about – often build routines around, getting laughs from their impotent fury. Lee proves he can easily fit into this category, though it soon becomes apparent his heart is not in it. He berates us for chuckling at the ‘wrong’ places and subtly highlights the artifice of the supposed rage behind the genre. Never mind the free coffee, he’s certainly having his Danish raisin swirl and eating it….

This show of extended set pieces then moves on to the life expected of a fortysomething parent, skewering the bucolic idea of moving to the country with its cultural malnourishment before moving on to an attack on the unedifying ‘politically incorrect’ ideology as espoused by Top Gear that culminates in a daring piece about Richard Hammond’s near-fatal crash. Here, Lee moves the audience between discomfort and laughter with deceptive ease.

Because they are so distinctive, it’s easy to focus on Lee’s techniques; the deadpan delivery, the constant reiteration of his themes, the aloof demeanour. But there’s also a playfulness that imitators often miss, while the intelligent but unpretentious writing builds skilfully to make punchlines out of the most unexpected places.

Only in his final routine, based on the artistic bankruptcy of advertising executives, is in danger of becoming a parody of his own methodology – but the payoffs are certainly well worth it, and you’ll never watch Mark Watson’s Magners cider ads in quite the same way again.

Comedy in-jokes are, of course, an integral part of the show’s fabric. As well as Boyle, Lee takes pot-shots at the easy target of Michael McIntyre and creates a whole new genus of stand-up: the ‘Russell comedian’. But such asides hit a wider audience, not just the comedy cognoscenti.

In what will come as a surprise to long-term fans – though it’s entirely in keeping with his compulsion to keep the audience out of their comfort zone – Lee ends with a sincere song. It’s a cover version of a Steve Earle track, not a schmaltzy Lee Evans-style number; but it’s enough to show that he still has the capacity to surprise – even at a positively geriatric 41

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He kind of took the kind of chat comics have in green rooms and dressing rooms at comedy clubs - often funnier than anything that makes it onstage - and shoved these jokes, in-jokes and barbed observations up front, to hilarious effect. The other effect is of a personal, considered monologue a friend might deliver as commentary to rifling through another friend's record collection. A master of the form.

Mandy Allan, January 2010

Saw SL at his early Lowry gig this Sunday. He'd sold out the original evening gig and the afternoon one was also packed which is good for him. Sadly, a couple of inebriated chaps started messing about from almost the moment he hit the stage and one of them, who must've had a serious screw loose, and was the antithesis of the "ideal fan" as set out in Ally's earlier review further down. SL made the gig worthwhile but admitted that the interruptions affected his flow and meant certain routines had to be cut short. On the plus side, maybe it'll provide interesting anecdotal material for next year. Some of the crowd were almost feral in their hatred of the spoiler.

Ben, November 2009

Saw Stewart Lee last night in Swansea and he was awesome. He also followed a below par Tony Law who didnt really rock the place. Not that someone of Lee's quality needs a good warm up. The venue (all be it very large) was not full. That is a crying shame and i hope that doesnt prevent him from coming back in the future.

James, October 2009

I've seen Stewart Lee a bunch of times over many years, and I find him hysterically funny. That said, he requires, really, a couple of things from his audience; Intelligence (sorry, but if you're not literate and fairly free-thinking, you're not going to like him); Familiarity with the general structure of comedy, and preferably his previous work; and total contempt for religion, right-wing politics and mainstream comedy. If this doesn't sound like you, you wont like him.

Ally, September 2008

***** truely brilliant, saw him at The Stand on Monday. His timing is perfect and his material is witty, the total comedian, if there was any justice in the world he would be selling out arena tours!

Ben Mumford, August 2008

Slee is consistently amazing. I'm just not sure why he persists in starting most shows with the 'If Jesus is the answer...' routine. Is there anybody with even a passing interest in comedy who hasn't seen it already on numerous occasions? To me it doesn't seem even close to his best material. It was a bit disappointing that he opened with it again at the first Bloomsbury Ten Best Stand-Ups Show when it was a fair bet that lots of people had gone on the back of seeing him before.

Simon, April 2008

Saw Stew in Burnley to an almost full theatre thingy I have to say loved him to bits, totally engaging and intelligent as we know but full of fun. I especially loved the sefl-conscious comment on the whole process. He will never be everyone's cup of tea but for me he is a genius! great value.

Dave, April 2008

Utterly brilliant. If you don't get him you are missing out on a genuine talent.

Ian, March 2008

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