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SNOWFLAKE/TORNADORicky Gervais and Phoebe Waller-Bridge get it in the neck ★★★★★

The comedian is on marvellous form in this double header, in which he takes a deep-dive into the post-PC age

By Veronica Lee in i News Posted on Friday, January 3rd, 2020

Stewart Lee is on marvellous form with this double header. The first hour, Tornado, opens with Lee reading out the wrong blurb that a previous show of his, Comedy Vehicle, was given on Netflix. It actually describes the B-movie Sharknado, in which sharks fall from the sky. The joke is teased out through the hour, as Lee chisels away at a favourite subject in his work – his perceived standing in comedy. Both the film and Lee’s stand-up are so surreal, though, would anyone tuning in on Netflix have actually noticed the difference?

The mention of Netflix also allows Lee to ruminate on what he sees as the disparity between talent and commercial worth. Of course Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr are targets, but there are others, too. A set piece about US comic Dave Chappelle moves from a description of an unremarkable meeting between the pair at Leicester Square Theatre to something altogether stranger, as Lee imagines a scary chase through the streets of Soho. And this being Lee, he also manages to weave a fine Brexit joke into the telling of the tale.

In the second hour, Snowflake, it’s Tony Parsons, Ricky Gervais (again) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge who get it in the neck. The first is demolished in a gloriously pedantic essay on grammar. Gervais is parodied for “saying the unsayable” in a lengthy riff that has no actual words in it, and Waller-Bridge is ridiculed for her “discovery” of addressing the audience directly. To be fair to the Fleabag creator, she never claims this, but Lee neatly deconstructs the status bestowed on her as he acts out how everything, from Shakespeare to weather forecasts, may have looked had others not had the same lightbulb moment.

There’s so much comedy packed into the two hours that one could almost miss the deeper layers of Lee’s material. But it’s there, in the seemingly throwaway lines, as Lee makes a deep dive into the post-PC age, and what those of a liberal bent are to make of it. He never quite reaches a conclusion, preferring to let the audience confront their own prejudices.

While the Stewart Lee trademarks – the sarcasm, the surreal invention, the faux self-regard – are very much present, he also introduces new elements to his performance: a playful physicality and literary spoofs. Despite one section on Alan Bennett slightly outstaying its welcome, Lee remains on top form.

Written by Veronica Lee in i News on 3rd January 2020. Filed Under: Reviews, Snowflake/Tornado
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