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How I Escaped My Certain FateHow I Escaped My Certain Fate

By William Cook in The Independent Posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010

Stewart Lee always seemed a bit too clever to be a really successful stand-up comic. Even in his early twenties he came across as world-weary, with a seen-it-all-before persona that belied his baby-faced appearance. It was as if he could never quite forget the inherent absurdity of stand-up comedy – reciting a rehearsed monologue, pretending it was spontaneous, being paid to try and make a bunch of strangers laugh.

Less clever, more successful comics did their best to please their customers. They’d ditch routines that didn’t work. Lee did the opposite. If a gag was stiffing he’d spin it out rather than compressing it, taking a perverse pleasure in seeing how much he could infuriate his foes.

How I Escaped My Certain Fate charts Lee’s rise and fall and recent renaissance, from young wannabe to obscure cult to counter-cultural mini-icon. It’s a sort of autobiography, but really just as much a book about the way British comedy has changed. When Lee started out, a lot of stand-up was still performed by eccentrics like Ted Chippington, to whom Lee dedicates this book. However as Alternative Comedy became big business, Lee became increasingly uncomfortable and this unease was reflected in his work. Lee took a break from stand-up and co-wrote Jerry Springer – The Opera. After this lively sabbatical he returned to stand-up and this time things clicked.

The story of how Lee found an audience and found his voice would make a great self-help book, but Shakespeare probably said it best: above all, to thine own self be true. Lee decided to downsize. He started playing smaller rooms, building a devoted following who understood his work, rather than pandering to TV execs. When the TV offers came, they came on his own terms. Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, broadcast on BBC2 last year, was one of the few series that have captured the frenetic atmosphere of live stand-up.

The bulk of the book consists of transcriptions of three live shows. Lee annotates these transcripts with lengthy footnotes, so extensive that at times they almost eclipse the main text. Usually, such copious asides are the sign of a very bad book but Lee pulls it off, mainly because his notes are invariably insightful, and frequently very funny. There are a few bum notes. The various appendices dilute the book’s dramatic impact, and Lee’s shaggy dog story about vomiting into the mouth (and anus) of Jesus Christ reads as wretched, rather than daring. Yet as Lee says himself, “I don’t think stand-up should really work on the page, so the very existence of this book is an indication of my ultimate failure as a comedian.”

Written by William Cook in The Independent on 13th August 2010. Filed Under: Book, How I Escaped My Certain Fate, Reviews
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