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    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

    Even though I am quite a fan and planned to go to one of the screenings I had no idea that the boradcast of this was so imminent (i.e. next Monday evening). First run on BBC2 not BBC3 as well which seems surprising. There's been almost no promotion of it.

    You haven't seen any of it have you, Horse?

    #2
    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

    Ah, right below it, Dave Gorman's Genius has transferred from radio and starts next week as well.

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      #3
      Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

      Not seen either of them. I'm not a huge fan of either man, but I'll definitely tune in to the Lee programme if for no other reason than it is, as you say, quite surprising commissioning/scheduling (although showing it on BBC3 would be even more surprising - BBC4 is his obvious home but I don't think they've got the budget for comedy any more). It seems to be almost entirely Lee just talking about things to camera, which doesn't sound like a riveting half-hour's telly, but you never know. It would have been extremely cheap to make I suppose, which must count in its favour these days.

      I've always found Stewart Lee to be quite funny despite his slow, deadpan style, rather than hilarious because of it.

      The Gorman show just sounds like a rubbish format.

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        #4
        Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

        I never know what to think about Stewart Lee. I'm prejudiced by the fact that I always hated "Fist Of Fun", and can't abide the other bloke, but I've seen a few decent Lee clips. The problem is, while I tend to agree with his position on almost everything, I don't find him that funny. I'd say he'd be better as a columnist than a comedian, but I've seen/read stuff where he's being serious and it's not very good.

        What makes it odder is that he's obviously a very skilled comedian. The best thing I've seen him do (a piece about "Braveheart" in front of a Scottish audience) was technically superb, light years ahead of most British stand-ups. He just doesn't make me laugh that much. He needs a gag-writer or something, because the rest of his act is outstanding.

        I might watch this, anyway, see if I can be converted.

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          #5
          Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

          The Horse wrote:
          The Gorman show just sounds like a rubbish format.
          It does read as trite in that blurb and although it worked on Radio 4 I have my doubts as to how successful it will be as TV.

          One of the things I love about Lee is the the technique and the stretching of his best material (the Braveheart/William Wallace stuff, the Ang Lee routine, the Joe Pasquale and Jesus gags) almost to breaking point. I do think that material is genuinely funny though the last set he toured was the least impressive I've seen.

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            #6
            Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

            I've seen the Stuart Lee. I thought it was very good indeed.

            There is an excellent example of what Harri rightly describes as Lee's stretching the material to almost breaking point - a relentless routine about Chris Moyles's hardback tome.

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              #7
              Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

              I've just seen that Dave Gorman's first guest is Catherine fucking Tate. I was going to give it a chance but i can't stand that loud voice of hers. It's like nails down a blackboard

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                #8
                Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                Genius really isn't all that good. The comedians seem to be there to ride shotgun for Dave Gorman.

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                  #9
                  Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                  I can't really enjoy Dave Gorman. There's something so dry about him that approaches complete ordinariness, and laughs are hard to come by when I see him. I know he's not a comedian in the pure stand-up sense, but there's a feeling of deadness when he's on. I just don't get him.

                  But I'm looking forward to Lee's series. Again, he doesn't set the world on fire with his casual style, but his material is pointedly intelligent and amusing.

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                    #10
                    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                    I don't think Gorman has ever really nailed TV but his first 3 or 4 live sets/lectures were outstanding, The book of 'Are You Dave Gorman?' is very funny as well.

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                      #11
                      Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                      I saw Dave Gorman do a 15 minute stand up set on Saturday night, which was very good. Not exactly rolling-in-the-aisles stuff, but a good return of laughs nonetheless.

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                        #12
                        Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                        Where was that Toby? I thought he'd packed live work in? Was it trad stand-up or his more usual style of act?

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                          #13
                          Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                          Thought Stewart Lee was good tonight, mixture of stand-up and short sketches suits his style. Bit in the Mary Whitehouse style. Sort of.

                          To be fair though, Moyles and Brand are soft (but deserving) targets.

