Profile: Stewart Lee

I love comedy. Stand up comedy to be precise. Ever since a young age I've enjoyed the ability to make people laugh. That's not me being arrogant in the sense of "I'm a funny geezer I'am" - I have to work bloody hard to get a laugh sometimes - but I feel the best human emotion is laughter. I can somewhat be claimed as a stand up comic myself - having done gigs in the South Wales area since January and even rolling on a World Tour consisting of one date at the 'Holly Bush' pub in Cradley Heath, near Birmingham*.

Whenever I say this the ineivitable question is always 'Whose your favourite stand up?' Whenever I see this question asked to anyone else I usually hear the same answers of either Michael McIntyre, Russell Howard or Frankie Boyle.

I always say Stewart Lee.

If you just read that, looked at the above picture of Mr Lee and responded 'Who?' - don't worry. I would be more surprised if you had heard of him.

Stewart Lee has been recognised as a stand up comedian since early nineteen ninties. His most notable early work was in the double act 'Lee and Herring' with contemporary Richard Herring. Together they made the show's "Fist of Fun" and "The Richard and not Judy Show". This ran for nearly a decade until it was cancelled and Lee entered a wilderness from the mainstream. He even at one point quit stand up altogether, admitting he had become heavily disillusioned. His name once again cropped up in the controversal 'Jerry Springer: The Musical' which he wrote along with the composer Richard Thomas. After this he returned to stand up with critical acclaim, once again returning to television with "Stewart Lee's  Comedy Vechile".

That's his backstory - so why do I enjoy him so much?

Lee prides himself on being an 'alternative stand up'. To put this simply whereas today the stand up market is led by the observational, non-offensive, famiy man comics such as Michael McIntyre, John Bishop and (admittenly to a lesser extent these days) Peter Kay. Lee goes against this mold. Wikipedia says his act "features frequent use of repetition, call-backs, nonchalant delivery and deconstruction".

I personally love Lee's ability to tell a story in his shows without being so directly blunt about it. For example in "If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One" Lee comtemplates on turning 41 when Frankie Boyle in an interview claimed all stand up's should quit when they reach 40 due to a lack of anger. I could go into detail explaining how Lee deconstructs this and the current stand up scene's choice of unimportant subjects for comedy but I want to show this clip which is from the end of the show which shows its brilliance:

I think my main respect for Lee and comics like him** is that they view comedy as an art form. I'm not a snob in terms of my interest and I do like the McIntyre/Bishop style of comedian however in these days where stand up is being called 'the new rock and roll' it's worrying times. I can't seem to find any heart in arena comedy. I've been to three gigs in the Cardiff International Arena back home and came back feeling very empty. The vast size of the area makes it hard for the audience to feel any connection to the performer making him or she to feel more like a dictator at a rally. Plus observational comedy whilst at it's best can be clever and enlightning  but at it's worst can lead to a lazy performer. Lee's manner of portraying his views through a discrete hour or so of performing is inspiring.

Want a conclusion to this blog? Well, you may be asking for a bit too much...

Me-an-dia

If you are disgusted by the poor attempt of humour seen in the title consider this a warning for the rest of this blog and those in the future. This isn't one of those '18r haterz!' things many of the youth say today - it is a heartfelt plea on behalf of the author.
 
I first started looking at Media in terms of theory and practice at the age of seventeen when I started studying it as a subject in my Sixth Form. However, now looking back on my life I realise Media has had a large influence in my life before I even realised it.
 
I chose to take Media Studies as an option out of pure curiosity. I wouldn't have said I had a keen interest at the time, but enough of one to dedicate hours of school time looking into it. By the end of the two years Media went from being the 'wild card' of my subject choices to possibly of my strongest and favourite of subjects.
 
It pain's me to admit this but I think I first started applying the theories and techniques I started to require to the X-Factor. I wish I could say something more cultured or less 'main stream' but it's true. Every Saturday I would find myself idly watching the show - not paying any great deal of attention to it. It was the series that brought us Wagner Carrilho, a Brazilian ex. gym teacher. He was the 'bum note' (oh im so hiliarious) of the show - in the magical world of Simon Cowell he was made out to the project of the 'incompentant' Louis Walsh and was not expected to go far in the show at all. However, through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter started to 'corrupt' the 'monopoly of Cowell' by encouraging people to vote Wagner through to the next show, regardless of his performance.
 
This practice had had previous success. Nearly a year to that point they had created the wonderous scene of denying previous winner Joe McElderry the before granted spot of 'whoeverwinsxfactorgetschristmasnumberone' and giving us the glorious scene of Fearne Cotton nervously staring into the viewers of Chirstmas Top of the Pops and uttering "and now here is your number one - Rage Against the Machine with 'Killing in the Name'".
 
The public oblivious to the 'trolling' exercise of the social networking community were in outrage as Wagner was now out-standing people who could actually sing. Cowell's media mogul's started trying to counter the internet's attack by releasing stories of Wagner's questionable (but believeable) antics in the house - the most memorable of which being him getting into another contestants bed and refusing to get out.
 
I soon started to label everything with my Media Studies mind. In Propp's theory of characters the internet communties had clearly labelled Cowell as the 'Villian' but Wagner, despite being a product of Cowell's evil creation, was clearly an anti-hero. He was a glimmer of hope in their plans.
 
However, somewhat ineviatably, Wagner's run on X-Factor came to an end. However, the manner of it outstanded me. His final song was 'Creep', by Radiohead. If anyone is unfamiliar with the song the general jist of it can be summed up by its chorus of 'I'm a creep/I'm a weirdo/What the hell am I doing here?/I don't belong here...'. You could clearly see what was going on here, without wanting to sound a conspiracist. The camera even zoomed into a close up onto Wagner's face as he sung the last chorus. Minogue called it his best performance as he 'connected with his lyrics'. Cole agreed with her. Cowell claimed it was 'very good'. Walsh said it was 'his best performance yet'. 

On the next results show - Wagner was voted out. 

So that was my baptism of recognising the world of Media. A Brazilian who could not sing.

Thanks Wagner

(Image taken from http://www.thenewsgrind.com/)