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Episode One: Stand-Up Comedian (2005)
4.3k Plays11 months ago
Dan and Joe take a deep dive into Stewart Lee's first ever live stand-up DVD "Stand-Up Comedian", filmed at The Stand in Glasgow.
There were some issues with the audio on this recording, despite flawless test runs, although, other than the audio suddenly switching from mono to stereo after the intro (and a bit too much of Dan and Joe's awfully labored breathing being picked up on the mic) We're fairly confident that you won't see the joins (irony there, one of the many comic tools we'll be using throughout).
If you like what we do, please consider liking and subscribing wherever you get your pods, and if you want to see what we look like doing this in front of an audience (with a smashing special guest), why not pop along and see us at the Leicester Comedy Festival?
Tickets here:
www.comedy-festival.co.uk/events/across-the-stew-niverse-a-podcast-about-stewart-lee
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to this journey across the Stuniverse. With me, a man you've never heard of.
Meet the Hosts
00:00:33
Speaker
Yes, hello and welcome to the Across the Stewniverse podcast, the only podcast dedicated entirely to the work of the comedian Stuart Lee and his collaborators and extended Stewniverse. My name is Daniel
Focus on 'Stand Up Comedian' DVD
00:00:48
Speaker
Powell. I am a stand-up comedian from Leeds and each week I'll be joined by my fellow stand-up comedian and relative Stuart Lee newbie, Joe Kirkwood, where we will step through a piece of Stu's recorded work
00:01:01
Speaker
and chat about it. What I would suggest is if you haven't seen the piece of work that we're looking at this week which is Stand Up Comedians recorded live at the stand in 2004 released in 2005 if you haven't seen that
00:01:18
Speaker
what are you doing listening to this please go away and watch it it is excellent and then come back and listen to this if you do like what you hear please do like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts also just to mention within the episode there are a couple of little edits due to a couple of technical issues that we had either on my end or Jo's end I can't remember but I guarantee you
00:01:42
Speaker
that I've done such a good job with these and they are so subtle you will not even
Live Podcast Announcement
00:01:46
Speaker
notice them. Just to say before we get started, we are doing a live version of this where we will be interviewing a special guest, hopefully someone who is linked in some way to Stuart Lee. We are talking to a number of people at the moment and I can guarantee you that that will be excellent. That will be taking place at the Leicester Comedy Festival
00:02:06
Speaker
on the 24th of February, 2024. Links to tickets for that will be in the show notes or description for this show. So without further ado, let's take a trip across this universe.
Reviewing Stuart Lee's Performance
00:02:21
Speaker
So I want you to just go back to, this is really awkward, because obviously we've just had this conversation, but I want you to go back to the thing that you said a couple of minutes ago when we were talking about your attention span, because in the context of what we're doing, I find it really amusing. So how I watched it, you mean, because I can't? To be honest, for context, what we should probably do is say that we're here to talk about basically, Stuart Lee's first
00:02:50
Speaker
first ever stand-up DVD which is stand-up comedian and you've never seen it before this conversation had you really? I'd seen it a bunch of times and obviously then I wanted to get you involved so I got you onto watching it with a few of us discussing it.
00:03:09
Speaker
and you've watched that. Did you say you've watched half of it or something? I've watched half of it twice. So my attention span is such that I can't watch like a full hour of something. So I can only watch like half an hour bits. But then because I'd realised the other day that I hadn't made any notes, I couldn't really remember anything. Like I could remember bits, but not enough.
00:03:35
Speaker
to actually talk about it. So I was like, right, well, I need to sit and actually watch it and make some notes. And I watched the first half again, wrote the notes that I thought about the first time, and then thought, oh, how does that have a little break?
00:03:51
Speaker
I never watched the second half. No, and then I watched the second half. All right. So you have actually seen the full thing. Yeah, I have actually seen the full thing. It's just in separate sections. That's so funny.
Format: Expert & Newbie
00:04:06
Speaker
In the context of kind of what we're doing, because obviously the whole point of this is what we're going to do is we're going to start essentially from the beginning, at least of his recorded standup work.
00:04:18
Speaker
Um, and step through each, uh, you know, the, whatever you want to call them, the Americans call them specials. They're not really DVDs anymore. Cause that's not a thing. Um, live shows, live shows. Yeah. That's, that's, that's a decent way of putting it.
00:04:34
Speaker
should have thought of that myself. So what we're going to do is step through each one of those in turn and kind of just chat about it from, you know, me from my perspective of someone who's kind of seen each of these shows a bunch of times, obsessed over them, you know, talks people's ear off about them, and you from the perspective of potentially a person who's seen them for the first time. Yeah, most things have certainly I've never seen.
00:04:58
Speaker
that's what I'm saying. Yeah. So yeah, essentially the, the, um, the kind of concept here is that I, I would position myself as the expert in inverted commas and you are what I would call the newbie or to be calling it the Stu B. Oh God. I thought of that today and I was really proud of myself.
00:05:25
Speaker
What a wanker.
Stuart Lee's Comedy as High Art
00:05:28
Speaker
Brilliant. What a Novad. So yeah, basically, we're just going to be really pretentious and talk about Stuart Lee. We're essentially going to analyze it as high art, which I genuinely believe it is when it comes to stand up. I completely disagree with the notion that stand up isn't art. I think it is.
00:05:49
Speaker
Although, one of Stuart Lee's friends on Key Influences, Simon Munnery, said that he didn't want to make stand-up, he just wants to make shit art, and that there is something about a Venn diagram where the two will never overlap, one's art and one's stand-up, and the two will never overlap.
00:06:09
Speaker
But that's a conversation for another day. So stand up comedian then. Filmed at the stand. I think filmed in 2004, released in 2005. I can't quite be sure. I can't remember. But you'd never seen it before. No. So as an overall thing then, having seen some of his work, or at least his newer work, comedy vehicle and things like that, what did you make of it?
00:06:33
Speaker
I really liked it. I think it's so obviously, shortly. And it's interesting that he stayed like that pretty much. He looks different.
00:06:51
Speaker
you can see that thread all the way through. There isn't anything kind of surprising about it in terms of what you expect from Shirley. I definitely, if I'd seen it when it came out in 2005, would not have understood it or appreciated it because I definitely had seen kind of stuff of his before.
00:07:17
Speaker
And it wasn't like I thought, well, do you think that's just because you were a teenager though? Like, you know, and a young adult. And if you don't get it, then it's like, you just like, comedy is subjective. And if you don't get it, then you don't get it. Yeah.
00:07:35
Speaker
Whereas, kind of, I know certain people in my life that I won't name, but like, if they don't find, if they don't get something or they don't find something funny, then that is inherently bad. And it's like, no, even as a teenager, I would never have said, oh, he's bad.
Age and Appreciation of Comedy
00:07:56
Speaker
I would just be like, oh, I just clearly don't get what the joke is. Because I kind of my first impression. Or it's not for you. Yeah. Who was, oh, that's the guy who doesn't tell any jokes.
00:08:08
Speaker
At that point, I didn't realize that that was the point. Yeah. I mean, it's a weird thing, right? Because I, I kind of look at it as I get a B in my bonnet about this because, um, I don't know if you follow the, um, the Hi-Fi club, the Leeds Hi-Fi club on Facebook or anything like that. I think so. But I do just cause mainly the reason that I do that is because friends of ours or people that we know or have come across on the circuit have started to get
00:08:37
Speaker
spots at that size and that level of club. Jack McLean, for example, who's absolutely smashing it out of the park at the minute. Yeah, we've got him on next week. He's so good. He's so good. So excited for. Yeah. I'm not surprised. I think he's brilliant. I think he's doing a spot at the Hi-Fi club pretty soon. So I like to follow them just to kind of see who's coming up through
00:09:02
Speaker
through that level of club and see if there's anybody we kind of know and who's doing well. I'm being nosy basically, but basically the point is that every time they put a post out on Facebook of like a clip of a comedian that's going to be playing there or something.
00:09:19
Speaker
Especially if it's a woman or someone of colour or someone who's gay or anything like that. You guarantee there will be an England flag in the comments, right? Just like not funny, about as funny as cancer, all that kind of shit. When does the comedy stall? Yeah, just all that corny shit. And I take great pleasure and I've made it a personal mission of mine just to go into each one of them and explain to them why comedy is subjective.
00:09:49
Speaker
and really bore the piss out of them. They argue with me in all sorts and it's brilliant because I just know for a fact that they'll just talk themselves into a corner and just essentially all they're saying is you're not making fun of minorities therefore I don't find you funny.
00:10:14
Speaker
I suppose the thing with Stuart Lee, especially early on, I didn't like him when I first heard him or I didn't understand him rather because I just wasn't in tune with it. And I suppose he said it himself and I can't remember which special it was that he said it in, but he says, you haven't seen the right kind of acts. You've got no reference point for me. You've watched maybe one or two comedians a year in arenas or something.
00:10:40
Speaker
And that was, that was me at the time, you know, I'd been to see like Lee Evans and fucking, you know, who's brilliant, you know, but it completely different. Yeah. My reference points were like Lee Evans and Peter Carr.
Structure of 'Stand Up Comedian'
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah. That kind of stuff. And they're the two kind of things that I watched.
00:10:56
Speaker
Whoever was massive at the tail end of the 90s, early 2000s, when I started watching comedy, they were the people I saw, and they weren't like that. So it was very easy to kind of misunderstand what he was trying to do, which I think I did. But in the context of this one, the thing I find really interesting about this is if you look at it, and obviously you'll see more of this the more we watch of his stuff, but looking at it against the rest of his catalogue,
00:11:25
Speaker
it's kind of like the outlier because it's actual routines rather than a coherent narrative. Do you know what I mean? If you look at one of the... I think we watched a bit of Carpet Remnant World, didn't we, when we went to see Off Menu?
00:11:46
Speaker
And if you watch something like Carpet Remnant World, even though he comes out at the start and says, oh, I haven't really had a chance to make this show good and there's no narrative and all I'll do is repeat the phrase Carpet Remnant World at the end and that'll give the illusion of structure, blah, blah, blah.
