Comedy review: Stewart Lee, Leicester Square Theatre, London ★★★★ - December 2019 The Sunday Times - By Stephen Armstrong - December 1st, 2019

Stewart Lee’s previous stand-up show, Content Provider, is one of my top 10 sets of all time. His follow-up, Tornado/Snowflake, lumbers a little under the weight of expectation, but it’s an enviable load to carry. This is ostensibly two shows divided by an interval, but the distinction between them is a little blurred. Both spend…

FROM THE METRO-LIB-ELITE DESK OF Stewart Lee deck 2019 - November 2019 November 20th, 2019

“If you had to kill Stewart Lee how would you do it? Stab his eyes out? Shotgun to the knees? Brain with heavy object?” Xpijonipsy, Twitter, 16/10/19, since removed “I’ve found it hard to get this article in print. One editor explained reluctance to publish on the grounds that the newspaper’s political team had cultivated…

Leicester Square Theatre review – snark to Sharknado - November 2019 The Arts Desk - By Veronica Lee - November 19th, 2019

Stewart Lee is back on the road after three years, and he comes back wonderfully refreshed and on marvellous form with this double header, Tornado/Snowflake. Tornado, the first hour, starts with Lee reading out the wrong blurb that his show Comedy Vehicle was given on Netflix. It actually describes the B-movie Sharknado, in which sharks…

Review – Stewart Lee, Snowflake/Tornado ★★★ ½ - November 2019 London Is Funny - By Paul Fleckney - November 8th, 2019

For a little while now, Stewart Lee has been drifting in and out of relevance, veering between revered godfather of British standup, and largely ignored godfather of British standup. Time was that young comics would pore over his Comedy Vehicle programme as a lodestar of how to become successful without compromise, which is exactly what…

Snowflake/Tornado ★★★★ - November 2019 Chortle - By Steve Bennett - November 8th, 2019

The notion of status has always been crucial to Stewart Lee’s stand-up, whether it be his place in the world or how he interacts with his audience. Anyone who’s read the annotated transcripts of his shows knows the attention he pays to subtly ensuring he is always on the back foot. Despite critical acclaim and…

Sharknado meets Alan Bennett in a virtuoso show ★★★★ - November 2019 The Telegraph - By Tristram Fane Saunders - November 8th, 2019

“I don’t really have any friends who are comedians,” Stewart Lee sighs, mock-pitifully, in his superb new show Snowflake/Tornado. It’s easy to see why. One of the few taboos in stand-up comedy is stand-up itself. Most comics shy away from discussing their peers onstage, but not Lee. Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Josh Widdicombe are…