Stewart Lee nearly killed onstage

[jamiefairlie]

Plain

[the science eel]

And really fat and depressed?

He talked a little about how he'd put on weight and had some periods of depression during lockdown when I saw him at the Fringe a couple of weeks ago. Also how uncomfortable he is with making eye contact. I've never seen him 'get personal' like that, but it was obvious it was genuine. Didn't last long, and I suppose it was part of a build-up to a thank-you-it's-good-to-be-back finale more than a kind of confessional or whatever, but it was virtually silent in the room for a minute or so.

[Utter Shit]

I'd say the same thing. I guess most of us would. No? Who's a funnier stand-up?

Frank Skinner!

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

When did he get really fat?

I honestly thought he was wearing some kind of padding when he first came onstage and did that Paul Shane line, and that he was going to remove the padded jacket to show his relatively svelte self.

[wrec]

I know it's a bit cunty to like something because you know it will annoy and/or confuse people, but part of why the Gervais bit is funny to me is imagining someone watching it out of context and saying 'is this what so-called intelligent lefty woke comedy is?'

Funnily enough, being outside of Auntieland I've been scouring the internets for the show and all I found was a 6 minute clip, presumably the very bit you describe, on a YouTube account called Wings Over Scotland. Not sure if it's THE Wings Over Scotland or not but the intention in posting it is clearly "look at this woke nonsense".

[Sebastian Cobb]

The Gervais bit was worth it just for the contrived/self-righteous swig of beer from the lectern like what Gervais does.

[Sebastian Cobb]

He talked a little about how he'd put on weight and had some periods of depression during lockdown when I saw him at the Fringe a couple of weeks ago. Also how uncomfortable he is with making eye contact. I've never seen him 'get personal' like that, but it was obvious it was genuine. Didn't last long, and I suppose it was part of a build-up to a thank-you-it's-good-to-be-back finale more than a kind of confessional or whatever, but it was virtually silent in the room for a minute or so.

He's got diverticulitis which probably doesn't help. I think he's been hospitalised with it in the past.

[Utter Shit]

The Gervais bit was worth it just for the contrived/self-righteous swig of beer from the lectern like what Gervais does.

Oh Christ yeah that bit was great.

I liked the little Greg Davies dig, despite thinking Davies is fantastic and not at all deserving (though he does stand out as someone whose "this story is actually true" lead-ins are really unsubtle)...it just underlines the fact that SL is happy to take shots at anyone, regardless of how easy a target they are or whether or not they even warrant it.

[Fried Egg Sandwich]

I watched it today.

Stewart Lee/10

Shame to see him looking so unhealthy.

[Blue Jam]

When did he get really fat?

When he let himself go

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

It did help with the bit where he was pretending to be a racist 70's comedian though. He had the look down to a tee.

[lankyguy95]

The early deconstruction was so relentless it eventually got a couple of laughs out of me. The unnecessary Greg Davies jab made me laugh too.

The rest of it I thought was basically toss. I get that part of his act is that it seems to stumble around and he undercuts it and undercuts it and then turns it round to show that he planned it all along. But sometimes I think it really is as insubstantial and lacking in ideas as he sometimes tries to fake out. And this was the same act as ever, with some topical references. I'm sure he did the political correctness/health and safety confusion shit about fifteen years ago, except he milked it a lot less then. A microscopic analysis of a critical comment from a bad journalist (no one actually believes that this is just the character of Stewart Lee anymore, do they?). The Gervais bit; I guess it does help stretch out a show when you commit to six minutes of that. Fuck me.

Yes, being "cancelled", whatever it means, doesn't really extend to the mega rich and famous who have built enough of a dedicated following to make it viable for a major streaming service to support and market them to no financial detriment. Anything else to contribute to that? No, just a cack song at the end with some flat sentiment that was haphazardly explored in the show.