00:12:02
Speaker
there is a structure to it like it's a really tight defined structure and with this one even though there's a bit of structure like there's a kind of bit of a parallel between the first routine which is the kind of like the 9-11 stuff and the final routine where he's talking about like princess Diana and there's kind of like a through line there of I don't know like national grief or whatever you know like like almost the way that we react when
00:12:31
Speaker
big newsworthy tragedies happen. There's kind of like a bit of a through line there with it. But yeah, so the, um, so the 9-11 routine, obviously opens up with that, right? Which is a bold kind of choice to be honest, especially after, if you think about like the start of it, where you can say, can we start with a start? Cause like the intro music,
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah. What the jazz on the 5678 stuff. The jazz. Yeah. That's just so jarring. Yeah. That like, it has you on edge. Yeah. Quite clearly intentionally, because it's like, it's just coming at it from a completely different kind of angle. It's just awful to listen to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's horrible. It's awful. But like, I've seen it written somewhere. It might be in his book.
00:13:26
Speaker
which is amazing, by the way, and we'll get to that at some point. I'll lend you a copy. But he said that he intentionally picks really kind of abrasive music for when people are entering, you know, the venue to kind of almost signal to them
00:13:43
Speaker
this isn't going to be like the stuff that you, do you know what I mean? It's not going to be like the normal standup. This is going to kind of challenge you a little bit. And it almost sort of signals to their brain, like this is what you're in for, which I just find fascinating. And then obviously he gets into it with the five, six, seven, eight, which I went through a phase, like, I don't know if you remember when Kill Bill came out. The five, six, seven, eight. Yeah.
00:14:06
Speaker
But that's it. So that's the, you know, when it starts out with the jazz, and then when he comes out, there's a, like a Japanese girl group, rock band singing the words, Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee over and over again. That band is called the five, six, seven, eight. And round about that time, maybe slightly earlier, they were on the soundtrack for Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. And they did that song where it was like,
00:14:35
Speaker
You know the one I mean? And off the back of that one song, they got massive. That soundtrack was mental. They played the main stage at Leeds Festival.
00:14:47
Speaker
like that's how big they got off the back of that one song and then disappeared again into like obscurity but so like that for the shift between that horrible jazz music and then the quite catchy like quite almost quite soothing repetitive like mr. Lee mr. Lee mr. Lee I found really interesting and then obviously he drags people out of the audience one man wearing a light shirt and tie by the way which is yeah
00:15:13
Speaker
to pull party poppers on his head. So like, you're looking like you're going to be in this. He's almost like confusing them with, well, what kind of evening is this? You know, is it abrasive, jazz, chin-struck and thinky stuff? Or is it party time? And he gets them to pop the party poppers on his head.
00:15:33
Speaker
leaves it for a beat of silence and then said, right, so on the 9th, on September the 11th. See, even you almost said the 9th of November then. Exactly. Cause it's ingrained in my brain. Cause it's so, but it's so good. Just the fact that he's able to do it with such ease and that it's, it looks effortless that to him, like, I don't know whether he was on holiday on September the 11th or the 9th of November. Yeah.
00:16:02
Speaker
And I don't want to know. You don't want to know. No, because, because to me, I like the idea that it's like, I don't know. It doesn't actually matter. That's going to present a problem at some point. Cause I am going to get you to read his book and I'm pretty sure it tells you. Yeah. So basically the book goes into like, there's like footnotes. So there's transcripts of the standup and then footnotes of like, here's how I wrote it, why I wrote it. Here's some behind the scenes shit.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, the whole, the whole bit, the whole angle of coming at it from 9th of November 911, we invented those dates, reclaimed the calendar.
Observational Comedy Style
00:16:40
Speaker
Like that's just, like you say, it is standard observational comedy, but not in a way that anyone else would do it.
00:16:46
Speaker
No. It's so weird. And then even later on in the routine when he says, uh, the 9th of December, nine, one, two, the next day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot about that. Nine, nine, one, two, because it's one. So the next day, the 9th of December.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, I've got my notes as well. Like when he's talking about, um, the, the, the guys who are speaking Spanish and, and it's the fact that he, um, is it Nuevo Nuevo Eureka Eureka, um, which is
00:17:24
Speaker
so clearly New York and him saying, oh, it was just some like Colombian. That's Columbia or somewhere. But what's brilliant about that is I wasn't sure whether that was how you say New York in Spanish and it's not.
00:17:40
Speaker
it's not no it's nuevo york okay but i think he's made it more spanish yeah intentionally to make the joke funnier of course yeah to make the funny the joke funnier but actually it's to make it make it seem more like the audience have to get it yeah whereas if they if he said york
00:18:05
Speaker
they wouldn't feel as good about getting the joke. But also, I think if you ask me, if you say, York, the joke doesn't work. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Because if you say a new way about York, there's no way that anyone's then going to, you know, because the whole point of I'm saying this more for the listener than for you, I'm well aware that you know this as someone who does stand up. But, you know, the whole idea, the whole point of a stand up is to purposefully misunderstand things for comic effect. Yeah.
00:18:34
Speaker
So, you know, which I wish audiences knew more. To be honest, that's one of the tricky things. They seem to think that we just walk up on stage.
00:18:45
Speaker
And we have no idea what we're talking about. And we assume we have every idea what we're talking about. When in fact, sometimes we don't know what we're talking about. Like it's quite difficult to tune into. And I do appreciate sometimes people don't get it. And do you know what? At the end of the day as well, just to kind of put a lid on that bit is you and I are quite early on in our standup journey. You know, it's very, very easy.
00:19:12
Speaker
to see that someone like Stuart Lee, who's been at this, by this point, 2005, obviously taken a little break and come back to it. But by this point, he'd been doing it for maybe 15, 16 years, if not slightly longer. I think it was 89 he started. And then obviously, like I say, took a little bit of time off. But by this point, he was, he knew what he was doing. He was at the top of his game, you know, so he can, he can very easily kind of essentially make an audience think whatever he wants them to think.
00:19:39
Speaker
Whereas obviously you and I are still developing those skills. But the thing about the Nuevo Eureka stuff, if he was to say Nuevo York, there's no way that an audience would buy that he'd misunderstand that as somewhere foreign. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Which is sort of what I was saying. So that they can get her on the joke.
00:20:01
Speaker
and around then it's when he's talking about watching it on the TV and saying, I'm sorry, on the TV, I'm not sure if you got it here.
00:20:14
Speaker
just like the sly jabs at Scotland whilst at the stand. The most famous comedy comic. The interesting thing there is that he's actually said before that like he used to be terrified of Glasgow audiences because you know they had this reputation for being like fearsome and stuff like that and he said that once he'd figured out
00:20:37
Speaker
how to handle them, which is essentially to kind of not be desperate for them to like him. He kind of said that, you know, they can sense when they're desperate. But I was looking at that and basically thinking that what he was doing there when he, that early job at Scotland was almost to prepare them for the kind of massive rip on Scotland later on.
00:21:00
Speaker
But yeah, like, I mean, we'll get to it. But that, that bit interests me near the end as well. Yes. Well, that's it. But we'll get to that. But yeah, so like I wrote a note when I was watching this for the second time yesterday, where I kind of felt like this is
00:21:19
Speaker
because it's like a whole hour of disparate routines sort of stitched together. This is his club set and the pace of it kind of reflects that. You know, like in a 20 minute club set, you've kind of got to be like, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, quick, quick, quick. And the sort of pace of this, again, compared to some of his other stuff really reflects that. It's a lot more gaggy than it is. Oh, for sure.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah. Cause obviously, you know, like if you take the night and the nine 11 stuff, see, I can't even figure out how to say it anymore. If you take that routine, that's clearly like a 10, 15, 20 minute routine that he's performed in a club.
00:22:02
Speaker
on its own to kind of hone it or use it as part of a club set or whatever. So it kind of works on its own merit, whereas all these later stuff is more stitched together. And if you take a piece out, it doesn't really work as such. But essentially, if you look at that 9-11 routine, other than being about 9-11, the other main through line of it is him solving the world's problems with farts.
Childish Humor with Depth
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah. Like it's for a, for a Stewart Lee joke, it's really childish. I also had a similar note that it's like, so it was, couldn't just do a fart well. Yeah. And then I just put, see, it does do punch lines. Yeah. But like really, really silly ones. Like I wrote down that it's basically, it's a long drawn out joke about farts.
00:22:54
Speaker
That's, it's his excuse to tell fart jokes, right? And, you know, within it, obviously it's got, there's all this subtext about looking at the nature of humor and searching for funny and tragedy and, you know, the ability to cross, you know, cultural and language barriers and, and all these kinds of things. But essentially it's a shaggy dog story where the whole point is that he solved these problems with farts.
00:23:22
Speaker
or as you get later on into the routine, actually caused a bigger problem by trying to replicate it at a mosque. Which is that bit in the routine, the first time I heard it, I was absolutely howling. Because it uses the tension so easily as well, which is why he uses it, I think. Because obviously,
00:23:45
Speaker
Like he, obviously nine 11, nine 11 is quite a serious subject. Well, especially you think about back then as well, it was only four years after it happened. Less than three, I think. Cause if we recorded it in 2004, depends on when in 2004. So you've got 2001. So it's like less than, less than three years potentially. I might tell you on the DVD. Exactly. When it was recorded.
00:24:13
Speaker
No, I don't think it does. Even then, like less than four years, which it has to be. Yeah. So it's still, again, it's still quite fresh. And obviously I suppose the difference is that he's doing it to a Scottish audience. He does reference in the routine or later on in the whole piece, doing this stuff in Aspen, Colorado and doing it in New York and it not going down very well. Yeah. I always wondered, well, I say always, I wondered if that was true.
00:24:41
Speaker
I know the Aspen one is definitely true. Yeah, I think that would be, but I think the New York one, the New York topper is because I think, I like to think that Stuart Lee as a person wouldn't do that. I genuinely can't remember. And I know you said you don't want to know half these things, but I am going to have to find out now just because it's bugging me.
00:25:05
Speaker
But he does mention in the book about doing Aspen, Colorado, and I just can't remember whether he then talks about doing the New York stuff either. I just wasn't sure whether it was.
