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How I Escaped My Certain FateDIVINE COMEDY

By Ed Bartlam in The Spectator Posted on Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Stewart Lee is a name that should be more widely known. In the sprawling genre of live comedy, of which Britain still boasts the finest variety, Lee is a man who cuts deeper than most. Both admired by his peers and adored by his audiences, he is the antidote to those Saturday night TV comics who shriek and squeal and pull funny faces.

How I Escaped My Certain Fate follows the highs and lows of a comedian’s life. For those who think that stand-up is merely a jumble of crowd-pleasing anecdotes, the book provides a fascinating insight into the detail and process by which a comedian goes about his work.

A lot is packed into these pages. Apart from the transcripts of three shows, and excellent accompanying notes, we also get Lee’s wide-eyed excitement at watching the pioneers Alexei Sayle, Arnold Brown and Andy de la Tour bash against the established forms of comedy in the late 1970s (‘upper-class Oxbridge satirical songs and working-class bow-tie-sporting racism’). We follow his rise in the 1990s, only to see his career stall as the audiences of the time demanded more rock and roll from their comedy. Lee’s still, monotone delivery left comedy clubs confused and cold: ‘I was boring the shit out of Friday night punters who just wanted to have some fun between work and the disco’. And then came the three shows that catapulted him to fame and success.

But illness took its toll, as he went on tour — ‘My diet from 1991-2004 consisted mainly of Diet Coke, beans on toast, crisps, Wheat Crunchies, margarine, lager and curry’ — and eventually hospitalised him. And when the BBC televised Jerry Springer: The Opera, of which Lee was co-creator, ‘shit hit the born-again Christian evangelist fan’. The uncomfortable but supremely confident finale of his 2005 show, ’90s Comedian, was a direct response to such animosity.

The transcripts reveal the dexterity with which Lee creates a show, while the notes indicate how he would deliver particular lines; but it’s still difficult to grasp the effect, even for one who saw all three performances and marvelled at them. Reading only the transcripts is like having one arm tied behind one’s back.

From the notes we learn how lines are formed and why they are placed where they are. When a comedian takes trouble even over the choice of intro music, as Lee does, one knows that there’s more going on than just telling jokes.

This is a must-read for hardened comedy fans, but it deserves a wider audience as well. It is informative, entertaining and fast-paced — and, most important of all, very funny.

Written by Ed Bartlam in The Spectator on 11th November 2010. Filed Under: Book, How I Escaped My Certain Fate, Reviews
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