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Carpet Remnant WorldCarpet Remnant World, Edinburgh ★★★★★

By Martin Walker in SG Fringe Posted on Monday, August 6th, 2012

Fresh from a hugely successful residency at the Leicester Square Theatre and on the back of the BBC commissioning a third and fourth series of his Comedy Vehicle show, Stewart Lee continues to ride this problematic wave of popularity. Finding himself evicted from his usual Edinburgh Fringe base at the Stand Comedy Club, for the more luxurious and much larger Assembly Rooms, Lee delivers a sublime seventy-five minutes of stand-up comedy.

Lee deconstructs his chosen art form, flawlessly parodying topical comedy, observational comedy, ‘dead comic’ comedy and the apparently endless emergence of ‘Russell Comedians’.

For those unfamiliar with his stage persona, it’s important to note that Lee doesn’t spoon-feed his audience ‘jokes’ but rather makes us think – encouraging the more astute to get to the punch line before he does.
He divides the room, rewarding his devoted fans while encouraging the newbies to keep up. ‘It’s not aimed at you,’ repeats the comedian as he berates his audience for missing an impossible call back, all the more funny because it was clear that by this point just about everybody knew exactly what he was doing.

Rather than hampering the show, playing to a much larger initially mixed-ability room works well for Lee. Indeed, by the end of what must be his best set to date, we’re all with him.

Over the last decade or so I have reviewed hundreds of comedy shows. This is the best stand up routine I have ever seen.

Written by Martin Walker in SG Fringe on 6th August 2012. Filed Under: Carpet Remnant World, Reviews
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