Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

[Hofzinser]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Haha, I really am.

[hobbes]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Too busy looking at motorcycle clothing?

[Jimmy Bignutz]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

I know they're not directly comparable, but in a way, that's the difference that's so strking - Lee gets a BBC series commissioned and works with the best names in comedy, whereas Herring is making a free podcast in front of 150 people.

[Hofzinser]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

True, although I'm not sure that's entirely fair either. By the same token, you could say that John Bishop or Russell Howard must be better than Simon Munnery or Daniel Kitson. To reference the other thread, Jerry Sadowitz recently struggled to cobble together a crowd for his first DVD recording in 25 years, and he's a towering genius.

[Jimmy Bignutz]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

But the difference there is that what Kitson and Sadowitz are doing is less commercial, more challenging than Howard or Bishop, whereas with Lee/Herring it't not - if anything it's the other way around.

It looks like I'm attacking Herring, but I'm not, I am a fan - honest.

[Bored Of Education]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

As much as I like Sadowitz, or certainly did last time I saw him, he is nowhere near as good as Lee even though Lee himself would probably disagree with me.

Lee's delivery, language,timing and, of course, material is near-perfect. He makes every single word count. I think, throughout the six hours of the two series, there were maybe two or three occasions at most when I thought that his delivery or choice of words was wrong or jarred - not material, you understand, execution.

I couldn't say that Sadowitz could keep up that consistency. Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances such as the aforementioned writing of Morris and Ianucci and the fact that a lot of Sadowitz' great stuff comes from a genuine rage and bitterness which, on occasion, he misses the target or picks the wrong one. Also, as Lee has pointed out, his slow delivery means that he has much more thinking time which could be seen with the reaction to the people walking out in the TV show.

As far as Herring is concerned, he did have "Objective" aired last year, it's just you lot are too populist to listen to Radio 4

[Hofzinser]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

But the difference there is that what Kitson and Sadowitz are doing is less commercial, more challenging than Howard or Bishop, whereas with Lee/Herring it't not - if anything it's the other way around.

It looks like I'm attacking Herring, but I'm not, I am a fan - honest.

That’s a very fair point. Although I think Herring’s stand-up stuff, at it’s best at any rate, can be considerably more thoughtful and even challenging than he’s often given credit for. (Not that you were saying otherwise, I realise.)

As I say, I don’t disagree with your basic point at all, just unconvinced that comparing AIOTM with SLCV is a fair exercise.

[hobbes]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Heh. I'm not sure Christ on a Bike or Hitler Moustache are particularly commercial...

[Disco Child Ballads]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

I like Richard Herring because he's good at doing both the cosy Radio 4 comedy and the more challenging stuff. Herring has appeared on Just a Minute. I can't imagine Stewart Lee ever doing that. (That doesn't mean I'm having a go at Lee BTW.)

[Ginger Yellow]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

This may have come up earlier in the thread but, just in case, Herring does a podcasted live show with some of his comedian mates, As It Occurs To Me, which has just started its third season. It's very patchy, and packed to the rafters with in-jokes, but when it hits it's very funny.

[Ray de Galles]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Disco Sea Shanties wrote:

I like Richard Herring because he's good at doing both the cosy Radio 4 comedy and the more challenging stuff. Herring has appeared on Just a Minute. I can't imagine Stewart Lee ever doing that. (That doesn't mean I'm having a go at Lee BTW.)

Lee hates panel shows (didn't he say appearing on '8 out of 10 Cats' was a low point of his life/career?) and isn't very good on them when he has been persuaded to partake. He'd be awful on JaM.

I may be missing the point of discussion of Lee and Herring's influence on each other but it's clear (and, I think, mentioned in Lee's recent book which is an absolute must-read) that when Lee does his "But Stew..." character he is normally chanelling Herring's character from the duo days. If anything, more of the feel of L&H lives on in Lee's work than what I've heard of Herring's but that might be because I'm a lot more familiar with the former.

