Topic: Stewart Lee - Content Provider

[JCR]

Guess this might come under foul gossip, but didn't Lee refuse to pay his share of the production costs that would have let go faster stripe issue TMWRNJ series 1 on dvd a few years back? Maybe that strained the relationship.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Also who was he referring to with the "we don't have those cakes over here mate I don't go to New York and do 20 minutes on tablet?

Maybe Louis CK...?  I think Lee might have been at one of the shows he did at the Fringe a few years back which featured a longish routine about Cinnabons.

[DrGreggles]

Guess this might come under foul gossip, but didn't Lee refuse to pay his share of the production costs that would have let go faster stripe issue TMWRNJ series 1 on dvd a few years back? Maybe that strained the relationship.

First I've heard of that.
I thought it was the BBC who massively increased the cost of buying the rights[1], making it pretty much impossible for Stew, Rich and GFS to not incur a large loss on releasing it. There was also talk of the Beeb wanting to have the final call over the final product[2], probably to remove any references to Jimmy Savile and all that...

I did actually get to briefly speak to both Stew and Rich about it after their respective gigs around the time that it got shelved.
Stew thought it would still be released eventually, Rich didn't.

1.	despite having no interest in releasing it themselves
2.	as they did for FoF2, but oddly not FoF1

[Blinder Data]

Do you think the odd digs at the previous night's Glasgow show were genuine or standard rival towns material?

I think someone tried to take a photo on their phone, Lee dived into the audience and got involved in a protracted discussion about it. It was quite amusing at first but it got a bit boring (and anyone who wasn't in the stalls wasn't sure sure what was going on). A couple of idiots shouted a couple of things too.

There's no sense of irony when he talks about ordering his own DVDs online or the financial difficulties of being a stand-up comedian, is there? I bet he's a tight get in real life.

[Wet Blanket]

In that Comedian's Comedian podcast he's quite open about wanting this tour to pay off some debts, and in most interviews seems preoccupied with the difficulties of making stand-up pay. I bet the breakdown of percentages and who gets what he goes into during that buying-his-own-books routine are accurate and genuine.

Stuart Goldsmith gently ribs him for having some sort of 'success dysmorphia,' which I thought was quite insightful. For the first time I believed that when Lee accuses a section of the audience of not getting it, or claiming a routine 'usually gets a better response' he might actually mean it. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Though quite amusing in Edinburgh when he referred to the people who get the jokes as the same ones who also come to see him in August at The Stand.

[hewantstolurkatad]

but I did notice that both he (and Bridget Christie's) digs at Corbyn elicited very little laughter from the London liberal elite that were at the show I went to

What were these?

[Mobius]

I bet he's a tight get in real life.

According to numerous Richard Herring anecdotes in the Collings & Herring podcast, yeah he is.

[easytarget]

Too late to add this in, Stew? http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-39326659

"As for injuries; well put it this way, I don't think I can get a book out of it."

"As for egg-juries; I don't wing I can egg a egg out egg egg!"

[buntyman]

I went to see both Stewart Lee and Bridget Christie in Glasgow last week within the space of a couple of days. Thought they were both very good but overall probably enjoyed Bridget Christie more. I think mainly because I hadn't seen her before so most of the material was new to me and I also liked the venue better.
Not sure if it's been discussed on here before but one thing that stood out from seeing them both so close together is their material that covers similar ground. I would have thought that they'd be careful of any crossover at all to avoid tiresome pedants like me calling them out on it on the internet. If I was Bridget Christie, I would ditch any Russell Brand pisstaking and not use the phrase 'metropolitan liberal elite' anymore. There were also some bits of her interaction with the audience and her teeing up of some references to look out for in the second half that bore the Lee hallmarks.

[MojoJojo]

He's late.

[KennyMonster]

He's late.

What? you've got him up the duff?

[DrGreggles]

Well, that was fucking great!
A master at work.

And the Herring 'dig' is a wonderful joke.

[Crabwalk]

I was expecting a chummy little 'dig' but, bloody hell i damn near shouted 'OOOOF' at that! An absolute reducer from Stew, that one. Loved him doubling down on the Howard hate. He could've been more bullish in response to Stewart Goldsmith's complaints I thought, so good to see him take aim onstage again.

Excellent gig overall, albeit a bit less impressive thematically and structurally than recent shows due to its looser, scattergun nature and the familiarity of some of his tropes.

