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Stewart Lee vs The Man-WulfStewart Lee review — hail the most stimulating stand-up of the 21st century

In his high-concept new show, the comedian dons three personae — a liberal lefty, an American shock comic and a liberal shock-comic — and a £6,000 werewolf costume

By Dominic Maxwell in The Times Posted on Friday, February 7th, 2025
Stewart Lee review — hail the most stimulating stand-up of the 21st century

“I’m sick of the two waves of laughter,” Stewart Lee chides as his gag-heavy material proves multilayered enough to both tickle and puzzle his crowd.
“Tighten it up.”

I bet he says that to all the audiences. No, really, I do.
What remains most joyous about Lee, and what remains one of the greatest joys in all comedy, is his power to make each evening feel like a special kind of letdown only we have been privy to. Is Thursday at the Oxford Playhouse really the worst night of the tour? Is he really running ten minutes short because the people in the front row he asks questions of have given him so little to work with? Has an unrepentant latecomer really ruined his routine?

He keeps finding ways to spark with the moment, even as he presents his most high-concept tour. Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf is designed as a corrective to the brash Netflix “hate comics” who suposedly woke-bash their way to million dollar deals.
He suggests that it’s a short step from Ricky Gervais’s contentious current quips to Donald Trump ruling the world and so sets out to present the same ideas from three perspectives and three personas. He is his ageing liberal-leftist self for the first half. Then he is the growly American shock comic Man-Wulf, wearing a huge £6.000 costume whose cumbersomeness provides about half the routine’s laughs. Then an in-between state: a liberal shock-comic, to test if such a thing is possible. Quick Dylan parody, gular in hand, and we’re done.

And its a delight. Im not sure the central conceit quite clicks, and he suggests as much too. Do audiences care all that much about the rise of a comedy counterpoint to the liberal-leftisms that have captured cultural clout, if not always political power, this decade? Yet it gives him impetus, and he never pursues an idea past its ability to amuse.

I laughed a lot at his clever ideas, his mean ideas, his silly ideas, his ability to smush the three together. “There’s lots of jokes, don’t worry about that,” he offers accurately at the start, going on to find the fun in Liam Neeson films. Baby Reindeer ancient monuments. fame, masculinity, ageing, Russell Brand, Gregg Wallace and Michael Mcintyre.

‘The first half 1s Lee at his fast-pivoting best. The costumes and personas of the second half slow him, physically and comedically, but he’s never less than enjoyable.
Does it work on two levels? Three? Thirteen? Best just to enjoy the bumpy ride from the most consistently stimulating stand-up comedian of the 21st Century.

Written by Dominic Maxwell in The Times on 7th February 2025. Filed Under: 2025, Reviews, STEWART LEE VS THE MAN-WULF
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