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Vegetable StewComplex Stew is one to savour

By Fraser Marshall. in This is Leicestershire.co.uk Posted on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Stewart Lee was at the Curve to present Vegetable Stew; material intended for his forthcoming Comedy Vehicle TV show.

In his book, How I Escaped My Certain Fate, Lee admitted he enjoys losing an audience and attempting to win it back, which made it difficult to tell if Sunday’s performance was deliberately evasive.
Lee’s understanding of the art of stand-up was evident all through, with numerous asides for meta-observations about the nature of the routine.
On occasion, he would stop the flow to comment on some seemingly unplanned thing he’d said or done.
It then became apparent how carefully planned Lee’s comedy was.

He relied on the audience being sufficiently familiar with stand-up to understand when its conventions were being subverted, and for the most part, they were with him.
The middle of the show elicited less audience approval, concerning satirical observations about Adrian Chiles and Gary Lineker.

By the time he was making accusations that comedian Russell Howard was responsible for deaths in the developing world, the crowd weren’t so sure the targets deserved it.
He pulled everyone back for a confessional tale about his involvement with the elitist Bullingdon Club at Oxford University, before defiantly derailing it at the close.

Lee deserved his plaudits for daring to challenge his audience and they in turn recognised a masterclass when they got it.

Written by Fraser Marshall. in This is Leicestershire.co.uk on 19th October 2010. Filed Under: Reviews, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, Vegetable Stew
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