00:25:20
Speaker
like i said i know for a fact that he did do uh the aspen comedy festival because he's talked about it and about how just kind of americans don't they don't really get what he's trying to do no i can imagine but american stand-ups like marc marron loves stewart lee um like american stand-ups tend to understand it at least ones that have kind of come over here and experienced edinburgh and things like that but
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Sometimes, like you say, he takes a willfully ignorant position just for comic effect. Yeah. Because I did make a note about something here. Let me see if I can... See if I can find it. Oh, that was one of the bits that really jumped at me. It's when he was talking about going to the toilet and he said, doing a wee. Yeah, it's the use of the word wee. That will always be funny.
00:26:15
Speaker
Well, but it's also like, you know, if you think about the type of, you know, and this is no disrespect obviously to the, cause we're all the same level, but on the open mic circuit, the easy route, the route one route would be to say piss. Yeah. Because it's kind of a quick, easy laugh. Like piss is funny. But it's the opposite on the next one. Yeah. Because we were talking about it on the way.
00:26:40
Speaker
on the trip to Glasgow, ironically. And it was that kind of... You were saying that there's one joke where he says penis.
00:26:53
Speaker
And someone like, and there was a, there was a discussion about it. It's like, no, cause someone said, well, why don't you say cock? It's like, because penis is funny. Yeah. What was it? I think what it was, I think if, if I remember rightly, somebody had accused him of being one of those modern comedians that just swears all the time.
00:27:15
Speaker
So he said something along the lines of he goes out of his way to use anatomically correct language. So, you know, he wouldn't say words like cock a lot of the time, like he'd usually say penis, whereas if you look at this routine, and I get the sense that the next bit after he said doing away and the audience laughed at doing away,
00:27:40
Speaker
I get the sense that in the next line he then said doing a wee out of my cock.
00:27:46
Speaker
because I get the sense that was like an improv thing, because he could see where he could go with it. Like a wee coming out of a cock that was yellow and smelled of a wee. It's that clown thing, isn't it, of like, if something's working, keep doing it. And I think he was just trying to see like how many laughs he could change. How many laughs can I bring? Which is the entire acting, isn't it, as that kind of, like he's sort of like the anti-one-liner.
00:28:17
Speaker
Well, he is, yeah. But it's like, how many laughs can I wring out of one? Essentially, they're all still just laughing at the word we. But how many can I do it? And then there's a bit like he, because obviously when he talks about doing a we and the whole idea of the front sphincter slackens off the back sphincter opens of its own accord, he talks about getting older. And I think this is something that I've kind of subconsciously nicked from him.
00:28:45
Speaker
you know, if you think about the stuff that I do, where I, and I am, so this is the context that I find interesting. He says when you get a bit older,
00:28:58
Speaker
when the front sphincter slackens off, the back sphincter opens of its own accord. That's the line. But at the time this was recorded, he was about 37 years old, which is the same age that I am now. Right? And I'm thinking about this. And I'm not far off. Yeah. And I'm looking at it thinking, but
00:29:17
Speaker
he's openly admitted that when he used to take on this persona as a younger man who, to be fair in this special, is still quite a good-looking gentleman. Do you know what I mean? You can kind of tell why he's young.
00:29:31
Speaker
And he's kind of said that it was an affectation. He kind of felt like there was a persona in pretending to be sort of older. Do you know what I mean? And I think that's something that I've kind of subconsciously nicked. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I do see that in your act, but I think that's fair. That sounds horrible, doesn't it?
00:29:59
Speaker
I mean, it's fair as in, I don't think it's stealing. I think, I think everybody does it. Like you get to a certain age, especially with your friends or family and stuff. Like the fact that I was sat the other day, uh, knitting whilst watching, whilst watching around the Kinect.
00:30:19
Speaker
This fascinates me about you. It's good for me at ADHD. It calms you down. It's not necessarily about calming me down, but it gives me something to do with my hands.
00:30:34
Speaker
is productive. Um, and you get something at the end of it and I can do something else whilst I'm doing it. So I can watch, I can watch TV. I can watch a film. I can listen to a podcast. I can do something else. And I don't, can you split your brain? I've tried in that sense. Like, like do both.
00:30:55
Speaker
yeah can you can you focus on what the tv is doing and then your hands are still sort of subconsciously knitting away it's partly why i watch only connect at the same time is that i don't actually need to watch it because i'm never going to get the answers anyway you just like listening to the sounds
00:31:11
Speaker
Yeah, basically it's the sounds and the shapes and it's Victoria Cora Mitchell and it's like... I realized the most bipolar part of me, which is hilarious. I have, you know, the list that everyone has. Yes. Well, I obviously have male and female, but the female ones is just two. It's a list of two. It's Victoria Cora Mitchell and Lucy Beaumont.
00:31:41
Speaker
That's an incredible question. No, you cannot have two more different people. No, you can't. But to be honest, to be honest, that perfectly encapsulates the two sides of your personality. My dogs barking in the background here, but that that perfectly encapsulates the two sides of your personality.
00:32:01
Speaker
I think really well. If you were to say that to someone, like you telling me that I instantly understand that, that makes complete sense. For people that don't know who I am, won't understand that. No, but I think it gives a great sense of who you are and why you are that way.
00:32:18
Speaker
People coming in and out of the room, disgusting. So basically this routine brought about what I would consider to be one of the greatest uses of simile that I've ever heard.
00:32:36
Speaker
which in the book he says is like subpar to be honest but it really tickled me and it's where he describes the fart as being something like what a fool would do. I've literally written the same thing. Or Anna Friel.
00:32:52
Speaker
Which people now might not know is a normal reference it's like a ball would be or on a freeel and smelled principally of hair and Yeah, I wrote down the same the exact same thing and it
00:33:09
Speaker
It made me realise and it made me love Stephen Stewart. I nearly called him Stephen Lee. Stephen Lee, Newcastle United defender. I realised that he's essentially just a surrealist comedian.
00:33:26
Speaker
in a different package. Well, you know, he directed the mighty Bush. No. Yeah. So because my first thought was that something like my Bush or just no filled in and that sort of thing that it's that kind of if you put that in a different context. Yeah.
00:33:44
Speaker
then that would make perfect sense in my bush. Just with a different face. That's become a trope of his work now in the sense that he will say something along the lines of something quite surreal and then if it doesn't land he'll just say, oh fuck off, you'd love that if Northfielding did it.
00:34:03
Speaker
or whatever. And he says, but in reality, he loves Northfield in like he, you know, he was, he was a big sort of champion of theirs when the Bush started their career and he directed their Arctic Bush show. So yeah, he is, he is kind of, um, he makes a big thing about how surreal stuff's really easy in character. Yeah. He'll say surreal stuff's really easy, but then fail to do it.
00:34:28
Speaker
because it is really difficult. Yeah. I think he said, he said something along the lines of it's not as simple as just putting the word fish randomly into a sentence. Well, I'm trying it with my character. I got a gig coming up in a few weeks. I've got, I've got a 10 and I'm like, how am I meant to do 10? How am I meant to do 10? I was going to say, I've got to be honest, Joe, it's difficult.
00:34:54
Speaker
the two times i've seen you do the character i think it is you're going to be doing which i assume is vic victory it is vic victory um the two times i've seen you doing it you've uh you've done three minutes and both times it's been the same three minutes so it's not even like all together they're six minutes
00:35:17
Speaker
I mean, we'll, we'll talk about this another time, but I do have some, some thoughts on it. Okay. However, we'll, we'll, we'll come back to that another day. But so yeah, anyway, obviously goes into describing this far, which I think is brilliant and apparently was improvised each night. So that, yeah. So that vole and a freel hair and ideas combo he said was quite a sub par combo. There were better ones on the tour.
00:35:43
Speaker
you know, but I think that's phenomenal. But then he kind of gets into like what I thought was quite dicey territory, but he managed to get away with it, considering that you're looking at me as if to say, did he? Yeah, because he essentially then uses like a Holocaust line, which obviously, you know, at the minute to us in the in the current climate is dicey. I suppose, you know, there's never really an acceptable
00:36:12
Speaker
I don't think. No, I'm struggling to even think what it was now. So I'll tell you what it was. Just this is me quoting it, by the way. No way. So this isn't my joke, obviously. But he basically says he compares where is it where he starts making fun of Colin Powell or Colin Powell? Yeah. And he compares Colin Powell's use of the word crusade.
00:36:38
Speaker
Right, yeah. And as a kind of counterpoint to that, like a simile, he basically said that would be like a maths teacher in Belsen. Yeah. Saying, and now present me your final solution. Yeah. Which, you know, in, in and of itself is, is a Holocaust joke, really. Yeah.
00:36:56
Speaker
you know, obviously I've seen comics do jokes like that. And you know, there are some really well-written ones and whatever, but obviously I'm not the person to speak on it. But the way you just kind of
00:37:12
Speaker
I don't know, almost put the line out there for consideration rather than presenting it and then like winking as if to say, look what I've just done. You know, you just almost threw it out and then walked away. I found it really interesting. That's probably why you go away with it. Yeah. And also,
00:37:31
Speaker
Especially with this one. Like, if I'm going to think he goes too far with something, that's not the joke I'm thinking of. If you get my point. Well, we're going to come to that later. I think I know where you're going with it. Yeah. But we'll come to that later. Yeah. So maybe it kind of, it was wore off and ducked back at the time.
Stuart Lee's Comedy Method
00:37:57
Speaker
So the next bit was quite interesting because he then does this thing which he's talked about doing in the book and seems to be again a bit of a trope of his at least on his part. Maybe the audience don't know that it's happening but he's talked about
00:38:15
Speaker
splitting his brain into where there's essentially two people operating the what's happening on stage. So there's the writer version of him who's created the show. And then there's the performer version of him who's delivering the show. And the performer is obviously is the character. And he said sometimes like, he'll send the character down blind alleys like on an improv.
00:38:44
Speaker
but he'll know that he knows how to get him out of it. Do you know what I mean? And there's a bit in this where he compares, he says something about French music hall entertainers and he says I'm the opposite of that in four main ways. He doesn't explain what those four main ways are.
00:39:05
Speaker
yeah someone heckles him and he sort of you know he says oh you see me afterwards and i'll explain and you know he says in the book i've never really thought what those four main ways are and i'm not sure what i'd have said if i was challenged but he kind of he does send himself down these dead ends just to see what happens sometimes and i always find that fascinating
00:39:30
Speaker
And then obviously it comes to the bit that you seem to, you picked up on earlier. Um, he laughed and then I laughed, but there was a critic from the independent on Sunday at the back and he wasn't laughing.
