41st Best Standup Ever!
British Theatre Guide - August 2007
*****
You are dying to know - who are the top 40 comedians in the history of the world. Stewart Lee lets slip that Lenny Bruce is below him and Bernard Manning above but is there anyone pre-1950 or did we not have jokes before then?

Lee believes in biting off the hand that feeds him - right up to the elbow. Channel 4 ran a voting show to pick the Top 100 stand-ups at the turn of the year and rather than being grateful for beating the billions of potential competitors, Lee has a go at the process and more pertinently those behind it, who coincidentally sponsor the upturned cow in which he is performing.

So, is he that good? The style is far more laid back than many of his rivals, more like an occasionally loud, opinionated bloke that you might meet in the pub than a wild eyed nutter who you worry will knife you in the Gents before the night is out. That is not to suggest that all other stand-ups give that impression, just some of them.

Lee's 2007 set is heavily biased towards TV for source material. His quilt-making mum's devotion to Tom O'Connor is ridiculed at length, and the producers that commissioned a series and then dropped it might prefer not to attend. Even poor old Del Boy suffers.

The best and funniest of the material is saved for the later stages, when Lee gets on to the touchy subject of weight and allied issues of racism. Then, having explained the concept of the call-back to make his audience feel wise (go and see the show if you don't know what that is), he makes the most of it, tying up the loose ends well in an amusing finale.

This sell-out show proves that Lee is a good comedian who knows how to work a large audience and could even make the Top 40 next year. After this show, whether we will ever see him starring on his own TV show is another matter!

Philip Fisher