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                            #14
                            Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                            Not very impressed here. I laughed a couple of times but some of it was just painful

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                              #15
                              Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                              Stewart Lee was pretty funny for the most part, one or two ideas dragged on a touch. Glad he tore into the tragic childhood genre, having flicked through one or two of the wife's books I came to the conclusion that most of these tomes carry alot of poetic licence. Some were that pathetic I think I may have beaten them myself.
                              The main reason this programme appeals is the distinct lack of any intelligent observation in any comedy programme currently showing; eg, Horne and Corden, Al Murrays latest sketch show train crash, and of course anything that includes Catherine fucking Tate

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                                #16
                                Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                Excellent. I so hope we'll get Wollaston's verdict on it tomorrow.

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                                  #17
                                  Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                  I liked the bit about the way people talk on radio 4 comedy shows, but I'd agree with the comment that some of it worked and some of it dragged on. I don't think the sketch interludes worked.

                                  I still think the best thing Lee ever did was This Morning with Richard not Judy.

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                                    #18
                                    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                    The obvious comment, which even Alison Graham from the Radio Times made, is that the sketch fillers did the show no justice whatsoever. Stewart Lee's stand-up performance is one that you become gradually immersed in, and the sketches pretty much destroyed that sense of envelopment.

                                    I'd like to know how the show was brought to BBC2 in the first place. Presumably, someone thought that Lee's name was tradeable in the wake of the Springer Opera controversy.

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                                      #19
                                      Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                      Disco Sea Shanties wrote:
                                      I liked the bit about the way people talk on radio 4 comedy shows, but I'd agree with the comment that some of it worked and some of it dragged on. I don't think the sketch interludes worked
                                      The Teats that Wept Milk thing was imterminable.

                                      I still think the best thing Lee ever did was This Morning with Richard not Judy
                                      Yeah, TMWRNJ was like a free-form jazz version of Fist of Fun - longer and more sprawling, it wasn't aimed at a pop demographic and it gave the creators a chance to mess around with a few different formats within the space of one show.

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                                        #20
                                        Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                        I enjoyed it, the sketches were so obviously jammed in because someone felt 30 minutes of pure stand-up wasn't acceptable or because he was trying for a Dave Allen feel.

                                        A few bits of the stand-up didn't work but a remarkably high hit-rate really, though Moyles, Brand, Harry Potter and Dan Brown are the easiest of targets. The "rappers" bit was his obvious deliberate attempt to test the patience but it's skillfully done.

                                        The red button extra where he was interviewed by the show's producer Armando Iannucci was good too.

                                        Unsurprisingly I suppose, a later show on the series is on religion. Should be interesting.

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                                          #21
                                          Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                          Disco Sea Shanties wrote:
                                          I liked the bit about the way people talk on radio 4 comedy shows
                                          Yeah and nice to see Simon Munnery getting a well deserved cameo. He really, really should have had a higher profile.

                                          I think Armando Iannucci's the driving force behind getting this straight to BBC2

                                          The sketch interludes spoiled things but overall I enjoyed it. It is at least something slightly *different* to everything else that's on.

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                                            #22
                                            Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                            It will be interesting to see if, in a later show themed on the calibre of television programmes, he mentions the need to crowbar ill-conceived sketches and distracting split-screen techniques into stand-up routines.

                                            Ooh, get me. If I get any bitchier I will have to start posting on the Cook'd and Bomb'd forums.

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                                              #23
                                              Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                              I think the sketches were inserted, because z) he cant act, and y) because without it, BBC would have stuck him on Radio 4.

                                              I thought it was brilliant... the more he spoke about Asher D, the more uncomfortable I became. Genius.

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                                                #24
                                                Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                                The sketches were hit-and-miss - a couple of them felt forced, but equally a couple of them added a good punchline to points Lee had been making in the stand-up section.

                                                A couple of the jokes were dragged out - this usually works well when he's on stage with 60 minutes to play with, but in a 27-minute TV show it feels like a waste of valuable time - but overall I thought it was well worth watching. I'll certainly be making a point of watching the rest of the series, and that's something I rarely make the time to do anymore, modern telly being what it is.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                                  I think Armando Iannucci's the driving force behind getting this straight to BBC2
                                                  I imagine so - Iannucci's got an office at TV Centre and can, like 1970s West Yorkshire coppers, do what he wants.

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