If you’ve never been to a stand-up gig, Stewart Lee is probably not the best place to start. But if you’ve recently been bitten by the comedy bug and yearn for something more considered than the McIntyre, Manford and Bishop brigade, Lee’s latest show, Vegetable Stew, is perfect. After two decades in the trenches this stocky late bloomer is at his most assured in a mind-expanding piece that unpicks the essence of what makes us chuckle. While, of course, making us chuckle.
Rumour had it that this set was as hard on Adrian Chiles as Lee’s last set was on Richard Hammond. In that show Lee imagined Hammond being decapitated. The mauling here is deceptively mellow, spiralling wonderfully off from a description of Chiles as a talking Toby Jug.
But catch it live because it may still not make it into his next BBC2 series due to guidelines prohibiting sustained personal attacks.
The languid style, complete with footnotes commenting on himself, risks becoming overdone but Lee clearly realises this, peppering proceedings with satirical songs, most effectively one about Russell Brand’s wedding (“Katy Perry’s ceremonial bedding”).
Elsewhere he delivered a pithy riff on his grandfather’s crisp fixation, served up a precise Swiftian assault on the celebrity charity game and deployed an illuminating anecdote about Oxford contemporary David Cameron.
To reveal more would puncture the punchline. Needless to say, Lee has the last laugh.
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