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Content Provider (The Show)Stewart Lee divides and conquers at the Philharmonic

Stand-up trains his sights on rival comedians, the audience - and himself

By Tom Evans in Liverpool Echo Posted on Saturday, September 16th, 2017

“CONTENT PROVIDER” reads the backdrop on the Philharmonic stage, behind a set made of just that – content.

Specifically, piles of other stand-up comics’ DVDs, which Stewart Lee bought online for 1p each, during the bouts of insomnia brought on by the nightly exertions of his sweaty, energetic on-stage persona.

The piles – of Russell Howard and Lee Mack and Michael MacIntyre and Jack Whitehall and Rob Beckett and Greg Davies and who knows who else – are like Chekhov’s gun. The ancient rule of drama states that if you see a gun on stage, you know it will be fired by the end of the play; once you see Lee’s piles of Mock The Week’s finest, you know at some point in the evening he’s going to kick them over and stamp on them, swearing and sweating pure distilled impotent rage.

He does so just after the midpoint of the first act, when the stage lights turn blue to wash out the words “CONTENT PROVIDER”, at the exact moment Lee casually drops into the conversation the BBC’s decision to axe his award-winning Comedy Vehicle. The moment signals a tightening of the set after a fun but slightly chaotic intro. He’s not written any material about Brexit, he tells us, before an opening half-hour almost entirely about Brexit. It’s met with warm applause, in a place Lee describes as one of the “shining citadels” of Remain voters.

But he – or rather, his stage self – is not happy with us, especially those of us who’ve brought friends along who don’t really get him. It’s nothing new for those familiar with Lee’s schtick, but it takes on an added pertinence as his routine about the difficulty of making successful comedy in a divided country ends with him dividing the audience into proper fans and their interloping friends.

Throughout Content Provider, division – discontent, in fact – is a running theme. He’s up there, we’re down here; he’s the wanderer, we are the sea of fog. “If this doesn’t go well tonight, the fault isn’t on this side of the stage,” he chides.

He does a bit, and we laugh, and he tells us we didn’t laugh at the right time, or loud enough. This is classic Lee – and will have sounded a lot fresher to the newbies he claims to despise. He may pretend that the stand-up comic’s dream gig is “a sold-out theatre of empty seats”, but we all know better.

 In fact, despite the seething contempt which he’s made his trademark – contempt for us, for himself, for Russell Howard in particular – there’s a warmth to Lee that doesn’t come across on TV. This comes across more in a slower second act, in which he bemoans today’s “everything now” culture – while casting a cheeky sideswipe at misty-eyed romanticism for a past that never existed. More division – but it’s handled expertly, with a genuine love for the craft of comedy.

You’re left with the impression that however much Stage Stew claims to despise us, Real Stew will always have a soft spot for his audience – as he exits the stage not to the side, but by diving into the fog. Into us.

He looks almost content.

Written by Tom Evans in Liverpool Echo on 16th September 2017. Filed Under: Content Provider (Show), Reviews
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