Stewart Lee

First raft of shows from 2012 Edinburgh Fringe programme

Stewart Lee, Jimmy Carr, Rhod Gilbert and more to appear at Fringe 2012

5 Mar 2012

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has revealed around 60 shows to take place at this year's event in August. The announcement comes weeks before the full line-up announcement on Thu 31 May. Comedy shows form the bulk of the latest show announcements…

Fist of Fun

Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's debut TV appearance given a DVD outing

28 Feb 2012

‘It’s not as good as I remembered’. Thus sprach Stewart Lee about the first series of Fist of Fun, the BBC Two show which first introduced the bequiffed comic and Richard Herring, his cohort of many years, to a TV audience. While it might not be…

Writing an opera - Five creative types who have written a opera

Stewart Lee, Damon Albarn, Armando Iannucci, Paul McCartney

21 Oct 2011

Stewart Lee The ‘comedian’s comedian’ took some time out a decade back to dash off Jerry Springer: The Opera, a paean to the trashy US talk show host and his disciples. The show’s eye-wateringly profane libretto, depictions of Biblical figures…

The shocking, rude and offensive highlights of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe

The controversial shows of Edinburgh Fringe 2011

6 Jul 2011

If boundary-pushing comedy is your thing, or if you just like smutty jokes, you’ll no doubt find a suitably impolite act at the Fringe. Jonny Ensall ranks 2011’s controversial shows by their level of offensiveness

DVD review - Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

Uncompromising, awkward and confrontational style and content cements reputation

28 Jun 2011

(2entertain) The second series of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle will do very little to alter the entrenched opinions on both sides of his critical fence. Those detractors will switch off in their droves at the uncompromising, awkward and…

Best comedy gigs of 2010 in Scotland

Bo Burnham, Tommy Tiernan, Stewart Francis, Jenny Eclair, Stewart Lee

17 Feb 2011

Bo Burnham After receiving top marks from both The Guardian and The Independent, little Bo Burnham really needed to be taken down a peg or three. Yet, the uber-talented wee tyke simply got on with his job and showed what a prospective comedy superstar…

A selection of the best comedy podcasts

Free comedy from Robin Ince, Richard Herring, Andrew Collins and Marc Maron

19 Nov 2010

The explosion in free podcasts has been a boon for comedy fans, delivering intimate interviews, topical improv and experimental sketch shows, all the while plugging audiences directly into the psyches of their favourite stand-ups. US comic Marc Maron’s…

Edinburgh Comedy Awards shortlist announced

Bo Burnham, Greg Davies and Sarah Millican head up 2010 shortlist

25 Aug 2010

The shortlist for the 2010 Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards has been announced. The acts nominated are: Bo Burnham, Greg Davies, Josie Long, Russell Kane and Sarah Millican

Stewart Lee’s Silver Stewbilee!

The stand up will launch his new book at the one-off night

6 Aug 2010

He’s not letting us reviewers in again this year, so we can only assume that he’s doing a mime show in Swedish or something. With this one-off night, he’s launching his excellent new book, a series of musings and full scripts from his last few stand-up…

Stewart Lee - How I Escaped My Certain Fate

23 Jul 2010

(Faber) Like Ezra Pound’s notes on The Waste Land if they’d been more cutting, self-critical and in awe of Johnny Vegas, Stewart Lee here transcribes and annotates the three stand-up shows that brought him back from disillusioned retirement in 2001…

Edinburgh Festival anniversaries in 2010

15 Jul 2010

Anniversaries abound at this years festival, not least the the Comedy Awards and Assembly Rooms, both of which celebrate their 30th years.

Edinburgh festivals line-ups announced

28 May 2010

Whatever your cultural poison, Edinburgh’s festival circuit has it covered

If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask for One - Stewart Lee interview

25 Feb 2010

In his new show, Stewart Lee compares himself to a raft of personalities who appear to have let themselves go: Ray Liotta, Morrissey, KD Lang and Terry Christian among them. In the flesh, 41-year-old Lee might be barely recognisable from the comedic…

Five Things You Might Not Know About: Stewart Lee

10 Feb 2010

While at Oxford, Lee first joined hips with Richard Herring in various revue affairs including some critically-unacclaimed jaunts to the Edinburgh Fringe in the late 80s. Al Murray was also part of that gang and later Lee would script edit the Pub…

Jason Cook - My Comedy Hero

30 Oct 2009

My comedy heroes? That is a toughie as there are so many: the spontaneous genius of Ross Noble; the cutting one-liners of Frankie Boyle or Jimmy Carr; the measured calm of Stewart Lee or Sean Collins. Everyone has their own thing that makes them a…

Edinburgh Festival 2009 - Fringe programme highlights

11 Jun 2009

Roll up, roll up. It may just seem like yesterday that the Edinburgh Fringe packed its bags for 2008 but now it’s back with a vengeance. Against stiff competition from its international and national counterparts, this year’s Fringe line-up looks…

Go Faster Stripe

14 May 2009

Every November time an onslaught of comedy DVDs hits the nation’s shops and online retailers, almost as though there was some big occasion around the corner that stand-ups and their representatives wished to capitalise upon. Yet one wholly independent…

Maccabees instore gig set for Edinburgh's Avalanche Records

29 Apr 2009

The Maccabees are the latest act to perform in the recently refurbished Edinburgh branch of cult record shop Avalanche. An instore gig by the upcoming South London band takes place at 5pm ahead of their show at Studio 24 later the same…

Five Comedy Things to Watch on TV

16 Apr 2009

The Inbetweeners Series two gets into its stride as Will’s birthday looms. He’s planning a suitably grown-up dinner with a few close friends, and, naturellement, any girls they can persuade to come. E4, Thu 16 Apr, 10pm. Reno 911! More spoof…

Stewart Lee: 41st Best Stand Up Ever!

DVD

4 Sep 2008

When Stewart Lee first wrote this 2007 show, he was seriously hacked off with the BBC. Having been commissioned by the corporation to make a series of half-hour comedies which would feature Lee performing in front of unusual audiences (a group of…

Stewart Lee

31 Jul 2008

He may be a mere 40 years of age, but there’s no question that Mr Lee is now one of the comics that all those young bucks look up to as a godfather of British stand-up. Proving thathe truly is an honourable man of art, Stewie is turning his back on the…

Best of the rest

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

A short round up of the shows not to miss on this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe including Stewart Lee, Tricky, Pornography, the Soweto Gospel Choir and Scottish Dance Theatre

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Stewart Lee

13 Mar 2008

When a stand-up is dubbed ‘a comics’ comic’, that can usually be translated into: ‘loved by his peers and critics; not quite so loved by audiences.’ Yet, when you look at the career of Stewart Lee, the adulation of comedians and journalists may have…

Hitlist - the best Festival comedy

23 Aug 2007

Stewart Lee Making a mockery of his low placing as the 41st Best Stand-Up Ever, the co-writer of Jerry Springer: The Opera has had everyone making a song and dance about this year’s show. UdderBELLY’s Pasture, 0870 745 3083, until 27 Aug, 7.30pm…

Hitlist - the best Festival comedy

16 Aug 2007

Kristen Schaal Winston Churchill roamed the Assembly Rooms last year in the guise of Mel Smith. He’s back for a ghost appearance in this superb show from one of America’s most delicate new comic talents. Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, until 27 Aug (not 20)…