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    #26
    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

    That irritating trailer had been shown so much leading up to this broadcast that by last night I wanted to punch his smug, self-satisfied face in.

    I laughed once (the some of Moyles' friends gag) but I turned off before the end.

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      #27
      Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

      I thought it was brave to start with a joke that I'd imagine most of his audience would know wasn't his. The Bill Hicks one book thing.

      It was almost like a little quotation at a chapter heading.

      I thought it was funny, he is fantastic at taking things to breaking point, the Chris moyles friends thing, Davina's recommendation and the rappers bit in particular.

      The only sketch that really worked was the William Tyndale one.

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        #28
        Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

        I rather enjoyed the presence of the gargoyle-faced Kevin Eldon and the sketch that really made me laugh was the Grange Hill drive-by.

        I thought his comedy was funny for the main part but probably works best live. Still, I shall watch next week.

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          #29
          Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

          I thought it was brave to start with a joke that I'd imagine most of his audience would know wasn't his. The Bill Hicks one book thing.
          I thought that was Simon Munnery's joke.

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            #30
            Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

            I couldn't remember a Hicks gag about celebrity biography (or similar) either.

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              #31
              Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

              I was tucked in bed, last night, listening to BBC7's repeat of Dead Ringers, when I suddenly remembered that Lee's show was on.

              It better be on iPlayer.

              That's a high-level d'oh! right there.

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                #32
                Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                Did we notice the following credit?

                "Script Editor - Christopher Morris"

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                  #33
                  Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                  should we?

                  Should we look at the credits to ascertain a programme's worthiness?

                  Fuck off horse.

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                    #34
                    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                    I loved it.

                    But - and I have to confess that this is why I think it won't appeal to a wide audience - is precisely because it hit all of my "bitter, smug, intellectual snob" buttons.

                    It would be the same to make fun of, I don't know, "people with 50" tellies in their front rooms are clearly chavs". Clearly and demonstrably they are , but pointing the fact out on a BBC channel where 90% of your audience probably are sat there in their branded logo casual wear watching you on a 50" telly, eating crisps out of a bowl, isn't going to endear you to a wide section of that audience.

                    Maybe there is a certain kind of comedy that needs to stay on BBC4, and leave the rest to Peter Kay.

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                      #35
                      Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                      gerontophile wrote:
                      Fuck off horse
                      Oo-er. Steady.

                      One thought did occur to me - they would have been better off interspersing the stand-up with clips of the interview with Armando Iannucci, and leaving the sketches for those half a dozen or so people who bothered to press their red buttons.

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                        #36
                        Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                        I know, sorry. Sorry 'horse'.

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                          #37
                          Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                          Well, Morris' involvement in a comedy programme would be of interest anyway, because of his tremendous track record. More so in this case, as Lee (and Herring) didn't work with Morris (and Armando Iannucci) after On The Hour in the early nineties, as they had some beef about writing credits.

                          I hadn't noticed the credit, so, er, thanks to Horse for pointing it out.

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                            #38
                            Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                            Harri Saer wrote:
                            Where was that Toby? I thought he'd packed live work in? Was it trad stand-up or his more usual style of act?
                            Apologies Harri, life and all that.

                            It was Saturday just gone, at Just The Tonic, Leicester Square Theatre. I think he must be trying to get back into stand up as a distraction from TV / Radio / Writing / Whatever. In any event, it was definitely a stand-up set, and very enjoyable it was too. Even if Rob Rouse and Will Smith blew him off stage (no, not like that).

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                              #39
                              Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                              Can never get past the insufferable smugness where Stewart Lee is concerned. Obviously quite an intelligent bloke and I remember him saying some insightful things about the changing face of television on some documentary a while back but I don't think he has ever made me laugh.

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                                #40
                                Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                I just watched this on the internets and I thought it was truly excellent. Having skimmed your comments before I got around to watching it, I'm more convinced than ever that you're all just weird when it comes to comedy.

                                None of the sketches were anywhere near overlong. He's been doing stand-up non-stop for most of the last 20 years, Toby. Rogin seems to think Lee does the same thing as Clarkson (who he deftly berates in this episode) when in fact they're poles apart.

                                I caught his gig by chance at the Latitude festival a couple of years ago, and one thing that occured to me then was that - on the surface - he seems to take a very long time to voice exactly the kind of sane skewerings that get knocked out on here. But it works due to his mastery of the stand-up form, his subtle but solid techique.

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                                  #41
                                  Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                  Lucia, I think Toby was talking about Dave Gorman.

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                                    #42
                                    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                    Oh right, carry on.

