Taking my seat in the third row at the Lyceum theatre, Sheffield, it’s fair to say I was rather excited about seeing Stewart Lee, officially the 41st Best Stand Up ever. At 7:45 he came on briefly to explain that in the second part of the evening he’d be performing his new show, “If you prefer a milder comedian, please ask for one.” First up though was the support act, introduced by Lee as a better comedian and man than Lee himself, Simon Munnery.
It turned out Munnery wasn’t quite as funny as Lee, though that’s no great criticism, as we'll see. His affable 25-minute routine made me laugh a lot with his takes on, amongst other things, supermarkets, being a father, and the awkwardness in deciding how close someone has to be to you before it’s socially acceptable to say “Hello” to them. Not having been to a live comedy show before, I was surprised by the brevity of the routine, as after 25 minutes he departed the stage and we were already at the interval.
The main show started as Lee entered to a thumping soundtrack and smoke machine, before quickly curtailing proceedings as that’s how “comedians called Russell” enter the stage. He started his routine, before taking (presumably fake) exception to some people not laughing enough and proceeding to dissect what he had said so far, explaining why it was funny and why the audience should laugh. As he makes plain, “I’m not Michael MacIntyre spoon-feeding you diarrhoea” and if the audience weren’t going to get the early clown related jokes, he didn’t know how they’d get through the tougher stuff to come. He needn’t have worried – he pretty much had the audience in the palm of his hands, and I don’t remember ever laughing so much as I did over the next 90 minutes as he covered topics including his feelings on emigrants, his hatred of Top Gear (might be best if Richard Hammond doesn’t turn up at one of his shows), and finishing up with 20 minutes concerning an advertising tag line, that just got funnier and funnier. To extrapolate a 20 minute routine out of a simple tagline is the sign of a gifted comedian, and this was certainly a confident comedian at the top of his form, even if, as he explains, at the age of 41 he may no longer have the rage that a 38 year old Frankie Boyle feels towards the Queen’s vagina.
You could class it as some sort of post-modern comedy I suppose, as Lee shows the workings of the routine, letting one story peter out because he couldn’t think of an end to it, but whatever label you want to give it, one things for sure – it was damn funny AND intelligent, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
So I may not have been to the theatre and/or gigs in my teenage years and for most of my 20s, but what with my first “gig” being REM at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and my first live comedy being Stewart Lee at the Lyceum, at least I’ve started with the best. The only trouble now is will anyone live up to the standard they’ve set?
It turned out Munnery wasn’t quite as funny as Lee, though that’s no great criticism, as we'll see. His affable 25-minute routine made me laugh a lot with his takes on, amongst other things, supermarkets, being a father, and the awkwardness in deciding how close someone has to be to you before it’s socially acceptable to say “Hello” to them. Not having been to a live comedy show before, I was surprised by the brevity of the routine, as after 25 minutes he departed the stage and we were already at the interval.
The main show started as Lee entered to a thumping soundtrack and smoke machine, before quickly curtailing proceedings as that’s how “comedians called Russell” enter the stage. He started his routine, before taking (presumably fake) exception to some people not laughing enough and proceeding to dissect what he had said so far, explaining why it was funny and why the audience should laugh. As he makes plain, “I’m not Michael MacIntyre spoon-feeding you diarrhoea” and if the audience weren’t going to get the early clown related jokes, he didn’t know how they’d get through the tougher stuff to come. He needn’t have worried – he pretty much had the audience in the palm of his hands, and I don’t remember ever laughing so much as I did over the next 90 minutes as he covered topics including his feelings on emigrants, his hatred of Top Gear (might be best if Richard Hammond doesn’t turn up at one of his shows), and finishing up with 20 minutes concerning an advertising tag line, that just got funnier and funnier. To extrapolate a 20 minute routine out of a simple tagline is the sign of a gifted comedian, and this was certainly a confident comedian at the top of his form, even if, as he explains, at the age of 41 he may no longer have the rage that a 38 year old Frankie Boyle feels towards the Queen’s vagina.
You could class it as some sort of post-modern comedy I suppose, as Lee shows the workings of the routine, letting one story peter out because he couldn’t think of an end to it, but whatever label you want to give it, one things for sure – it was damn funny AND intelligent, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
So I may not have been to the theatre and/or gigs in my teenage years and for most of my 20s, but what with my first “gig” being REM at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and my first live comedy being Stewart Lee at the Lyceum, at least I’ve started with the best. The only trouble now is will anyone live up to the standard they’ve set?
Hi, wow, pretty awesome first gig (I'm old so I saw REM in the 80s) and live comedian.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to read this, as I mentioned I saw him earlier this year too, and you brought back some more memories for me. Did he run about there too, or was that just for us being filmed for the DVD?
Sadly, you are probably right it would be hard to see a better funny person than Stewart Lee.
Kaz aka @PartisticL
Hi,thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteYes, he did do the whole running about thing at the Sheffield show too, complaining about his last DVD being illegally downloaded etc. I think I may have to treat myself to the DVD as a reminder of a great night