00:39:43
Speaker
didn't quite understand what we were doing. And this is fascinating, this line, because obviously that's essentially him commenting on what's happening in the room, you know, the performance right there and then, but also
00:40:02
Speaker
having it. It's like having your cake and eating it essentially. You know, like it's like that meta element of kind of what he does. You know, it works as a joke in its own right, but it comments on the performance as it's happening. It's just baffling the way he does it. I quite like the bit where he's like using farts as a way of skewering other elements of comedy where he says, is it as funny as a fart? No, it's not.
00:40:29
Speaker
Like I think he mentioned Ian Hislop. Yeah, yeah. And he does like a little mini impression of him, doesn't he? Yeah. He mentions Ian Hislop and then the other one is...
00:40:41
Speaker
But it's like, if it, if the BBC gives, gives it a show, is it? And he's like, it would be funnier than Friday, Friday night project. Just completely forgotten about the Friday night project. Yeah. So would I, to be honest, I, uh, that's one of those things that's in the back of my memory somewhere. I really liked the kind of
00:41:06
Speaker
One of the things I always try and do, or at least I like to try and do, is use an existing idiom to build a new joke. I'm trying to think what's the one of mine that I'm doing at the minute where it's like, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and not if it's a respiratory disease.
00:41:28
Speaker
he does a really brilliant version of that here where he says if a tramp farts in a wood and no one hears it, is it still funny? And the answer to that is yes. And he did a version of that in a later thing and I can't remember which one it was. I think it was in Comedy Vehicle.
00:41:47
Speaker
where he says, if Ricky Gervais says the word mong over and over again, and there's no Americans around to tell him he's a genius.
00:41:59
Speaker
is that, is that wrong? Yeah, exactly. Um, you know, it's become like, that's one of the things we'll get to that in a bit, but there is like a bit in this, this special where he does a line that years later, Ricky Gervais would literally just rip off. Yeah, I remember.
00:42:19
Speaker
Did you pick up on it? Yeah, because it's the one where he's talking into the camera. And the camera body was, he said. Irony, one of the many devices that we'll be using tonight.
00:42:30
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. As soon as I saw that, I was like, Oh yeah, that's the line. That's the one. Um, I think it's from when he gets, is it when he gets clarified that it's not Scotch, it's Scottish. I can't remember whereabouts it might be then. I can't remember whereabouts it came. I thought it was earlier than that. I thought it was really early on. Um,
00:42:58
Speaker
No, it's not early on. Check my notes. Yeah, it's just, it's after, it's after the Abrahams are hooked for hands. Yeah. So that's the bit we're going to come on talking about now. So like, I, the thing I really like about this is essentially there's a brilliant piece of improv in this bit where he's talking about it. And then the, the, the audience member says, no, it's only one hook. And he says, I can go away and check that.
00:43:38
Speaker
give the illusion of being a genuine event. Yeah, I might keep it in. Yeah. Well, that is just the best way to deal with the heck of that. I just, but I find that really just calling him a nonce. I suppose it, yeah. I suppose it only works if you're actually filming a special. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. He, uh, that, that bit about him, uh, you know, leaving it in to give the illusion of a genuine event.
00:43:52
Speaker
and remove it from the video as I can with everything you've just said. Which I think is brilliant.
00:44:05
Speaker
It's kind of, I looked at that as like a glimpse of what would then become his approach to comedy vehicle. Cause if you look at like, you know, the couple of episodes of comedy vehicle, we watch together, all that stuff of like, turn into the camera to talk to the audience at home and ignoring the audience in the room and, and all these kinds of little things. And, and, and even just like that line of giving the illusion that this is a genuine event. He's kind of said he's in print that that's what he wanted to achieve with comedy vehicle.
00:44:35
Speaker
was to show stand up for what it actually is. And none of this kind of like live at the Apollo cut away to a life. I can't remember the line that he said, but he said, if you come out and like do a joke about a black person and then the live at the Apollo approach would be to immediately cut to a black person in the audience laughing so that the audience at home knows it's okay. And he's like, that's, you shouldn't be allowed to do that.
00:45:02
Speaker
But yeah, so I really like that Abu Hamza material just for that, really. And then obviously, like you said, that line of Abu Hamza is being deported to America where he is guaranteed a fair trial. I really do. One of the many comic tools we'll be using tonight. And I'm pretty sure. And he definitely knows that he's only got one hook.
00:45:21
Speaker
Yeah, of course he does. But hooks for hands. Sounds better. Sounds better. Sounds funnier than a hook for hands. And it flows better, you know, if he's got, you know, to have to try and then there's a whole lot more scaffolding that you need to just explain that it's only one hook than it is to just say the phrase hooks for hands. But also I think, and I think he does it later as well, which is what we'll come to, that sometimes he'll
00:45:51
Speaker
he'll drop stuff intentionally. Yeah. Expecting the heckle. Yeah, yeah. And going, right, I've got that in the chamber. Yeah. To be like, if they say something. Whereas I think later,
00:46:10
Speaker
I wasn't sure with the whole scopes thing. I wasn't sure whether that was improved or not. But yeah, we'll have a look at it.
00:46:23
Speaker
But yeah, then obviously the BMP hanging around outside the Arsenal shop, their spiritual home. I thought it was a really great line. True or not, to be honest, I would have said other London clubs that I'm not necessarily going to name here. But yeah, I just thought it was a really funny line.
00:46:41
Speaker
And the other one, obviously you and I both being from Bradford, um, and growing up in kind of like multicultural areas, the next line really threw me because he said, send the Muslims back to where they came from. Bradford wood, green leads, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and other British industrial cities, which required cheap labor in the 1960s. It's so good. It's such a good line because it's.
00:47:06
Speaker
that, you know, that, that is kind of like the correct way of, of looking at it, where you're going to send them. That's where they're from. What I found was really interesting was that kind of section would work today. Yeah, of course it would.
00:47:21
Speaker
I mean, there's been absolutely no change. Yeah. I mean, obviously in the, uh, with, with the current rhetoric of all the whole stop, you know, stop the boats shit. I mean, to be fair, I would like to clarify that the, I don't want to call them the troubles because
00:47:39
Speaker
it's not an island, but that was going on in 2004 as well. Yeah, exactly. It wasn't quite as what's the word, like public kind of wasn't as open. Yeah. But if you look, if you look back at, this is essentially a time capsule and you're looking back at 2005 and thinking there's loads of stuff that hasn't changed. Do you know what I mean? Like, but you know, I, um, yeah, I just, I find it fascinating, but this, the next,
00:48:08
Speaker
the, when he then moves on to sort of talk about driving past the mosque and seeing the, you know, the BMP guys on one side of the road and the Muslims on the other side of the road. And he says to the cab driver, stop. I can, I can help here. And that's essentially like a version of him. Cause the audience by this point already know based on what he said earlier, they already know what he's going to do. And I think he's referred to that technique as killing the punch line.
00:48:38
Speaker
where it's like, it's already immediately obvious. So he got a massive laugh where it became obvious what he was going to do. And then he got laughs along the way because they weren't sat there waiting for a punchline cause they knew it was coming. So they were free to then laugh at the, at the stuff along the way. Yeah. Yeah. I found that, that, um, someone once said to him when he was young, it's not funny if you have to explain it.
00:49:07
Speaker
And he's gone. That challenge accepted. Yeah, exactly. That's essentially all he does. And it works so well. And yeah, I think you'll find it is funny. But like, yeah, so he's like, he's obviously he's blatantly telegraphed what the punchline is going to be there with the intention of just making, building it really slowly and hilariously that this is what's going to happen.
00:49:32
Speaker
but it's the act of it taking forever that is just so funny. It's the long drawn out element of it. The famous saying goes Brevity is the sort of wit, but I think he can go another way as he's been proved by everything that she would lead us.
00:49:53
Speaker
you know, it's not necessarily always the case that it needs to be like a neat little one-liner. No, his timing is a completely different level. Yeah. It's a different rhythm. But he's able to turn it on a dime. Yeah, of course he can. So when he needs a quick punch line. He'll do one. He can get one. Yeah. And to be fair, compared to everything else, this is all quite breezy and quick anyway compared to the rest of the stuff.
00:50:18
Speaker
he sort of ends the routine where he says he felt like he was misunderstood and a similar thing often happened to Jesus.
00:50:28
Speaker
and saying I'm not Jesus. But you need to think about it. Think about it in your own time. But it sort of underlines how arrogant and pretentious the character is. But if you listen to the way that he actually says it, he almost shies away from saying it because the other part of his brain's going, this feels really pretentious.
00:50:51
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? Like it was weird the way he said it. So basically that is the nine 11 routine in a nutshell. We've, we've done that one now.
00:51:02
Speaker
he then moves on and I've made a note here because he's, the next bit that he kind of goes onto is essentially an extended routine, just making fun of Americans. And he's kind of acknowledged that he wouldn't really do this routine now and that it feels a bit stereotypical and cheap, but that it was funny at the time. But just to kind of caveat that, that he has kind of acknowledged that it is a bit cheap.
00:51:30
Speaker
to just take the piss out of Americans. Like the opening sort of lines to the routine is where he says they don't read or watch the news. You know, they're not a curious people. Like what was he saying?
00:51:49
Speaker
in isolation. If they were in a bunker with a tea cozy. They wouldn't even have the curiosity to try the tea cozy and see if it had a hat. Yeah. Well, this is it. That's it. But he kind of says that.
00:52:06
Speaker
if they were if they were gonna if they were gonna bomb America they should bomb it with a weapon that Americans wouldn't be able to understand world geography examination papers which is so good shops that don't even now like even now I talked to
00:52:24
Speaker
I play games online and I'll regularly talk to Americans. And they genuinely just have no idea, even within America. They're like, I'm pretty good on my states. I can do, like, I know all of them. I'm good on the coast. But they'll be like, oh, yeah, that's near. So until they're like, no idea.
00:52:48
Speaker
Yeah. But like just that whole joke, it's like a really good example of a rule of three because every element of it is funny. Yeah, because it's the last one. Is it the metaphysical concept of shame? Yeah, where he says world geography examination papers, shops that don't have ban in the name or the metaphysical concepts of shame. Like each one of those is funny.