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                                      #43
                                      Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                      Got around to seeing this last night and found it hugely and unexpectedly enjoyable. I say 'unexpectedly' because I remember seeing Lee in a recorded one-hour stand-up a year or so ago and, while admiring the control and content of his material, found him a little to dry and relaxed for him to get me chuckling in any way (perhaps I was feeling different and less inclined to laugh that day).

                                      But the half-hour format suits him (and me) fine. Very watchable and laugh-out-loud at times with Lee's unforced delivery a quiet pleasure on this evidence - sometimes, a comedian doesn't have to have all verbal guns blazing to achieve the desired effect.

                                      Drawbacks? Well, I can see what they mean about the sketches. They're shoehorned in and detract from the appreciable tone of Lee's - for want of better phrase - intimate effectiveness. When he describes Clarkson's wretched literary ouevre and a panel appears top left, it illustrates matters a bit better than shovelling in great wodges of hit-and-miss skits.

                                      Apart from 'rappers...Top of the Pops...shopping malls.....rap...you've seen 'em on Top of the Pops..rappers' which meandered a bit and had me wondering where it was all going, I enjoyed it hugely and look forward to next week's show.

                                      And - added bonus - Father Stone from Father Ted turned up dressed as a ram. Sorted!

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                                        #44
                                        Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                        My recent use of twitter has resulted in discovering that Dave Gorman is indeed doing stand up again. In one of the more mental tour schedules ever conceived, he's cycling from the most southerly point in Britain, to the most Easterly, The Most Westerly and then to the most northerly and doing a gig every single night on the way.

                                        I've got a ticket for one of the first few shows (night 3 I think) in Taunton where hopefully he won't have injured himself too badly and have had to cancel the tour.

                                        I wouldn't want to have to insure the deposit for the later shows though!

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                                          #45
                                          Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                          Sounds like a punishing schedule. If it takes in all of Great Britain then I assume the East to West section will take him to somewhere in Western Fermanagh, and from there up to the Northernmost Isle in Shetland.
                                          Or is he taking the sensible option and sticking to mainland United Kingdom only.

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                                            #46
                                            Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                            wow that sounds great...he should write a book about all the hilarious mishaps that befall him and characters he meets during his crazee tour experience. Oh hold on...

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                                              #47
                                              Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                              yeah ok, it's the UK:

                                              http://www.davegorman.com/livedates.html#dateslivea

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                                                #48
                                                Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                                Lucia Lanigan wrote:
                                                I just watched this on the internets and I thought it was truly excellent. Having skimmed your comments before I got around to watching it, I'm more convinced than ever that you're all just weird when it comes to comedy.
                                                Er, haven't most people also enjoyed it?

                                                None of the sketches were anywhere near overlong.
                                                I think the criticism was that they were underfunny, especially in contrast to the stand-up material.

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                                                  #49
                                                  Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                                  So, I just saw the Stewart Lee thing, and I thought it was very good.

                                                  I had some obstacles to get past. First of all, I never liked Lee & Herring in the 90s. Self-satisfied student shite. Secondly I don't like his face. He's got these bloated piggy eyes that give him a permanently smug expression, whether intended or not.

                                                  Also, I have issues with how studied his style is these days. Literally. I mean, that slow-burn thing he does, turning his back to the audience like he's got all the time in the world, is pure Bill Hicks, and you just know he's watched Relentless a hundred times to get the mannerisms down. And also, his carefully-rumpled suit. As soon as it comes back from the dry cleaners, he so obviously jumps up and down on it a few times to get that perfect 'Rat Packer after half a bottle of scotch' look. When he started going grey at the temples, you just know he punched the air: hey presto, instant gravitas!

                                                  So, yeah, he loves himself just a little bit, prowling the stage with the cockiness of an old master. But, I've got to hand it to him: whether by honing his craft while I wasn't looking, or nicking other people's chops, he's got the skills now.

                                                  The build-up to the first proper laugh-out-loud ("buttock-clenchingly honest") took about five minutes, but it was worth the wait. The next one ("This book isn't aimed at me") took almost as long. The pre-amble to that, the whole "You know the 'rap singers', you've seen them on Top Of The Pops" bit, was pure Harry Hill, of course (the broken-robot repetition of a handful of phrases), but very nicely done, and a stunningly accurate replication of the sort of fifth-rate comedians I used to see in Barry Island Butlin's in the early 80s.

                                                  Oh, and the way he slaughtered Radio 4 comedy was exquisite. Oh and I liked the Grange Hill sausage-on-a-fork visual gag too.

                                                  One bit that didn't work so well was the Paddy McGinty's Goat sketch. Went on too long, and wasn't particularly funny in the first place. (The guy dressed up in the goat suit - what's he been in? It's doing my head in.)

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                                                    #50
                                                    Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

                                                    Just read back 6 posts

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