Carpet Remnant World was said to be about idealised notions of society.
As the comic introduced the show, he mocked his own comedy style: “I say one thing for comedy effect. I make a factual bold statement then mean the opposite. I will do this five or six times then talk about something for too long at the end.”
For anyone who has seen him before, this is an amusing summary of what he is like on stage – although it is done in an extremely clever and witty manner.
His impression of a comic doing some anti-Islamic comedy – which he is told he should do by some members of the public – was hilarious, with some Michael McIntyre-style running around the stage; a hand on the forehead looking out to the crowd; and repeatedly moving the mic stand around – all sights regularly seen on current stand-up shows.
Talking about the host city, Lee described Wolverhampton as a cross between a medieval town and east Germany: “Normally there are planning permissions in cities, but this seems like a free for all.”
Explaining the first half of the show, 44-year-old Lee said he now spends his time driving around on tour and looking after his children – always seeking out The Works bookstores.
Playing in front of a backdrop of rolled-up carpets, Lee explained how he was finding it “hard to work the room” as the crowd were not all laughing together.
As the room filled with “pockets of laughter”, Lee explained why people were laughing at some jokes to those who may not have got it.
Speaking of his progression from the former Little Civic to the present venue, he said: “It’s frustrating; it was 2004 when I was first booked in Wolverhampton. It was a little place and then I moved downstairs. We could have fit the people here tonight into the room downstairs without the stragglers. But you can’t stop people coming in…
“You can feel there is a brilliant gig in here, it’s so nearly perfect. I wish I was dead. I wish I was a dead comedian. Bill Hicks is judged on two hours of material, it’s easy to be a dead comedian. It’s hard to knock out two hours every year, adding to your ever-diminishing obituary.”
He added that the show would not receive a five-star review, blaming it on the audience – “three-star maybe, but it’ll be two-star because of people’s laziness”.
As Lee was supposedly forced to end the first half on a different joke to what it should have been (a more high-brow gag that didn’t get the laughs he expected, as opposed to his wife asking him if he had soiled himself after seeing he had bought some new pants); the comedian told fans that they got the end of the half first they deserved.
“I’m not proud of getting a laugh out of ‘shit yourself'”.
As a father who sits around watching Scooby Doo with his son, Lee used parts of the cartoon to explain how Margaret Thatcher was a “jungle canyon rope bridge snatcher”.
Harking back to the 80s, Lee told the audience that both Thatcher and Scooby Doo were on a list of the top 10 cliches to do jokes about, written with his former comedy partner Richard Herring.
(“If you don’t know who Richard Herring is, why are you here?” he shouted.)
As Lee continued to satirise some of his fellow comedians (especially all of the Russells), he said that after a 25-year career he looked for inspiration in the form of shop names (“something to get five minutes out of”). His lengthy descriptions of a literal Office World manned by a person made entirely from old-fashioned stationery was one of the highlights of the night, along with his Brummie accent during the Meat City description.
Picking on one of the current batch of Russells, Lee lambasted the fact that Russell Kane had won an award for a show about the death of his father.
Lee, the co-writer of Jerry Springer The Opera, noted a trend in making comedy shows full of sadness.
In a rant further directed at Kane, he ordered: “Fuck off, shut up and give your award back! “All our Dads are dead. If you’re crying at the end of a comedy show, they haven’t done their job properly. I could do a sad show! I’m an orphan and 65,000 Christians wanted to kill me!”
Following on from his latest Comedy Vehicle series aired on the BBC, Lee begrudged the fact that half a million people now mistake him for somebody else. The latest list of his lookalikes includes Kim Jong-il and Serbian warlord General Ratko Mladic.
Lee concluded by reinforcing his hatred of all social media like Twitter, saying that the only good thing about it would be the possibility of using it to piece his life back together if he ever had a nervous breakdown.
“It’s staffed by gullible volunteers, I feel insane and paranoid,” he added.
Backed by some jazz music and a change in light, the comic went on to read some downright funny yet awful internet insults about himself.
Although Lee continually claimed to have no structure or indeed any jokes on this tour, it proved to be yet another cleverly constructed performance full of laughter.
Fans were also treated to autographs at the end, as he ran out to the front of the venue to sell his own merchandise.
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Sam Rooney, Youtube
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Maninabananasuit, Guardian.co.uk
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BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
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Guest, Dontstartmeoff.com
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Anon, westhamonline.com
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Patrick Kavanagh, Guardian.co.uk
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Lee Mack, Mack The Life, 2012