00:53:11
Speaker
and it builds in the right way but then he does it almost again but this time rather than doing a rule of three he actually says four things so he'll say observe them in their natural habitat the theme park the shopping mall the race riot or the high school massacre
00:53:27
Speaker
which again, it's quite a good one, but it feels... I see what he means, it does feel a bit cheap to kind of go down that route. But I think the difference is now, obviously they had some prior to that. Yeah. But now... They've had so many more. They've had so many. Yeah. It's going to sound really bad. Yeah, it's going to mean it like this. It sort of becomes hacky. Yeah.
00:53:55
Speaker
to do material about, just cause you ends. I suppose it's kind of a problem or not, but it's like,
00:54:04
Speaker
I'll caveat this with the fact that I've done no research, but at that time, I think the biggest one that they'd had was like Columbine. And then obviously since then, there's been all these like Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and all these things. So now it's kind of almost life has overtaken the kind of hyperbole that he was using. It's not hyperbole anymore.
00:54:32
Speaker
And then obviously, then obviously you get to the, uh, not unnaturally curious people wouldn't even be bothered to see if a T cozy and make a serviceable hot joke, which he then acknowledges he doesn't, he thinks he's stolen from spike Milligan or Billy Connolly. And funnily enough in the credits to the, uh, to the PC actually thanks them for that joke.
00:54:52
Speaker
because I think, you know, he does genuinely believe that he stole it. And what I really love is that when he tells that joke, the camera guy cut to a guy in the audience wearing a beanie hat. I didn't notice that. Which I thought was really brilliant. I don't know whether it's purposeful, but if not, it was perfect. What I found really interesting is obviously he then goes on to talk about
00:55:17
Speaker
the tea cozy working as a shop assistant at a branch of curries in Wolverhampton, which obviously reflects something that was in the news around about that time. But the audience really laughed at that joke and yet he launched into the whole deconstruction of it. Sort of talking about the doubt in the room, even though the doubt wasn't really there.
00:55:42
Speaker
They laughed at the joke a lot, and yet he still did the whole deconstruction thing as though they hadn't laughed at it. It was quite interesting. Yeah, because he's sort of expecting a certain reaction. Doesn't get one, but tough one, because it's already pre-written. Yeah, this is what's planned.
00:56:04
Speaker
I found the dig at Kerry's workers a little bit much, I think. Normally, I'm not that fussed for taste issues when it comes to stand-up and stuff. I can put up with a lot, to be honest. But from the end, the anti-Semitism, but Kerry's workers.
00:56:27
Speaker
That's right, you draw the line. Yeah, that's it, yeah. Absolutely. Just to clarify, the comic tool that Joe was using there was irony. And I'm not an anti-Semite, just to clarify that. Yeah, no.
00:56:44
Speaker
I don't know, it just, it felt cheap, you know, like demonizing lower-paid workers. Cause I think the line was something along the lines of would the T-cos be any less useful than the people who work at Currys already or something like that.
00:57:00
Speaker
I quite like that joke. Yeah, I mean, I'd like to because I've been in a Curry's and he's right. I agree. I was just there the other day. I don't like going into somewhere that is meant to be a special, not necessarily a specialist shop, but
00:57:15
Speaker
where you know more about the products and the people that are selling them. Now I kind of get, yeah, maybe that I need to be kind of experts and stuff, but there's always going to be that kind of like now, what would the equivalent be? Because obviously we still have curries, but it's not quite as ubiquitous as it was back then. So maybe it might be something like
00:57:41
Speaker
Primark or something like that but yeah mate like I get your point that maybe it is a little bit like punching down yeah I mean I don't know it's one of those things like it I just picked up on it but I suppose the the point to it is that and I think he said stuff about this before is that everyone has their things that irk them a little bit
00:58:07
Speaker
and again to caveat that anti-Semitism irks me. Like it's not a good thing. But obviously it was very clear with that joke when he mentioned that, made that comparison at the start. That bit. It's not. The butt of the joke clearly isn't the Jewish people. Yeah. And I suppose that's the point. Whereas with this Curry's joke, it's quite clear that he is just having a dig.
00:58:35
Speaker
at people that work in Currys. But also do you think it's that he's reinforcing the character that he's created? Oh yeah, no. That he would look down. That's what he would think. Yeah, he'd look down his nose at those people.
00:58:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's one of those things at the end of the day. The thing I really like about this routine is that he then goes on to essentially deconstruct how a Rule of Three is created. Because he goes through this thing of saying the cardigan, the mitten, the balaclava helmet, you know, explaining... Well, it's better in Aldershop because it's a military town.
00:59:15
Speaker
Lovely joke. Again, something that would probably irk the people of Aldershot. You'd probably change to say if you ever does it in there. Probably so. I quite like that he's essentially, throughout this whole routine, this next bit, he kind of just goes through his process of how he works on a joke. So he's like, I tried the same three things, but in a different order. And then I tried a different three things. And I spoke to, he always mentions the actor Kevin Elden.
00:59:44
Speaker
He says, I spoke to the actor Kevin Alden and he says, oh, well, the problem is that everything you've said is woolen. So the premise of the joke doesn't work. And my favourite bit of that was that when he first said, what the hat was.
01:00:03
Speaker
suggested to speak to. My first thought was, well, they're all made of wool. I know the audience. Yeah, exactly. It's not like, oh, I won't tell because I'm a comedian. It's like, I heard it when that's brilliant because now it's that signposting the joke first and going, right, well, we all know what the joke is now. Let's have fun.
01:00:29
Speaker
But then obviously, but then he goes in on to talk about like, well, you try to improvise different ones every night. And he said a line where he said, uh, I improvise like Eddie is art pretends to do.
01:00:40
Speaker
Which is brilliant because Eddie says I was saying it's much easier to destroy in every sentence to give the illusion of spontaneity. I mean this is like an early form of what again would become a trope for him of like bragging on other comics. To be fair in this sense I think in a more good-natured way because he does praise Eddie Azad in his book.
01:01:05
Speaker
and basically saying that Eddie's real skill or Eddie, Susie's real skill is in making prepared ideas look spontaneous. And then he obviously... Which is much more difficult than it looks. Yeah. But he basically explains that he himself, Stuart Lee, is not a skilled actor to be able to do that. And as we know, obviously Eddie, Susie, is a very skilled actor. So that stands to reason that they could do that.
01:01:34
Speaker
Stuart Lee basically says he has to build in spaces for real improvisation but then what happens is the scripted elements through the course of a long tour just stiffen up and become like calcified like they just become routine so then the improv bits are like the only spontaneous bits really
01:01:56
Speaker
But I just find it fascinating that it goes through all the mechanisms of how he develops a joke. I tried stick, I tried wood, I tried toaster. People were still confused. They wanted to know whether the toaster was working there or for sale. You know, it's a brilliant example of how jokes are made. And despite how silly it is on its surface,
01:02:18
Speaker
He's made the routine actually funny, but it is an effective how-to guide on writing a joke. Do you know what I mean? And it's clearly his audience. Yeah. Because he gets the three people to put their ideas in. Yeah. And gets window vein. What's the other ones? Oh, let me see. Window vein. Weather vane act of Connie Lingerson banana. Yeah. Well, but he doesn't say banana.
01:02:48
Speaker
No, the lady said banana. Yeah, but the lady says banana. Oh yeah, banana. And he literally goes banana. Which if you didn't notice, is so good because it's so clear that that's not how he would say banana. Yeah.
01:03:07
Speaker
But he says it exactly like that. He just repeats it how she says it, which makes it ten times funnier. But then the act of cunnilingus, they clearly are a stewardly fan. They know. It's where he then says we've moved into a realm where concepts can work in shops. But what I really like is it kind of
01:03:32
Speaker
them being so good at that improv goes against the point he was trying to make that improv is hard. So they ultimately just fuck him up.
01:03:42
Speaker
And yet it sort of, it puts him on the back foot and the audience are like, you know, sarcastically applauding him and jeering and whatever. But what I really love about how he ties this routine up is where he then sort of goes on to admit. So that joke about the Americans not even, you know, he says the first half's plagiarized and the second half doesn't work. Yeah, because you've just proved that.
01:04:07
Speaker
Yeah so he's just he's gone through this entire routine which by the way lasts about 10 minutes talking about all of this and then caps it all off by saying and by the way that joke doesn't work. I just think it's brilliant but then one of the best things here and I've picked up on this a couple of times.
01:04:25
Speaker
And this won't matter at all to anyone that isn't a comedian, I don't think, but the segue into the next section is superb, right? So obviously he's done the whole bit about America now. So that, you know, we've had the 9-11 stuff, then we've gone on to talking about America, right? And the next bit he's going to talk about is Scotland.
01:04:48
Speaker
Right? And here's how he gets from America to Scotland, right? Basically, he mirrors the language he used at the start of the routine, where he says, I was making a number of crass generalisations there about Americans, and I don't really believe any of them. Yeah. And then he goes on to talk about being adopted and finding out that he's got Scottish roots. Yeah. Right? So he basically says, he talks about notions of identity.
01:05:16
Speaker
and then says, oh, and I recently found out that my biological father is Scottish. And then that's it, he's into the Scotland routine. But it was so unassuming. Actually, there's a bit of a, and I don't, I wouldn't necessarily classify it as anti-Semitic in any way. But there was an interesting thing in terms of Jewish heritage. Yeah. Where, because you were saying about Scottish nuts, is, comes down from the father.
01:05:45
Speaker
Yeah, like a disability. Yeah, like a disability. But also, within Judaism, someone is Jewish, if their mother's Jewish. Right, OK. I believe, or it might be father.
01:05:59
Speaker
But it comes from one side or the other. Yeah, it comes from one side or the other. So essentially you are Jewish if one of your pair... I can't remember which side, but if that side is, if the other side isn't, then you're not Jewish. So it's really interesting how like the identity thing works there as well. Yeah, I know what you mean. But he segues into the whole Scottish thing, right? And the thing about this section,
01:06:26
Speaker
obviously he's doing this at the stand in Glasgow and I don't know if you noticed but there's a guy on the front row a fairly large guy I wrote this down who they keep really doesn't like him they keep cutting to it and he is not impressed at all right let me just pull up the exact thing that I wrote he's so angry
01:06:52
Speaker
big fat guy doesn't like him. This is coming from a man who's also large. I was looking for a more politically. Funnily enough, me, you and him could stand in a line
01:07:12
Speaker
be like the evolution of man. Yeah, they would only notice that he's Christ because he has sharp predominance to it. Yeah, exactly. But like the thing about this section is that obviously the context and the environment in which he's doing it, it's such an incredible feat of like holding your nerve.