I don't know....I used to like him and think that the subversive aspects were often genuinely funny, something that's frequently more of an affectation with that sort of performer. And although he's thought of as a writer who performs rather than a performer who writes, he's got the performance aspect of his act so nailed down, he can obviously sell his act to an audience impeccably well. It's genuinely impressive. Just didn't think this one was good, and it summed up the way I've thought about him for quite a long time now.

Maybe Tornado will make me rethink.

[bigfatheart]

For what it's worth, I thought Tornado was much the stronger of the two when I saw them live.

In two minds about the recycled health and safety/PC/woke stuff. I'm 90% sure its a deliberate thing, to make the point that the culture war anti-woke stuff is just right-wingers laundering all their old 'PC gone mad' panic stuff, so material he was doing years ago is still relevant. It does seem odd and out of character not to make that point, because pedantically explaining exactly what he's doing is very much his thing. Especially since he has exactly the sort of fanbase that would immediately know that bit was old material.

[drummersaredeaf]

Yeah, really didn't enjoy last night as much as I hoped. I saw Snowflake/Tornado days before the lockdown proper in Brum Symphony Hall, and attributed the lack of laughs to the weird atmosphere. Watched last night in the hope it would repair that underwhelming memory. It was only the Gervais bit that really got me on both viewings. Compare that to seeing Carpet Remnant, and the otherwise useless muscles on the side of my skull hurt from laughing so hard.

[somersetchris]

Maybe Tornado will make me rethink.

Tornado is LOADS better. When I saw him, he did Tornado first and I thought it was brilliant. It was much lighter, felt like he was having a lot of fun with it, it felt like the act of 'the comedian Stewart Lee' was dropping a bit as he was so clearly happy to be out performing again.

Snowflake was a huge drop off in comparison, it felt like such a re-hash of Stewart Lee's Greatest Hits, a lot of over familiar stuff he's done before. If it had just been Snowflake I'd have thought ah, probably time to call it a day Stew.

Interestingly he dropped character for a minute to say how well he thought it had gone and was surprised at how fun the gig was - it was out in the sticks on a Sunday night. But then mentioned at the end that the air went out of the room second half and the atmosphere dropped. I think that's because it wasn't anywhere near as good mate.

I'm surprised they showed Snowflake first, as it might put people off watching the other one. Personally I'd be really interested to see someone really go into the culture wars and getting called snowflake and all of that, but this wasn't it. Even though he mentions Dave Chapelle and Ricky Gervais quite a bit (when I saw him he over-explained who Chapelle was), he doesn't really go into the stuff that's been getting them into the news lately. Just by coincidence when I saw him both of them had been in the news in the last couple of weeks, obviously he can't change the show to respond to it but the stink of transphobia has been around both of those two for a while.

[somersetchris]

Yeah, really didn't enjoy last night as much as I hoped. I saw Snowflake/Tornado days before the lockdown proper in Brum Symphony Hall, and attributed the lack of laughs to the weird atmosphere. Watched last night in the hope it would repair that underwhelming memory. It was only the Gervais bit that really got me on both viewings. Compare that to seeing Carpet Remnant, and the otherwise useless muscles on the side of my skull hurt from laughing so hard.

Same for me except Content Provider, I thought that was one of the best shows I'd ever seen an my face was really hurting at the end of it. Tornado is not as good but not far off. Snowflake much weaker in comparison.

[drummersaredeaf]

Same for me except Content Provider, I thought that was one of the best shows I'd ever seen an my face was really hurting at the end of it. Tornado is not as good but not far off. Snowflake much weaker in comparison.

I've yet to watch Content Provider other than snippets , so will get to that ASAP. I'll watch Tornado next week in the hope I enjoy it more!

[Goldentony]

Reused PC Gone Mad bit seemed like it tied into being able to reuse that Boris joke at the end without the acknowledgement. Same shit, different decade type of thing. Could just be LAZY though couldnt he, we don't know. I saw him a few and twice he used the buying underpants on tour bit, LAZY Stewart Lee.

