Stewart Lee

The Stand announce Fringe programme

The Stand has unveiled its 2013 Edinburgh Fringe programme, with Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and Alexei Sayle among the big names playing the club.

Stewart Lee: Farewell, BBC TV Centre

Having been home to everyone from Roy Castle to Richard Stilgoe, the closure of the BBC TV's old magical headquarters is a sad day for British culture.

Stewart Lee: Who is Kevin Eldon?

Kevin Eldon is described as British comedy's most prolific supporting star - and for the first time, he's got his own show, It's Kevin, starting on BBC Two. Kevin's friend and long time collaborator Stewart Lee introduces who exactly this Kevin Eldon bloke is.

From the moment comedian Bridget Christie announces herself as an ideal woman for Islamic fundamentalists - "I haven't had an education and you can't see me" - the polemical tone of her act is made clear. And she does not fail to deliver, in either sabre-toothed satire on a society that thinks feminism is a dirty word or in above-and-below the belt punches at the violence, abuse and misogyny women experience around the world.

Fellow comedian Fred MacAulay plays all the male and one of the female characters needed to illustrate her points. Her husband gets some revealing shots fired at him, too, but as he is Stewart Lee he can probably handle it.

Top 20 comedy shows in London - March

A real bumper month, featuring Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard, Doctor Brown, Stewart Lee, Louis CK, Tape Face, Andrew Maxwell, Red Nose Day fundraisers, and plenty of clubs ...!

The Alternative Comedy Experience made an excellent point about its subject - if only it were a little bit funnier.

When did 'alternative' become a dirty word in comedy circles? Early on in The Alternative Comedy Experience (Comedy Central), Stewart Lee noted that 'for an entire generation of people, alternative comedy is a pejorative term', which led to a cracking definition of what the term alternative comedy actually means: 'Every second joke is funny.'

The tongue was firmly in cheek but there's a serious mission behind Lee's latest comedy caper. Disgruntled by the relentless commodification of comedy - the stadium tours, the DVDs, the rent-a-gob TV panel shows - Lee is after giving a chance to comedians with an edge to them. Let's kick Michael Mcintyre and the pack of mainstream comics who dominate TV's comedy schedules into touch.

It's a noble cause but, of course, The Alternative Comedy Experience, which consists of stand-up highlights from an Edinburgh club, is tucked away late at night on a minority channel. No scaring of the horses there, but it's a start. Comedy, like rock music in 1976, has become safe and complacent, the one-time young guns suckered into safety by money. You can scarcely blame them, but I will anyway.

My only wish is that it had been a bit funnier. Issy Suttie, Peep Show's Dobbie, and token crazy German Henning Wehn, seemed like safe, first-episode choices when here was a chance to really roam around comedy's outer fringes. David O'Doherty was the pick of the unfamiliar faces, coming up with the gag of the night which started with the economic crisis and ended with badminton. But it wasn't nearly enough.

For the most part, Lee's off-stage chats with the comedians easily eclipsed anything that had gone down on stage, prompting the idea that Lee should have a stab at being an alternative chat show host. That would be one with no guests.

It's been too long since we've seen deliciously downbeat comedian Stewart Lee on our TV screens so, while we wait for him to park his Comedy Vehicle again, it's good to find him at the wheel of this new stand-up series. Promising an edgier alternative to the stable of naughty-but-nice comedians favoured by the likes of Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, Lee invites largely unsung acts on stage at The Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh. Opening the series, Lee introduces Henning Wehn, self-proclaimed German Comedy Ambassador to Great Britain, and Isy Suttie, Peep Show's Dobby, who we last saw putting the wind up Beggsy in Great Night Out.

Radio Times review

The popular image of stand-up nowadays is of arena tours, massive-selling DVDs and appearances on TV panel shows. But Stewart Lee wants to wrest what is known as "alternative comedy" away from the pejorative backwater where it's been languishing. In truth, that means a series of lower-profile - though very funny - comedians on stage at the Stand in Edinburgh. Henning Wehn, Isy Suttie, Boothby Graffoe, David Kay, David O'Doherty and Glenn Wool are in the line-up - and the conversations with Lee are bite-sized gems.

Is it the recession? The Tories? The procession of fresh-faced ob-coms filling the O2 with their jaunty musings on social-media etiquette and supermarket self-service checkouts? Who knows. But there's little doubt that what older readers will recognise as alternative comedy is undergoing a mini-renaissance. Alexei Sayle has returned to stand-up and this new series sees Stewart Lee, who has flown the flag through alt.com's fallow years, introducing comedy from The Stand in Edinburgh. It's simultaneously refreshing and frustrating.

Tonight's opener features Isy Suttie, David Kay, Boothby Graffoe, Henning Wehn, Glenn Wool and David O'Doherty. But not for very long: at half an hour, and with ads and six comedians per show, it means approximately one and a half gags each - although the same half-dozen will be returning for more across the 12-part series, which showcases a total of 20 stand-ups. It's great to see more marginal comic turns getting exposure, but frustrating that we aren't allowed to see them in full flow, at least tonight.

Stewart Lee's history of stand-up on TV

Iconoclast comedian Stewart Lee knows TV's delicate relationship with live comedy better than anyone. Ahead of his Comedy Central series showcasing leftfield comics he outlines the history of stand-up on television...