9:04am Thursday 26th November 2009
Stewart Lee - If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One, Richmond Theatre
Stewart Lee has taken the moment his Cafe Nero loyalty card was rejected as the starting point for his latest stand-up show.
A strange choice, you might think, for a comedian whose material has in the past dealt with thorny subjects such as religious fundamentalism, political correctness and racism, but, as the title of the show, If You Prefer A Milder Comedian Please Ask For One, suggests Lee has lost none of the fire in his belly.
The coffee shop rejection, compounded by comments made by Scottish comic Frankie Boyle that those over 40 shouldn't do stand-up any more, has inspired Lee to mine the disappointments and frustrations he feels as a 41-year-old.
He goes about unleashing his ire on the causes of these frustrations with controlled and extremely funny viciousness - Top Gear, and in particular Lee's former schoolmate Richard 'The Hamster' Hammond, take the brunt of it.
If You Prefer A Milder Comedian... could do with a few more of the genuinely laugh out loud moments, such as the routine about taking a pirate to a pirate-themed adventure playground that Lee throws into this set early on, that his fans have come to know and love.
But this criticism aside, the laconic comedian has certainly come up with another engaging and thought provoking show. All of his customary tricks are employed – from the confrontational dynamic he loves to establish between himself and his audience to the very deliberate repetitions that litter the set.
Lee has always been a master at wringing every last drop of comedy from a word or phrase by repeating it and re-contextualising, almost to the point of no return.
When it comes off for him it is an approach that works brilliantly, as it does in this show's centre piece routine.
Lee's attack on the banality of advertising and its appropriation of works of art could, in the hands of a lesser comedian, be the basis for an uninteresting and preachy sketch but, by attaching a weird, wonderful and - at times - traumatic personal history to a seemingly banal slogan for cider, Lee is able to turn the mundane into the extraordinary.
Will Gore
Catch If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One at Leicester Square Theatre from December 7-January 17.
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.kingstonguardian.co.uk