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Stewart Lee vs The Man-WulfStewart Lee vs The Man-Wolf at the Brighton Dome

By Steve Holloway in Brighton Argus Posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2025

Stewart Lee is head and shoulders above any contemporary UK comedian – even without the mahoosive werewolf costume he’s wearing for his latest tour – Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf.

The evergreen self-proclaimed liberal elitist comic and purveyor of “punishing experimental stand up” is back on familiar ground with a five-night run at The Dome in Brighton, throughout the week until and including Saturday night (November 15).

As always the on-stage persona is aloof and near misanthropic.

This time around he’s musing on the moral restrictions of being a lesser-spotted left-leaning comedian, hemmed in by such unfashionable considerations of being fair and reasonable.

He wonders how it would be to be a right-wing comedian, unencumbered by such considerations (“having a go at everyone”) and raking in the big-bucks from hate-heavy Netflix specials.

The resulting exercise of “letting the monster out” sees Lee transform into the baying Man-Wulf, bristling with reactionary energy, prowling the dry-ice covered stage, and barking out Bill Burr-isms in a surprisingly consistent NY accent.

It’s brilliant stuff which makes you wonder how we’ve got to this point and whether the normalisation of alpha male aggression in the mainstream is a symptom of these volatile times, or making things an awful lot worse.

Along the way there’s plenty of familiar tropes for Lee’s adoring “Guardian-reading” fans to smugly revel in – the mock criticisms of the crowd (“Don’t come and see me if you don’t know what’s going on, and agree with everything I think”) unflattering comparisons to other celebs, and, as always, deconstructing the art of stand-up (“Blah blah blah that’s how jokes work”).

Less familiar was the crowd work, albeit asking audience members about their favourite ancient UK monuments (not a standard stand-up ice-breaker), and the opportunity for some physical comedy brought by wearing a huge furry werewolf outfit.

After 37 years of stand up Lee is still challenging himself and his audiences with a complete avoidance of cheap laughs and sixth-form politics.

Instead there’s a return visit to Russell Brand, swipes at targets as varied as Taskmaster contestants, Gregg Wallace and “influencers from the internet”, and a wonderful recurring theme of fighting bigotry with grammar pedantry…

At the time of writing there were still tickets left for all of the remaining shows at the Dome. Buy a ticket and hopefully he’ll stay for a month next time around.

Written by Steve Holloway in Brighton Argus on 13th November 2025. Filed Under: 2025, Reviews, STEWART LEE VS THE MAN-WULF
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