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A Room With A StewRoom With A Stew, Birmingham Symphony Hall

By Jordan Harris in NativeMonster Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2015

It may have been something of a homecoming for Stewart Lee but that didn’t save a sold out Birmingham crowd from his wrath.
Throughout the course of latest show, titled A Room With a Stew, the Wellington-born stand up didn’t hold back from giving the crowd a piece of his mind.

He is happy for his ‘real’ fans to come along, those who saw him playing in the clubs around Birmingham in the 90s, however he doesn’t appreciate the stragglers who have surfaced in the wake of his succesful BBC series, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle.

At least that is what he wants you to think.

It is hard to begrudge Lee his new found, semi mainstream success, even if he seems to be fighting against it.

After years and years of perfecting his craft as an alternative comedian, it seems the wider world is now ready to indulge themselves in his unique stylings, described once upon a time as ‘doing everything but actually telling a joke’.Room With a Stew as a show is a unique concept in the days of social media, where Lee has specifically dedicated over a year to road-testing material for the fourth series of Comedy Vehicle.
As such, the content is a little disjointed, a series of half hour ‘bits’ rather than a 90-minute narrative, such as his fantastic ‘Carpet Remnant World’ or the now legendary ’90s Comedian’ shows.

Even in a slightly scattered show like this, Lee’s in depth knowledge of his own material is staggering, enabling him to harangue the audience for not laughing in the right places, which is ultimately the source of his annoyance.>He also rallies against the younger generation of stand ups, such as Russell Howard, with acidic put downs scattered throughout.

The important thing to remember is that the person on stage isn’t the same Stewart Lee who would make his children breakfast in the morning or go out for a meal with friends, rather a character designed to tackle his new found success while keeping hold of his alternative roots.

Whether there is genuinely a part of him that doesn’t want this ‘new’ audience to come along to his shows is doubtful, his sincere rendition of an old folk song to close the night proving that there is plenty of trust in the room.

It may be the case that next time around, there will be even more stragglers coming along, because Room With A Stew contains enough gems and classic Stewart Lee style comedy that all the signs point towards series four of Comedy Vehicle taking him higher up the stand up rankings.

Written by Jordan Harris in NativeMonster on 4th May 2015. Filed Under: A Room With A Stew, Reviews, Series 4, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
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