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Review: Stewart Lee ****
STEWART Lee is 41, as he keeps telling us. But this isn't a reflective show to mull over the quirks of getting older, it's an attack on the entertainment which winds him up, with particular ire reserved for Top Gear and rival comedian, Frankie Boyle.
Boyle had the temerity to say stand-ups shouldn't carry on beyond 40. This is where Lee's show, If You Prefer A Milder Comedian Please Ask For One, lived up to his name.
"Frankie Boyle, who is 38... " Lee began, before succinctly picking off some of his favourite targets: weak observational comedy, the cast of Top Gear and his old friends at the BBC.
Perversely inspired by Boyle, Lee delivered a show of quite extraordinary anger. Jeremy Clarkson's unpleasant jokes about Gordon Brown's loss of the use of one eye and Richard Hammond's lackey status – "a licence feepayer-funded apologist for bullying" came off worst.
Lee trod a fine line, however, saying some of the cruellest things about the presenters and their families, before backtracking, claiming it was all a joke – "it's the Top Gear defence".
It worked, but only just. He didn't take all of the audience with him on his flights of fancy but his calm fury retained some logic even as he ramped it up to an absurd level. This worked best when turning on the creative who he accused of stealing one of his family's catchphrases to advertise pear cider.
Lee ran up to the dress circle, clambered from the seats to a box – to the alarm of a watching steward – and continued his diatribe, unhinged but hilarious. It wasn't quite the stand-up masterclass we have come to expect from Lee, but it will live long in the memory.
So no thank you, I don't want a milder comedian.
Harrogate Theatre
Harrogate Comedy Festival runs until October 31.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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