[Crystal Staples]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

They're not giving this a lot of publicity, but series 3, starring Chris Morris and Kevin Eldon, starts on 1st March.

[Benjm]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

He performed the six routines for the series at the Festival Hall at the weekend. It was mostly very funny indeed. The only misfire was a section about race and stereotyping. He had overrun in the first part of the show and fairly rattled though that bit to make up time so it may have lost something in the delivery. I'll be interested to see whether the broadcast version works better.

[Sean of the Shed]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

It's a complete surprise to me. I was under the impression that the BBC had knocked it on the head.

[hobbes]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Benjm wrote: He performed the six routines for the series at the Festival Hall at the weekend. It was mostly very funny indeed. The only misfire was a section about race and stereotyping. He had overrun in the first part of the show and fairly rattled though that bit to make up time so it may have lost something in the delivery. I'll be interested to see whether the broadcast version works better.

I was at that. It was VERY funny indeed.

[Benjm]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

For real kudos, you'd want to be the second guy who went to the toilet.

He's doing work in progress stuff at the Soho Theatre in June & July which will quickly sell out on previous form.

[Mr Beast]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

I saw him a couple of weeks ago but I now feel a bit cheated because we only got 3 of the routines. Looking forward to seeing the rest and anticipating some whining that it is too right on.

[Kevin S]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

[strike]Also, the return of Chris Morris?[/strike]

already been said *smacks own forehead*

[Ginger Yellow]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

I saw him a couple of weeks ago but I now feel a bit cheated because we only got 3 of the routines.

Yeah, what a rip-off, only getting three sets in one show.

Anyway, I saw his work-in-progres show back in November and it was very good indeed, so the TV show should be great.

[Mr Beast]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Only ripped off in comparison to these lucky Londoners.

I thought it was better than the carpet remnant show from a couple of years back, not that there was anything wrong with that.

[Benjm]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

The only disadvantage of the six routine night was the slight sense at times that he was working against the clock to get it all in, which doesn't sit well with Lee's discursive style.

We had decent box seats for £15 each, which was cheaper than the three routine shows at the Leicester Square Theatre and rather good value, even allowing for not having the proximity you get in a smallish basement venue.

The Festival Hall (or Hammersmith Apollo at a stretch) is definitely the top end of room size I'd want to watch comedy in though. Going to see it at the O2 just seems bizarre.

[Ray de Galles]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Anyone else a little underwhelmed by the new series so far? I saw about 2/3 of the material in one of the warm up shows and found it very funny then but so far the televised version seems to be working markedly less well.

Saturday's was certainly better than the opener but somehow it isn't reaching the heights of the last series, I'm not sure if it's the delivery on the night, the audience's response or maybe that the Chris Morris interview inserts aren't as good as Armando Ianucci's and that spoils the tone.

.

[Jah Womble]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Have just watched the second episode on catch-up. The whole tenor seems colder and more apocalyptic this time around - from Morris's deathly interviewer outward - which is nonetheless a comedic environment in which I suspect Lee feels more than comfortable.

Personally, I'm not sure that this tone will sustain an entire series, but I hope to be proved wrong.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

I saw one of his three-episode live shows, and I reckon it can. It was all really well structured, sharper all round than Carpet Remnant World (which was no slouch).

[garcia]

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

i watched the show that was on over the weekend and thought again that stewart lee is a better essayist than a comedian. there was a routine about some UKIP dude and immigrants "coming over 'ere". politically and philosophically i agree with lee's point, but it didn't make me laugh. and i think UKIP are a bit of an easy target, comedy-wise - though i don't live in the UK and maybe if you are regularly exposed to UKIP, jokes about them seem funny as well as obvious.

i get the feeling that lee is inhibited by his own critical intelligence. he has purged his delivery of everything that could look like a cliched comedy affectation, but the resulting flat affect makes it seem like he's depressed.