COMEDY

Stewart Lee professes to have no material for his show. Apparently routines are born in life experience and all Lee does these days is gig and watch Scooby Doo with his kids.

This conceit of course, is typical of Lee’s self deprecating style. And it’s how he gets away with being so damned clever. He knows. His audience knows he knows. Outsiders that call Lee arrogant have either a) never seen him perform or b) haven’t listened very well.

Fans will be familiar with his trademark audience partitioning. Arbitrarily splitting the room into those that get it – and those that don’t – encourages all to keep up. Part of the magic of stand up is the interaction between audience and comic.  No one exemplifies this better than Lee – the audience is ready to laugh from the moment he walks on stage.

Jungle canyon rope bridges, Tory cuts, The News of the World paedophile panic, Radovan Karadžić, Scooby Doo, Atheism, whatever. No matter in what direction he goes, the audience is with him.

As a satire on ‘mainstream’ comedy, his act is best enjoyed if you are familiar, but not necessarily a fan of, ‘Mock the Week’, and other mainstream TV comedies. His view of such shows was recently illustrated in his own BBC2 series, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, when he suggested a much better programme might be, ‘Mock the Strong’.

Towards the end of the show Lee reads out some (real?) comments made about him on the internet. Some of it was misinformed criticism; most of it was simple hatred. The fools. It’s not going too far to state that with his growing audience he is genuinely loved. And no wonder – Lee is the kind of comedian who rewards familiarity – the more you know him, the more you laugh.

His latest show is always his best. Without a doubt, Stewart Lee is the best comedian working today.