41st Best Standup Ever!
Stewart Lee
Udderbelly
Brian Logan
Monday August 6, 2007
The Guardian
*****
Other comics must envy Stewart Lee, and not just because he is officially the 41st best stand-up comedian ever (according to a recent poll). While others need to write enough new jokes to fill an hour, Lee writes just half a dozen, then repeats them over and over again until an hour is passed. That we don't (very often) feel cheated and do laugh, a lot, is testament to Lee's comedy virtuosity. This isn't so much stand-up as a game of chicken, in which Lee looks the audience in the whites of their eyes, and works a single joke - and works it, and works it - and will never be the one to blink first.

This year's set steps back from the Christian-baiting agenda of his now legendary 1990s Comedian show. It's built around his musings on being named 41st best, while being told by his mum that he's not as funny as the comedian and "seafaring Scouse groundhog" Tom O'Connor. There are still pointed political asides, including a story about a brush with Muslim sensitivities while visiting Weight Watchers, which turns into a sardonic defence of political correctness. And a recap of the Big Brother racism row, which cuts Russell Brand and Carphone Warehouse down to size, and protests at the inability of television to deal with 'beauty, truth or thought in any form'.
But the moments that dictate your response to Lee's show are those in which he bashes you about the head repeatedly, forensically and painstakingly with a single punchline. Thus does he ludicrously overblow his disgust (at the public's choice of funniest TV moment of all time) or his mum's incredulity at Tom O'Connor's quickness of wit. I find myself desperate for him to move on, while laughing at his refusal to do so. The jokes-per-minute strike rate may be low, but if quality not quantity is your guide, Lee proves himself, once again, to be the maestro.

· Until August 27. Box office: 0870 745 3083.