Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
Date:	19/03/09 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Authentic, uncompromising stand-up from one of the nation's finest.

Disadvantages: Insert sketches don't always work.

I don't usually watch television, but the return of comedian Stewart Lee to BBC 2 after an absence of almost exactly ten years is a defining event for the obsessive comedy fan.

As mainstream audiences seem increasingly, tragically content to lap up the latest catch-phrases and unadventurous routines from the likes of Horne & Corden and whoever else is around (I don't know do I?), the BBC has finally been convinced to offer a platform to one of the nation's finest and highest-rated comedians, in an uncompromising show that presents stand-up comedy exactly as the fans are familiar with it. If you're accustomed to the inimitable style of Stewart Lee, that is. Something has gone seriously right.

Simply titled 'Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle,' this is half an hour of pure stand-up, with the exception of a few brief sketch cutaways to illustrate a point, and is unnervingly exactly like watching one of the comedian's live DVDs. Unnerving only in that a shift of perspective is needed, as only a couple of years ago, no-one but a fledgling production company working out an arts centre in Cardiff would dare approach the infamous director of 'Jerry Springer: The Opera' with a camera, for fear of further death penalties from right-wing Christians who took offence at a show they hadn't seen.

Lee's strong fanbase will not be disappointed, as there are no concessions to the mainstream here. Lee is as intimidatingly smart, often irritatingly erudite and tediously repetitive as his fans have come to love, with a perfect use of silence and some of the most excruciating build-ups to anticipated punchlines that you'll ever experience. A comedian with a microphone in a bar, talking about stuff, the conceit is that each weekly half-hour is centred on a distinct theme. This allows Lee relative freedom to incorporate routines old and new, many of which have been road-tested to perfection over the last five years since his return to stand-up in 2004.

This week's theme was 'books,' affording plenty of opportunities for unapologetic, learned criticism over Waterstones' spawning of 'celebrity hardback' and 'tragic lives' genres, with extensive digs at the lowest-common-denominator lad humour of Chris Moyles and the opportunism of Dave Pelzer taken to their logical conclusions and then beyond that to the realm of the surreal, the latter culminating in a sketch with Michael Redmond playing the part of Paddy MacGinty's abused goat.

Whatever loose themes are contrived for subsequent weeks, there are still plenty of memorable routines that have a chance to surface, including Lee's initial disbelief, soon evolving into fully-fledged mental breakdown, over the nation's decision to vote Del Boy falling through a bar as the funniest thing ever broadcast on television. There's also his deconstruction of Franklyn Ajaye's 'Serious About Comedy' LP that has been highly influential on Lee without him ever having bothered to remove it from its plastic wrapping, and of course plenty of stuff about Jesus of Nazareth.

It will be interesting to see how far this already bold venture is willing to risk pushing things, and it seems unlikely that some of Lee's more extreme (and thus most memorable) routines will be required to fall by the wayside, just to show that he has at least learned something from the Jerry Springer debacle, even if it's only that a small proportion of BBC viewers are reactionary buffoons. In particular, I won't hold my breath that Lee's spectacular closing set-piece from his 2005 '90s Comedian' show will be making its way onto terrestrial television any time soon, but it's pleasantly surprising to see just how authentic this whole enterprise is.

Stewart Lee must be incredibly satisfied with the result, as should be the comedy circuit in general, and many of Lee's contemporaries are even afforded brief cameo appearances. This is a great moment for comedy, as a truly subversive act - not in the way you might imagine Russell Brand to be subversive - receives the mainstream spotlight, however fleetingly.

Typically, if a stand-up comedian appears on television in this manner, the performance will usually be broadcast from an arena large enough to warrant terrestrial telly's attention, so it's great for comedy fans and newcomers alike to see the more intimate comedy club atmosphere replicated, the only major difference being significantly brighter lighting. However this mainstream attention will prove to affect Stewart Lee's turbulent career, fans can rest assured that the extra publicity won't go to his head. He's scheduled to play a new show at the reliable Stand Comedy Club during August's festival, and it's unhealthy that I'm excited already.

Summary: Stewart Lee's new BBC series (2009).