01:07:30
Speaker
like the way he constantly belittles like the Scottish audience to their faces, building it and building it to the point where he essentially calls them all pedophiles is utterly exceptional. And he mentions in the book that this is essentially what you have to do to win over a Glasgow audience. You just have to bait them. They like it when you
01:07:56
Speaker
when you're kind of a bit mean to them. But yes, like you say, yeah. So I am not sure whether or not that was improv, which bit. So when he gets the heckle, the Robin Hood thing,
01:08:16
Speaker
Oh yeah. Because then he goes on to a big long rant and that's when Braveheart comes in. Yeah, but it's all about saying words. I think... I couldn't tell if he'd do that because it seemed like he was responding to them. Yeah. But I couldn't work out whether it was something that he'd do at every show.
01:08:40
Speaker
or if you could because he did keep saying scotch. Yeah. And is it just that hold you nerve of eventually someone's going to say something? Well, because they have to. I don't know if you noticed, but the first time he said it, the audience kind of jeered a little bit. Yeah, yeah, they did. But it was kind of like, it was enough that like, they know that you know, that it's not scotch. But yes, but because they didn't then he kept saying it. And I think that he's
01:09:10
Speaker
essentially baiting them into heckling. But that wouldn't work outside of Scotland. Yeah, maybe. Hold the shot. No one's gonna shout, it's Scottish. Because some of them probably won't even know.
01:09:29
Speaker
All right, no, so it says in his book here, during the Glasgow gig from which this text is transcribed, a foolish Scotchman has misunderstood my deliberate misuse of the word Scotch leading to a hilarious improvisation. Okay, yes, it was improved. Yeah.
01:09:44
Speaker
That's the problem with having the cliff notes, you see, you can look these things up. Yeah, that's fine. No, it's good to know. Because I was like, this would be amazing if that was planned. No, it will. According to the book, it's genuine improv. But then again, how do you know whether that's true? You just, you know, it's one of those things. But again, another rule, another great rule of three, secret cravings for shortbread, awful and heroin. Just brilliant toppers as well. Like with heroin supper, $2.95.
01:10:13
Speaker
all that kind of stuff. Also getting it deep fried if you can. It's a deep fried heroin. I made a note on this when I was watching this because round about this time is obviously he kind of it almost feels like he realises just what it is that he's doing.
01:10:30
Speaker
because he says, with like a little wry smile on his face, he says, I can hardly believe this is happening. He sort of looks away in like an almost like shy and reticent like manner and says, I can hardly believe this is happening with a little grin on his face and I genuinely believe that that's like a rare slip into the real stewardly. Do you know what I mean? Like he's managing to get away with this. That's him acknowledging fucking getting away with this one. You know, and he obviously... It does lead to my...
01:10:59
Speaker
I'm sorry, good girl. I'm going to say it does lead to my favourite line in the whole of the special is about it being the graffiti being done of William Wallace being gay.
01:11:18
Speaker
But it's done in Gaelic. Which is incredible because we've all made the joke about Gaelic sort of thing, but it feels like he's genuinely hit on something new at the time. But it's leading on to the Gaelic being the medieval homosexual patois.
01:11:39
Speaker
It's such a good mind. Which is so good. Like when you really dig down, that is glorious. And I mean, so like, before we get into this bit, we should say as well that you are a card carrying member of the LGBTQ plus community. I am a card carrying member. Card carrying member, yes. It's not just two heterosexual white dudes ripping on gay people.
01:12:04
Speaker
No, it's just one heterosexual. I do the ripping on gay people. Whilst they're sharing you on. Yeah, exactly.
01:12:15
Speaker
Just to kind of... It's fine, I can... I can induct you as like a temporary member. Just to allow me to make my jokes and then I'll run away. An intended temporary member. Funny. What was I gonna say? The one for me was just because it was so childish, but so brilliant. It's just like where they translated the graffiti on the wall that says, I am a gay.
01:12:40
Speaker
side William Wallace, brave heart. That wasn't the most childish bit though. The childish bit was brilliant. It's when he then goes on to, I wish the English heroes like Robin Hood and
01:12:57
Speaker
So-and-so and King Arthur. I wish that they were gay, but they're not. It's just William Wallace. Just William Wallace, the Scottish one. And it's specifically, but it's the pauses. They're just like, that's what makes it. Well, because then he's... He's just like them.
01:13:19
Speaker
like, stewing it. Because they're like, what can they do? But then somebody heckles and says obviously Robin Hood, clearly. And he sort of, again, that was that was an interesting improv where he sort of says about the thin denier tights. Offering as if there's no protection to the human leg.
01:13:41
Speaker
Denier is just a great comic. It's a lovely word, isn't it? Yeah, but we don't know what it sounds funny, but also like, it's, it's like that Rod Gilbert thing, isn't it? Of, uh, what's a togg? Have you seen that routine?
01:14:01
Speaker
So that's amazing. Rod Gilbert's got this brilliant routine where he talks about the tog rating of quilts and he's like, what is a tog? And he says like, but it starts at 10 and then it goes to 13.5. He's like, what kind of system of measurement is this, right? But the same thing kind of applies to denier in the sense that we don't really know what a denier is.
01:14:27
Speaker
Well, this is why it is an imperial that's just the most ridiculous measurement system ever. I couldn't tell you. Like the ones where it's like inches and feet. Yeah. And it's just like rather than just centimetres and metres that everything is multiples of 10 rather than just like, oh,
01:14:51
Speaker
how many cups? It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't. But, um, but no, Danny is a wonderful word that I've stolen as well. You know, the, uh, the cap poem of mine that you've still yet to hear. Yeah. Includes the phrase, um, thin Danny at heights just as a bit of a tribute or, or as when is an homage ripping someone off? I don't know. But yeah. And then I don't think that's close enough.
01:15:18
Speaker
It jumps into Scotland being invented in 1911 by the McGowan Suite Company to sell Highland Toffee. Because we all know and it's so good because it's essentially something like MacIntyre doing observational comedy about the fact that why do we care
01:15:41
Speaker
that it's Highland's toffee. But it's such his own way that it doesn't feel like observational comedy. And also it was almost thrown away as just another insult. He didn't go into the premise, he just kind of said it and moved on. And again, you get into another exceptional segue here into the next bit, which is a small routine about cab drivers, right?
01:16:06
Speaker
again, the segue uses the same language at the end of the routine as he used at the start where he says, you know, I made a lot of crass generalizations there about Scottish people the same way he said about American people. And he says, I don't believe any of that. And then he says, I'll give you an example. I got into a cab recently. And that's it. Bang, we're into a new routine. And
01:16:27
Speaker
what I love about this cam driver routine is that it opens with the phrase apropos of nothing which is a real stewardly phrase apropos of nothing I think all homosexuals should be killed like that was the opening to the routine and I think his words were as an opening gambit that's bold
01:16:53
Speaker
Well, did I tell you about the cab driver that I had the one time where, well, it wasn't a cab, it was an Uber, but. Same thing. He didn't say anything to me for, it was an hour's journey and he didn't say anything to me for 47 minutes. And on the 47th minute, he said to me, do you like knives? Right.
01:17:25
Speaker
exactly right so he said to me do you like that as an opening gambit is bold yeah do you like nice not quite as bold right but then i just said no not really and he didn't speak to me again for the rest of the journey that was the right answer it's incredible because how else are you meant to respond to that
01:17:46
Speaker
to be honest, yes, I like knives. If I'd have been 12, I would have said, yeah, knives are brilliant. But you know, yeah, I'm more thinking like,
01:17:56
Speaker
I could maybe get myself one of them sharpening stones. I didn't want to know where the question was going to go. I didn't want to then be in a lay-by on the A42 with him showing me his collection of knives in the boot or something. It's just why pick that moment to talk? Bizarre. And why pick that thing to say? Yeah. It's very strange. But yeah, so obviously this routine, he kind of says,
01:18:24
Speaker
how all homosexuals should be killed. So, Stuart Lee then goes into, well, why is that? You know, and he says, oh, it's because it's immoral or whatever, which Stuart Lee, you know, is rebuttal to that is, well, obviously, if you think about ancient Greece, and we take most of our morals from ancient Greece, and as far as they were concerned, the love between two men was like the most moral, profound kind of love. And this is where
01:18:48
Speaker
The punchline to that bit is the guy saying to him, well, you can prove anything with facts. Yeah. That is incredible. Especially then. Yeah. Because now you can imagine that entire section being done this year. Yeah.
01:19:08
Speaker
and it not needing to change at all. Well, if you think about it, based on society as it is today, everyone has their own different facts. You know, it's that phrase, isn't it? Or this is my truth. Do you know what I mean? Like everyone has their own different version of facts, which I think is quite interesting in the context of looking at this in 2005 versus 2023.
01:19:31
Speaker
But then he essentially uses that, again, as a little segue. The thing about this piece, because it is all stitched together bits, the segues are phenomenal for the most part. He starts talking about political correctness. He's like, shit, isn't it? Being fair to people.
01:19:52
Speaker
And he says, but you wouldn't have happened. What happened in May, which I assume is May of 2005 or even 2004, maybe when it was filmed, where Ron Atkinson, and I remember when this happened. I remember seeing it on the news and they discussed it on Match of the Day and everything. Ron Atkinson referred to, I think it was Marcel Desai who played for Chelsea at the time.
01:20:14
Speaker
as a lazy n-word, which obviously in the routine, Stewart Lee uses the actual word. And it's weird to say this or to think this, but the use of that word is again almost a trope of his work at times. He has done it on a number of occasions to make a point.
01:20:38
Speaker
Like, do you remember I showed you that episode of Comedy Vehicle All About Context? He used it once in that routine and it's similar here.
01:20:49
Speaker
When he uses the word, I don't know if you picked up on this, but it absolutely silenced the room. Yeah. Even though all he was doing was quoting someone else. Yeah. And not endorsing it in any way. And kind of almost like, you know, even then goes on to clarify how he doesn't like the use of that word and all that kind of stuff. But it absolutely floored the room. Do you know what I mean? Like that word's got such power to like completely shatter a room.
