Tag: Stewart Lee

Stewart Lee: Snowflake/Tornado review *****

Stewart Lee: Snowflake/Tornado

Leicester Square Theatre, 10th December 2019

It’s Stewart Lee. He is so far above other comedians that it makes me wonder why they bother. Of course it is a 5* review. Even when he is meandering he is a genius. Here the show was delayed by a power failure. Just more for him to get his teeth into. This double header routine is already lighter than the shows of recent years. The old boy is mellowing. But it is still as sharp as it needs to be and he wants it to be.

Went with BD who, by virtue of age, education and upbringing will not lot anything offensive pass. This is the only fat, bearded, privileged, cantankerous, white, straight, fifty-something bloke that she has the time of day for. Apart from Dad of course. And that is touch and go. I took her to see Ben Elton a week or so later. Based on my memory and our shared love of Blackadder. He was awful. An embarrassment. Pretending to be aware but reverting to lazy, tired cliche. I didn’t need BD to tell me what was wrong. We walked as soon as we could.

SL, beyond the deconstruction, reconstruction, repetition, dissonance, surreality, clever-clever, childish, audience prodding, provocation, intimidation, irony, sarcasm, faux self-regard, self-deprecation, is an optimist, a moral crusader who cannot tolerate hypocrisy even in himself. In a world where everyone is seeking offence or victimhood, he is critical in all senses. Of course you already know that and will have already signed up to see the show. Of which there are many. As he says, without him us liberals have been “starved of the opportunity to participate in mass agreement”. If you haven’t why don’t you go and see what all the fuss is about.

Snowflake works because it defends the “politically correct” that the uncritical rail against largely through the confrontation they employ. The attack of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comedy conceit. The painful put-down of Ricky Gervais “saying the unsayable”. Tornado works through incongruity. The confused Netflix listing, the Alan Bennett expansion and the Dave Chapelle anecdote. And those on just the hooks on which so many other laughs are secured.

For he is very, very, very funny.

Daniel Kitson at the Roundhouse review ****

86

Daniel Kitson: Something Other Than Everything

The Roundhouse, 25th July 2017

I really can’t be doing with most stand-up comedy and will rarely pay money to go and see it. Most stand-ups are mildly diverting at best and often begin to grate as they default to cheap laughs from tired observational tropes.

LD and I recently went along to the benefit gig at the Hammersmith Apollo for victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. Good cause so well worth it, but, with the exception of that Russell Kane and Rob Beckett, in flashes, it served as a reminder of the above rule. Don’t get me wrong, I will laugh and generally have a good time, but this doesn’t normally do much more for me.

There are some exceptions however. En famille we can still get a lot of pleasure out of the quality punnery of Milton Jones and Tim Vine. And Stewart Lee will likely remain mandatory viewing every year until I die. (See here Stewart Lee: Content Provider review *****). As, probably, will Daniel Kitson.

Now I can’t pretend I have pitched up to everything Mr Kitson delivers but I have seen enough routines over the years to know his gifts and I also have a high regard for his more recent theatrical forays, notably Tree at the Old Vic which was a 2015 Top 10 Theatre pick for me, and the more challenging, but still very rewarding, Analog.Ue at the NT in 2014.

So high hopes going in to this. And by and large Mr Kitson delivered. Several strands woven together, enhanced by sound and lighting effects with the usual mastery of comedy technique. When it works it is still very very funny as well as being reflective to an almost exquisitely painful degree. Comedy self-examination requires discipline and by and large Mr Kitson exhibits this. However he sets such a high standard that, just occasionally here, the edifice wobbled. Two hours with this many paths through the material, with diversions, reversions, checks, balances is asking a lot of us mere mortals. How to be a liberal, how to be good, determinism and free-will, empathy, all this and more, presents an awful of possibilities for Mr Kitson to explore and sometimes I frankly wasn’t up to it.

So a qualified recommendation. It’s Daniel Kitson so if you know what to expect you will be rewarded. and it is only £12 thanks to Mr Kitson’s principled generosity. But I still have this nagging feeling that if he could just rein in the brilliance a bit and revert to a more conventional stand-up format it might have been even funnier.

Still mustn’t grumble. Like I said most stand-up comedy is pants.

Stewart Lee: Content Provider review *****

stewart-lee

Stewart Lee: Content Provider

G Live Guildford, 10th March 2017

There are only a few stand up comedians I would pay money to see (or even go for free for that matter). The vast majority of the observational comedy types off the telly cannot sustainably make me laugh or think over a couple of hours and I don’t put enough effort in to find out about the “lesser lights” of the comedy world. Moreover comedy is the one genre where I need a chum to go with, that’s the nature of this live experience. Finally I prioritise theatre, art and classical music performance over books, film, comedy, dance, opera and people chatting about stuff. There’s only so much time.

However, with Stewart Lee and Daniel Kitson at the cerebral, reflexive end of the spectrum and Tim Vine and Milton Jones at the punning end I have more than enough to keep me happy.

And Stewart Lee is by some way the funniest man alive or ever. It’s probably to do with content (same age, sameish world view), delivery (mocking, occasionally vicious) and technique (he is just really good at his job). In this year’s show he sets his sights for a tiny bit on Brexit and Trump (in a smart repeat), the value of his own material (I confess I probably laughed the most at the economics of his DVD sales – that’s the accountant in me), bondage in days gone by (historicism as a device to mock the youth in hyper-consumerist capitalism) and narcissism generally (always a target for scorn from those of us who deny or are embarrassed by our own attention seeking behaviours). Sometimes direct, sometimes in collusion with the audience (or parts thereof), always the deconstruction. Who else would use Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer to frame a show – a figure looking away from his apparent audience? Oh and the reference to a post-laughs show – brilliant.

The astounding thing is you kind of know what you are going to get in theory with Mr Lee but you go in completely blind to the practice (praxis?) of how it will be delivered. And he just keeps on toying with you even when you have see him enough times to be wary and to think you know what’s coming next. Much like The Fall I would say. His favourite band. And mine. Or like a comedy version of the Frankfurt School (look it up).

Oh and once or twice he genuinely laughed at his own jokes. Which was quite nice. Maybe he is starting to age gracefully. I hope not.

Anyway if you know then you will be going/have gone to see this. If you don’t then it is easy enough to find out if you will like him on t’internet. If you are tempted you will not regret it. The SO came along for the first time – “yes he was pretty funny” – trust me that is as ringing an endorsement as it is possible to get.

Next year’s show will also get five stars as will the year after that, and the show after that.