Stewart Lee is my favourite comedian. He’s intelligent, belligerent, difficult, hilarious, obssessed with language, and very, very funny. You might know him from his four BBC series, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle.
This book, on the face of it, compiles the transcripts of three of his shows, “Stand-Up Comedian”, “90s Comedian” and “41st Best Stand-Up Ever”, with lots of annotations and footnotes, however, this description doesn’t really do the book justice.
This is the one of the best books on comedy I’ve ever read. He dissects and lifts the mask on crafting comedy. He also talks about the real-life and on-stage Stewart Lee, and the differences between them and his work is so meta, its unreal. His technical craft: use of repetition, callbacks, even creating tension between segments of the audience, or between his character and the audience, are fascinating. Seriously, if you love comedy, or have ever thought about performing, this strikes me as essential.
I would’ve thought that reading a transcript of shows I know really well might be boring but the way he talks about them, dissects them, even points out where they didn’t quite work, or what his intentions were, is a fascinating behind the scenes look at one of the most singular, brightest and best comedians working today.
Following this is his “If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One EP” short book, taking the same approach to that show, and eventually (hopefully, it’s been announced and the dates changed ten million times, but given that the tv series is finished, I cannot wait for an annotated version of TV Comedian! – are you listening Faber?)
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You can reserve a copy online at South Dublin Libraries’ catalogue here.
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