01:21:18
Speaker
yeah so it was so interesting to watch it but i don't know yeah it's it is interesting because that was around like the 40 45 minute mark i think maybe maybe a bit later
01:21:33
Speaker
because it was more than an hour on it, but it was at that kind of mark where you kind of, I guess for those that are listening that aren't comics, that you kind of intentionally in a full show, you want to put something around that time where it might kind of jolt the audience a bit. It's something that's a bit more serious. It doesn't necessarily need to be serious, but that's when people's attention spans tend to drop and there's got to be kind of
01:22:02
Speaker
Like, my show has a bit at that moment, but yeah, it's the first time really that I've known it'd be done in that way. And it worked on me, certainly, that I was kind of like, I was definitely taken aback. I wasn't expecting it. To be honest, I've seen this show 10 times probably.
01:22:27
Speaker
it's it's one of those things you know like people have their stuff that they just put on not as background noise necessarily but they just kind of throw it on yeah just to have sound in the room that's the same that's the same as background noise but yeah this is what i'll do i'll just pick a thing a stewartly thing and just shove it on so i've seen this you know i've seen or heard this this routine about 10 15 times and it does always still make it makes
01:22:54
Speaker
my hair stand on end almost like it kind of really grabs my attention no matter what I'm doing because you just don't expect to hear that work.
Satire on Racism and Identity
01:23:03
Speaker
It's quite intentional. It works.
01:23:09
Speaker
What I find really interesting is obviously he's already gone to great lengths to put scaffolding around it, to already qualify it by saying, I believe in political correctness. I think you should be fair to people. You know, he's basically gone out of his way to say, look, before I get into this, I am not a racist, you know, and then, but then obviously off the back of it.
01:23:30
Speaker
it then becomes this really clubby type of material about Jimmy Hill. For me, it's the strongest routine. I quite like it, because it's a way of talking about race without talking about race. Well, to make Jimmy Hill the butt of the joke. Yeah, and he's essentially satirising it, satirising racism and saying, you hating someone because of the colour of their skin is as stupid as someone being hated because he has a big chin.
01:24:00
Speaker
What I love about this is where he says, the bit where he says if we'd be talking about a group of disenfranchised ex-slaves with big chins, he said you wouldn't have, I think he said like a blues root, so like you wouldn't have what we call blues music today. And then he goes and does this thing where he says, woke up this morning, got a big chin.
01:24:28
Speaker
I piss myself every single time I hear that bit. And then obviously all the little toppers on it, where he says, a man was murdered in Hull this morning, we believe the violence to be chin-motivated. Yeah. And then getting a skeleton of the jaw of a blue whale, which is the biggest chin in the world. And beating Jimmy Hilda death with it. Being Jimmy Hilda death with it. As an act of what can be described as chin on chin violence.
01:24:53
Speaker
It's outstanding. It's satirizing the media's coverage of Black on Black Cry, but everything like that. It's like, it's so good. Because he's talking about it without having to talk about it. Yeah, exactly. And then obviously Segway's into talking about Gary Lineker and he uses the phrase velvet howl. Yeah, little velvet. Yeah, it's not a little velvet howl.
01:25:21
Speaker
He refers to Gary Lineker as being like a velvet owl and then says that he's sexually aroused by the idea of obese children dying. It's just wonderful the language that he uses.
01:25:36
Speaker
Tell me about it. The entire contents, the entire daily allowance of saturated fats in one packet of crisps. And I eat about six of them a day. And he's like, and I just thought that was good value for money.
01:25:51
Speaker
Such a good line. But when he talks about Gary Lineker and he says the only thing worse than what no one clapping is the sound of one person clapping. It's just a mental guy.
01:26:07
Speaker
I was going to say it goes, I don't know what the segue is, but I just have written down the Hulk, where he's talking about what colour the Hulk is. I can't remember. I didn't note that down. It mustn't have been as easy to identify all of a sudden he was talking about the Hulk, but obviously then he gets into the Ang Lee routine, which is such a good routine again. Because it's that repetition and he does it, not just what he says.
01:26:37
Speaker
but the way he says it, everything is precise and he refuses to change it and just keeps hammering it. And actually, what I like about that is that he's very clearly, when Ang Lee is telling him that Ang Lee is not the same as Ang Lee, he's clearly doing that intentionally because he could easily say,
01:27:03
Speaker
Angli is not the same as Angli. No, but he pronounces Angri. Yeah. But with an L. Yeah. And essentially what he's saying is right, that Angli is different to Angli. Yeah. But it's just so ridiculous.
01:27:19
Speaker
Yeah. But what I love is that then he gets into the, there's a line in it that I really love where he gets into, I think he says something like, there's a four way call with the publicists and the editor, editor of the newspaper. And Ang Lee says, you're anti Taiwanese. He says, I don't even know what you're talking about. You Taiwanese idiot.
01:27:39
Speaker
Well, at one point, he says something like that and he's like, I don't know nothing about Taiwan. I don't even know where it is. Yeah, it's not like that. And then the thing for me is that Ang Lee then claps back at him. Yeah. And says his joke back to him. Yeah. And it's just stuff like that. I really want to know if Ang Lee had a response to that bit.
01:28:07
Speaker
I don't know about how to respond to the bit, I don't think it's even on his radar, but it is in the book what actually happened. Did he actually meet him? Well, yes. He interviewed him. Yeah, all of that stuff is true. He did. He's worth it to confuse him for that movie because it's horrible. Yeah, it was an awful film. It wasn't a whole film. He said,
01:28:30
Speaker
Something along the lines of he says, I know it isn't funny to confuse angry and angry. He said, I know this isn't funny. It's not especially meant to be. I can't remember how I thought of this joke, but I knew immediately that there was 10 minutes in it.
01:28:46
Speaker
Well, even just the first one, Alan, because it's the way he leads up to it as well. And the fact that he does it every time and it's the, you're directing the Hulk film, you must feel very proud.
Punchline Techniques
01:29:01
Speaker
It's the fact that he says that every time, rather than just doing the, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
01:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, in the same cadence and everything. Yeah, but it's the value goes. So you're directing Hulk? He doesn't need to do that. Yeah, no, he doesn't, but he does it every time. And again, that's what he calls killing the punchline of like, he's just battering them into submission with this thing that he knows he's gonna, they know what's coming next. So then it's just a case of listening out for the changes and stuff. Then to end it,
01:29:34
Speaker
on like a really terrible sort of hacky tooth herty jaw. But he doesn't even make him the hack. He makes it about Ang Lee. No, exactly. That everything is. He's the one that decides to have it. But again, it's because he can't remember.
01:29:54
Speaker
it's still another perfect like shaggy dog story routine because it ends in such pointlessness like that almost everyone knows yeah what i love about bits like that is everyone knows that it's bullshit it's utter bobbins yeah complete bullshit because everyone's in on the joke
01:30:14
Speaker
yeah it makes it funnier yeah it's you know but that's that's the point that's what you kind of sign up for when you you go watch stewartly but um then obviously the the next bit was like a really jarring segue into when he just starts shouting about who likes ice cream or whatever it was yeah i didn't get that bit what the ben Elton bit yeah maybe it's just that i
01:30:45
Speaker
And maybe I don't have the frame of reference for kind of who Ben Allen is, et cetera.
Compromise in Comedy
01:30:52
Speaker
Like I know him from like the young ones, but I don't think I have as much cultural awareness of that kind of era.
01:31:01
Speaker
find it as funny. And to be honest, I think so that the thing is right. And essentially the reason for this is obviously Stuart Lee sort of grew up or came into alternative comedy, idolizing like the young ones and that kind of stuff as everyone from his generation did. And Ben Elton was kind of like the figurehead for that stuff. You know, he hosted Friday Night Live and
01:31:25
Speaker
which was like one of the first alternative stand-up shows on television and obviously created the young ones and all that but then as he got older he sort of segued into this career of like he created We Will Rock You with Queen and all that kind of stuff and essentially became like a member of the establishment
01:31:44
Speaker
And ultimately, so, yeah, she really rips on him because he essentially, it's not, there's a line in it where he says, uh, what was it? Something about a consistent set of principles or something. That was like a dig at, at Bennell and essentially changing his entire, just selling cars. But I just love the way, regardless of whether you kind of get it and stuff in terms of the rhythm, the way he did that routine.
01:32:14
Speaker
who likes Osama bin Laden? Yay. Who likes bin Laden? Oh, no one. Yeah. Yeah. And then also adding the topper of in no way coerced or, I can't remember the exact word in, but that kind of, we have an opinion that has in no way been changed rather, actually, it's just you.
01:32:34
Speaker
Yeah. And to be honest, the Ben Elton stuff was like essentially a bridge for him to get from where he was to where he needed to be. Like the next section is all about like compromise. So obviously the Ben Elton stuff is kind of, he's sort of like the poster boy almost, if you like, for compromise.
01:32:56
Speaker
Ben Elton was on Parkinson's and Parkinson's says to him, why do you think everyone hates you? And Ben Elton said, because in this country people don't like success. And he was wrong about that. The real answer is much simpler. People in this country don't like Ben Elton. Which is a great, just such a good joke. It's just a joke. Like it's the whole kind of, I don't do punch lines thing.
01:33:17
Speaker
Yeah, but it is a 100% punchline. He sort of uses that Ben Elton bit to segue then into talking about compromise because he sort of then says, the line he uses, he says, I have more sympathy for what we call in the trade Elton's compromise.
01:33:37
Speaker
And then he goes on to talk about the fact that he directed Jerry Springer, the opera and all that kind of stuff. And doing that, he essentially had to compromise some of his own principles and meet people like Michael Portillo and Cherie Blair. Yeah. But like for me, right? And this, this is always the bit for me where, cause the Ben Elton stuff was so high energy.
01:33:59
Speaker
This is always the bit I forget about when I'm thinking about this special. Yeah, because the energy is lower. It's the compromises bit, because I always remember the Princess Diana bit, because it's so clear. And I remember the Ben Elton bit, because it's so clear. And then the bit that goes in between them is always the bit where if ever I'm talking about it, I always forget about it. But it's a really small bit. So like he describes, obviously, meeting Michael Portillo.
