Comedy fans will need no introduction to Stewart Lee. Over the last couple of decades he's garnered something of a reputation as, how to put this, not really a people person. His recent excellent "Comedy Vehicle" shows on the BBC haven't done much to rehabilitate that opinion.
So I was a little apprehensive going in. He started the show by explaining this was a work-in-progress for his television show, and would be in two half-hour halves to rehearse material for two half-hour television shows. The first half would be about wealth and inequality; the second half about Islam and islamaphobia. My heart sank.
I needn't have worried. The next hour was excellent and very clever, all with an air of critical self-awareness and outright hostility to a large populist festival crowd (which is funnier than it sounds).
Lots of good routines (especially his reaction to losing out to Graham Norton at the BAFTAs, and why he was doing "kids say the funniest things" BBC panel-show material at his age) and incredible timing - just when you thought he'd taken something as far as it could go he took it further. Even his obligatory Islam bit was nicely done. Bonus points for using the phrase "Brechtian analysis".
All in all I really enjoyed it. A good start to Day 2 ...
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