I was 3 rows back bang in the centre and it was great to see him at work from such close quarters. Preferred the first half of the show and was really agitated during the FKA Twigs bit. I actually did shout 'she's a woman' at one point - it was driving me nuts that he kept getting the gender deliberately wrong and nobody was correcting him, which I thought he wanted to progress the bit. But (thankfully) he didn't hear me and it just sputtered on and then ended.

Was he being genuine when he said he was genuinely enjoying himself due to the unpredictable responses of the crowd or does he say that every night? Wait, of course he does. He is amazing at the seemingly off the cuff moments now isn't he?

[Dirty Boy]

Did he say anything about Wednesdays events?

[DrGreggles]

Was he being genuine when he said he was genuinely enjoying himself due to the unpredictable responses of the crowd or does he say that every night? Wait, of course he does. He is amazing at the seemingly off the cuff moments now isn't he?

Corn Exchange audiences are pretty shit overall. But maybe that helps his 'mixed ability room' stuff to work, as it's generally true in Cambridge.
The couple sat in front of me left at the interval and they actually exchanged a glance when he mentioned people coming to see him thinking he was Lee Mack, so maybe he was right about that too.

[Repeater]

Why would you shout out in the middle of a comedy gig

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Why would you shout out in the middle of a comedy gig

To get made a fool of by a pro?

[CaledonianGonzo]

I was expecting a chummy little 'dig' but, bloody hell i damn near shouted 'OOOOF' at that! An absolute reducer from Stew, that one.

It's a cracking joke, but unless I misunderstood it - or it was worded differently at the gig I saw - it's a joke about the pair of them and how, as a double act, they more or less cancelled each other out. It's pretty self deprecating and I didn't really take it as him having a go.

His 'Imagine that!' after his joke about Michael Gove and Sarah Vine was also a great, subtle bit of self lampoonery that didn't earn much the night I saw him as I guess it relies on pretty obscure knowledge.

[Twed]

Can somebody please write the actual words of the dig instead of referring to it as an entirely abstract concept

[DrGreggles]

Can somebody please write the actual words of the dig instead of referring to it as an entirely abstract concept

Some tickets still available.

[selectivememory]

Can somebody please write the actual words of the dig instead of referring to it as an entirely abstract concept

It was mentioned in the Herring podcast thread by this helpful poster, after much badgering:

Good, because I'd feel VERY uncomfortable typing it out for all to see.


edit: oh alright He says something about meeting a woman trying to reconcile two fundamentally incompatible things, and he sympathised because he once did a double act with Richard Herring

[Crabwalk]

That doesn't really convey it. They're being very cagey there and I don't blame them.

[Twed]

Thaaaank you. Although I thought I was clear on it for a second and then Crabwalk posted that cryptic message. I feel like you're all joining some sort of secret society at these Lee gigs.

[CaledonianGonzo]

That doesn't really convey it. They're being very cagey there and I don't blame them.

tbf it pretty much conveys it from last Friday.  Sounds like he went a bit further the night you went.

[Crabwalk]

Hmm. Maybe I leapt to the most vicious possible interpretation of the musical genre analogy.

DrGreggles, what did you make of that line from last night?

[DrGreggles]

I don't see it as a dig - just an excellent joke.
Not sure how it could possibly work with any name other than Herring's.

[Crabwalk]

OK I'm going to spoiler this so don't read it if you've not seen the show yet. It'll ruin a good bit for zero reward.

So, the girl was a jazz/folk musician, two seemingly irreconcilable styles of music due to their respective properties, which Lee described. Jazz as freewheeling, unpredictable, searching, innovative. Folk as ancient, traditional, passed down, with no room for improvisation or metamorphosis. Can you spot the inference I immediately made from the punchline (which was delivered looking down, away from the audience, without a smirk or chuckle)?

[Puce Moment]

I remember that now. It's bollocks, obviously, but is a good lead-in to the gag.

[RenegadeScrew]

His 'Imagine that!' after his joke about Michael Gove and Sarah Vine was also a great, subtle bit of self lampoonery that didn't earn much the night I saw him as I guess it relies on pretty obscure knowledge.

Yeah, he's actually changed that joke in order to lampoon himself[1].  The August incarnation of the joke was pretty perfect - but maybe a bit "1,2,3" for Lee's liking.  For example - I was able to tell it to my dad in August last year.

At University, David Cameron put his cock in a pig
In order to outdo him, Michael Gove put his cock in Sarah Vine
In order to outdo Gove, Teresa May put Boris Johnson in the position of Foreign Secretary

Beautiful

1.	maybe some other stuff too