01:34:24
Speaker
And he says he doesn't want to have to meet Cherie Blair because he was one of two million people that marched against a husband's war, or he would have done if he hadn't been drunk or something. I can't remember what the line was that he said. Yeah. I know it was a different thing that he was marching for, that one he said that he actually did.
01:34:42
Speaker
Yeah, that was it. Yeah. And this is what I'm saying. I always end up forgetting about this, but you know, when he's like, Oh, you don't, you don't even want me in the building. Cause if I'm there, I'm going to say something, you know, and she's not, she's not coming in. That was the thing. She's not coming on her own. She's coming with the president of the spastic society, which obviously is reading and scope now. But was that what it was called at the time?
01:35:03
Speaker
I don't know. I know that's what it was originally called. I'm not sure. 2003, 2004 was when Jerry Springer, the opera was out. So it could have been, I know it's called scope now, but again, this ends on like such a sort of nothing punchline almost.
01:35:23
Speaker
where he sort of says, he talks about the people in Basra and Baghdad and stuff, the children being crippled for life. Then he turns to the woman from scope and says, maybe you can have a rummage round in your charity shops and find them some cardigans. I don't know, it's sort of almost like, again, a disappointing punchline.
01:35:42
Speaker
because it feels like a damn pending to like what it was building towards. Yeah, maybe. But I don't know. He says in the book, this often didn't get a laugh and I don't understand why. It's black humour, but it's not against scope beneficiaries or the victims of war. No.
01:35:58
Speaker
I don't necessarily think that it's because it was dark. It just wasn't a strong enough point. Not as the stuff that had come before it. No, I think that's the thing. And then obviously segues into the final section, which is the Princess Diana section.
01:36:14
Speaker
is outstanding. Which is unreal.
Satire on Princess Diana's Death
01:36:16
Speaker
Like this is one of my favorite bits of this whole special. And the reason I like it so much is because this is essentially the effort to tie it back in. You know, he tied it, this whole notion of national grief and whatever, tied it back into, um, to the star. So I really liked the way that it kind of dovetails together. In England, we're quite reserved.
01:36:42
Speaker
not necessarily that, but we're quite critical of Americans and the way that they are quite brash. This, that and the other. And especially not that we thought that they were overreacting with 9-11, but it's that kind of belief. And then he turns out his head and says, but look at what we as a country were like when Princeton had a bet. And it's the kind of holding a mirror of society.
01:37:11
Speaker
What I really like about this routine is that he's even said in the book that really in 2005 there was no reason to do this routine because she'd been dead for the best part of decades. But that's what's good about it, is that there's been enough time.
01:37:27
Speaker
then to be able to do that bit. There's been enough time, but it just, essentially, I think what he's saying is that it wasn't really relevant to anything. And what he basically said was, there's a bit in it where he says, oh, and as you will know, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain has been in the news again. And he says in the footnotes, I'm saying this to convince both myself and the audience that it's fine to do this routine about someone who's been dead now for the best part of a decade.
01:37:53
Speaker
as if to justify its inclusion by saying, look, it's relevant to world news events or whatever. What I really like. But the fountain is the brilliant bit. The what? The fountain is the brilliant bit of it. The him creating his own fountain. What? That's your favorite bit of it?
01:38:11
Speaker
Yeah. You see, for me, it's all about the act out of the ET inflatable. Yeah, so, yeah, there is that. But I think just a line of, I'll make my own fountain. Yeah. That will be a Princess Turner's Memorial Fountain fountain. Yeah, by laying on the ground with a colander of my penis. Yeah, but it's the idea that he's doing a memorial fountain for the Memorial Fountain. Yeah. Which is just incredible.
01:38:39
Speaker
a Princess Diana Memorial fountain fan. But yeah, the ET thing is just insane. Because it's so long that you forget about the ET costume. You do, but it's like, again, because he mentioned it right at the start of the routine, and then he says... He did it just before he says it.
01:39:01
Speaker
but there's long enough that you're not automatically thinking of it straight away. And it's he lives long enough of a pause for you to get there just in time for him to say it. But it's so precise. It's so good. It's perfectly pissed like in terms of how he's timing and everything with it like when he's switching between the two parts of the husband and the wife. So basically
01:39:25
Speaker
for anyone who's listening who hasn't seen it and i hope you have to be honest with you because why would you be listening to this if you haven't seen it this that would be insane and mental what is wrong with you basically the uh he kind of speculates he does that thing that we all try and do a stand-up where it's like what's the most ridiculous place i can take this to any sort of speculates
01:39:48
Speaker
What kind of person would think that's a good idea to leave a life-size inflatable ET instead of flowers outside Princess Diana's home on the day that she died? Like, who would think that's a good idea? And he goes through this whole insane act out of this woman. Because I remember when this happened, by the way. Like, I remember getting out of bed and putting the TV on and then going into my parents' bedroom and saying, Princess Diana's died. And I think I was like, you know, 11 or 12 or something. I remember it happening clear as day.
01:40:19
Speaker
with Michael Sisson's on BBC News. I don't remember it that clearly. But I remember coming downstairs and my mum just being stood in the middle of the room. Like it was like Close Encounters of the Third Kind sort of thing. And she's just like staring at the TV and I'm like, what? And then she said it and I was like, oh,
01:40:43
Speaker
Like I was young enough that it didn't really affect me. It didn't really affect me, but I just love this whole, because it did ring true to me where like literally I did get out of bed in the same way that that wife did and go into the other people in my house and be like, look, this has happened. And my mum was like, oh, what? Like, you know, it's early morning, just like the husband did. Yeah. Maybe not that every single time you said you needed to get up.
01:41:08
Speaker
Yeah. So good. Go away. Just tell me what it is and then I'll get it. Yeah. But like when he says the timing for me is the bit where he says, uh, look, I've got work at seven tomorrow. It's not today. It's just that lingering before he says the word tomorrow. But I 100% agree with that because I would be like, today is by lighting.
01:41:35
Speaker
Yeah, but just the time in between I've got work at seven and then that little pause that was the perfect amount of time before he then said tomorrow was so good. And the other thing that really jumps out about me is when she finally tells the husband about what's actually going on. And he goes, no. Yeah, because I thought because he's building it up so much that the expectation is going to be that he's going to not give a shit.
01:42:04
Speaker
And he took it a different way. But the best bit is obviously he's like, no, and he goes, my favorite line in the whole Rick scene when he goes, not the Queen of Hearts.
01:42:20
Speaker
So good. It's just so good. And even after he says we better go get her a life-size blow-up thing of eating. It's his wife's reaction of he better go quick because they're gonna run out. It's just gonna be scores of people trying to buy these eating.
01:42:46
Speaker
that to me is the best part of the routine in a nutshell because then obviously he goes on to talking about how he'd kind of made that up and it wasn't an ET or someone said to him after a gig it wasn't an ET it was an ALF and then again he kind of runs it into the ground trying to explain what an ALF is. Do you remember ALF by the way?
01:43:06
Speaker
I don't remember him, but I know what half is. Yeah, but just for me, the end of that Princess Diar routine was perfect as it was. And then he went on and carried on. But then he got into obviously the fountain stuff where he sort of said about doing your own tribute and just pissing in the street. Yeah, into a colander, which everyone has now the image of that. And that would look like a fountain.
01:43:35
Speaker
Yeah, but then him saying, sort of, children can play in it and stuff. It's like just this mad stuff that you say. Yeah, because he's essentially saying, well, this, this was as safe and as appropriate for kids to play in, as the one that they built, that actually had kids to play in. I'd forgotten about that because then he said, when he was talking about the original fountain, he said, I don't know, I think it was made of sheets of ice.
01:43:59
Speaker
It's a slight tush and cheek to life. Yeah, that's it. But yeah, and then obviously, you know, he kind of ends, he ends the whole sort of special there, really. He said, if a policeman asks you, what are you doing? What on earth do you think you're doing? Again, perfect pause. And then he says, Madam, just say I'm paying tribute in the only way I understand to the memory of Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales. And in the book, he's even said, because that's the last line of the show.
01:44:27
Speaker
in the book, he said in the footnotes, is this an end? No. Pathetic. Because it's not a punchline, is it really? But then what I find really fascinating is he ends the show by saying, I've been Stuart Lee. Thanks a lot for bearing with us. Now he says that at the end of a lot of his shows, and I find it fascinating that he says us and not me. Is it just me?
01:44:50
Speaker
No, no, I did pick up on that. I didn't know if it was that there was... Obviously, I don't have the context that he says multiple shows. Yeah, he says it all the time. I assumed that there might have been an issue at the venue and things started late.
01:45:05
Speaker
now he says he says it quite a lot and like but even when he does podcasts and stuff he'll say thanks for having us but there's just him and I find it interesting because two questions flash up in my mind number one in a touring context is he thanking them on behalf of the entire you know the team because
01:45:24
Speaker
was what my assumption was. Just like him and his tour manager, I think this guy called James Hingley, I think, you know, the guy who drives him around and manages stuff or the more interesting angle. Is he thanking the audience on behalf of him, Stuart Lee, the writer and operator of the show and Stuart Lee, the character?
01:45:45
Speaker
I'd prefer to think it's the second, but it's probably not. Yeah, it's probably the first. So that brings us to the end after some technical difficulty, I think you'll agree. Yeah. That brings us to the end of our walkthrough analysis, unjustified quoting of
01:46:08
Speaker
stand-up comedian by Stuart Lee. So I suppose all that's left for me to say, Joe, is thank you for walking through this with me, for putting up with my... Are you putting up with us? He has multiple personalities. I cannot claim as such. That's fine. I'm not that interested, Joe. But no, thank you for walking through this with me and for being open to indulging my
01:46:37
Speaker
I don't even know what the word is. Obsession. Fetish. Fetish is a good word for indulging in my fetish. What I love about it is I get to experience it as a newbie again, because you're experiencing it as a newbie. As a stewbie? As a stewbie. I think we'll keep that. We'll keep stewbie. But no, thank you, Joe. I appreciate it. Nice.
01:47:02
Speaker
Yes, next time we are doing 90s comedian, which I will sort a copy of, tell you where to get and we'll we'll get walking through that one. Cool. See you next time, Joe. Cheers. Thanks, man.
01:47:54
Speaker
Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!