Enjoyed this, wish it was both parts in once go.

[poodlefaker]

christ, Phill Jupitus has let himself go.

[Ferris]

I've yet to watch Content Provider other than snippets , so will get to that ASAP. I'll watch Tornado next week in the hope I enjoy it more!

Content Provider is really good, but Milder Comedian and Carpet Remnant World are just about as good as standup gets.

It's unfair really, because I'm comparing his work back to previous ludicrously high points and he shouldn't get stick for being an era-defining comic who puts out a set that is merely "really pretty good" created during covid for crying out loud.

I'll do it anyway, of course.

[sevendaughters]

I liked it! I saw him on the Content Provider tour and thought "ok, probably seen through this set now, well done for 20+ years of laughs" but this was very funny! Not got anything bigger to say than that.

[Alberon]

Haha, probably less than five minutes with this one, then.

She actually lasted to the Ricky Gervais bit. I was impressed. Shame the show wasn't one of Lee's best.

During that bit I was thinking 'William Shatner in his eighties has let himself go' though.

[idunnosomename]

watching this now, he's showing off his penis, Graham must be fuming

[idunnosomename]

never mind Phil Minton, in the Ricky Gervais unsayable section did think Demilich have let themselves go


of course they haven't. Antti Boman still does an excellent burping frog frontman

[yaktaur]

As someone who put on weight on lockdown and hasn't shifted it, I'm hurt by the let himself go comments lol... lockdown was tough man

[Armed Traffic Warden]

Hmm. Got tired of his act a few years back (though still appreciate it's quality) but have found myself really enjoying snippets of his old stuff I've seen recently.
  With everything that's been happening I was hoping for the show to have more teeth but he instead trod familiar ground. I wasn't expecting (or wanting) a rousing speech but feel he wasn't as sharp as I'd like. I felt it seemed to start with a sense of purpose and hoped it might be building to something like his better shows but instead it sort of came and went without really achieving much.

  That said, I laughed a couple of times and feel I hold him to a higher standard than most stand ups... though I recently went through Acaster's Netflix shows and thought he was brilliant. Unfortunately there's not many comedians of that calibre. Frank Skinner  as well. To be fair, the dreaded Michael McIntyre excels at what he does too - it's just very two dimensional and difficult to appreciate as anything more than fluff.

  I'll watch Tornado with interest.

[pigamus]

MKV web rip up in a certain place. 700mb.

[the science eel]

I've been thinking about all this 'he's not as good as he was once' stuff and while I've no doubt it's true (I came relatively late to Stew, seeing him first on the telly about five years ago), it doesn't really bother me because it happens to literally everybody in any creative field, and I wonder if anyone is really that surprised or bothered by it. And calls for him to give up while he's ahead strike me as a bit pointless. He's not going to, and we'd miss him if he did.

When I saw him a few weeks ago it struck me how much of his act is now kind of almost establishment. As far as I'm concerned that's not such a bad thing. There were moments when he honestly reminded me of Frankie Howerd (I've never heard that said of him). He singled out one man in the crowd and good-humouredly pointed out how unamused the man appeared to be - on several occasions. There were even a couple of 'ooh no' bits too. Very Frankie.

[madhair60]

Very few laughs for me in this set, sadly. I feel like he's exhausted this shtick a little bit, or maybe I was just not in the best frame of mind to enjoy it.

[sweeper]

After 30 years, Lee's schtick is more familiar to me than my own mother's face. He armours himself with the clothing of edginess and radicalism, but I found myself thinking that the most radical thing he could do now would be something direct and with meaning.

And then he did. I thought the song and closing visual gag were fantastic. It didn't make the preceding hour worthwhile, but it did prove that he's got somewhere to go if he wants to. I hope he does, because the whole thing feels tired to me.

I also like the bit where he shouted 'hail Satan'.