TICKETS ARE ON SALE TOMORROW, JUNE 10TH VIA THE STAND, EDINBURGH 0131 558 7272 www.thestand.co.uk FOR

1)IF YOU PREFER A MILDER COMEDIAN, PLEASE ASK FOR ONE

is the title of the new live stand-up show. It will be run in at The Stand, Edinburgh, Weds 5th Aug – Sunday 30th Aug, not 17th, 7.45, £10. Then it will tour England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and there’ll be some kind of London run in December/Jan. Tickets for The Stand run go on sale on June 10th. This is a relatively small room. Work in progress, towards a new touring show, from the comedian currently fashionable amongst broadsheet newspaper critics due to his BBC2 series Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle.Stew says, “In this show, an account of something that happened to me in a coffee shop will be used as a convenient framing device for disparate material possibly concerning English Heritage, Top Gear, The Olympics, emigration, prawns, Bella Pasta, The National Trust, farmers, DH Lawrence, piglets, cathedrals, bees, Iggy Pop, cider adverts, riots etc etc.”As usual, expect …

1) Some punchy stuff near the top
2) inexplicable hostility towards relatively innocuous figures
3) silences
4) repetition
5) sudden and/or gradual shifts in tone, velocity and volume
6) long routines experimenting with form rather than content
7) the possibility of failure
8) a quasi-serious bit at the end.

2009 is the 22nd fringe appearance by this obtuse man.“Lee destroys his topics with the precision, relentlessness and brutality of a medieval torturer; repeatedly and meticulously attacking the same small point until it becomes weakened to the point of collapse. Shorter jokes would be funnier, but nowhere near as transfixing, as the audience are compelled to see just how far he dare push it, and left to marvel at the man’s sheer audacity. There’s some tension as to whether it will work or not, and occasionally it doesn’t.” – Steve Bennett, Chortle“Apparently ill at ease with both speech and movement, Lee’s presence creates a kind of negative energy, a black hole of vacancy, pregnant with lack of meaning.” – Tim Out, Time Out London“His whole tone is one of complete, smug condescension” – Roz Laws, Birmingham Sunday Mercury“I thought, ‘I’m funnier than Stewart Lee. If he can do it, I can’.” Al Murray, The Times

2)WHAT WOULD JUDAS DO? Audio cd

There’s a set of three audio cds, documenting my 2007 theatre piece What Would Judas Do?, newly available for £10 from the wonderful Go Faster Stripe.
The sound quality is lo-fi and this wasn’t a comedy show as such, but I am sure you will be delighted by the package.
www.gofasterstripe.com

3) 41st BEST STAND-UP EVER Audio cd

The 41st Best Stand-Up Ever set is newly available as an audio cd. If you’re one of the 20 000 + people who illegally downloaded the DVD of this show from torrent sites, as opposed to one of the 4000 or so that bought it, perhaps you’d like to buy this as a way of helping Real Talent to recoup their costs. Thieves!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stewart-Lee-41st-Best-Stand/dp/B001VGANHM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1240839130&sr=1-1

4) LONDON CIRCUIT LIVE DATES

June

Tuesday 9th June – King’s Head, Crouch End, LONDON. Edinburgh preview.
Tuesday 16th June – 15 mins at Soho theatre gig at HMS President, Embankment, Blackfriars, LONDON
Saturday 20th June – Cardboard Citizens, benefit at Hackney Empire, LONDON – MORE BUMS ON SEATS
£18.50 | Doors 7.30pm, 8pm start Hackney Empire E8 1EJ Box office 020 8985 2424 www.hackneyempire.co.uk
An evening of stand-up comedy with Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Simon Amstell, Brendon Burns and Josie Long, with all proceeds to Cardboard Citizens, the UK’s only homeless people’s professional theatre company.

July

July 2nd The Boat Show West Ken (our tagline – ‘It’s not on a boat, but it is in West Ken’) It’s in the Famous Three Kings – literally next to West Ken Tube. London. Short set.
Friday 3rd July – dbl bill w Bridget Christie at Jane Bom Bayne’s, BRIGHTON, Edinburgh preview
Sat 4th July – Chuckle Club, LSE, London, Edinburgh Preview
Sun 5th July – Balowski Arts Club, Monto Water Rats Theatre, London (30 minute preview followed by full previews by Richard Herring and Gerry Howell)
Thurs 9th July – some benefit, Cross Kings, Kings Cross, LONDON
Sat 11th July – Just The Tonic, LONDON
Sun 12th July – Balowski Arts Club, Monto Water Rats Theatre, London (30 minute preview followed by full previews by Phil Nichol & Pappy’s Fun Club)
Weds 15th July – Knock2Bag, Sherpherd’s Bush, LONDON
Fri 17th July – Bush Hall, Shepherd’s Bush,LONDON + some other good people
Sat 18th July – Falling Down W Laughter, LONDON somewhere.
Edinburgh Preview
Sun 19th July – Balowski Arts Club, Monto Water Rats Theatre, London
(30 minute preview followed by full previews by Stephen K Amos & Tim Key)
Mon 20th July – Tattershall Castle, LONDON
Sun 26th July – Balowski Arts Club, Monto Water Rats Theatre, London
(full preview followed by full previews by special guests)

If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One…
is the title of the new live stand-up show. It will be run in at The Stand, Edinburgh, Weds 5th Aug – Sunday 30th Aug, not 17th, 7.45, £10. Then it will tour England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and there’ll be some kind of London run in December/Jan.

5) STEWART LEE’S COMEDY VEHICLE

Thank-you for watching this show, if you did. Figs were 1.25 million by the end, building over the series, which apparently is perfectly acceptable these days, and critical reaction was very good. People have been nice about it in pubs and in the street. I have to go to meetings soon to see if there can be a second series.
There is a dvd available on September 7th, with 1 ½ hrs of extra stuff etc.