stewart lee
When you invite Russell Brand onstage at an awards bash you don't know quite what you are going to get. So, paradoxically, the GQ Awards should not really have been surprised earlier this week when Brand referred to the sponsors' past when he said: “If anyone knows a bit about history and fashion, you know it was Hugo Boss who made uniforms for the Nazis. But they looked f***ing amazing.”
"Three stars but it read like a Five." Well, that's it. I'm joining the star brigade. When the Edinburgh Fringe kicks off I'll be reviewing as many shows as I can while retaining my sanity and will be giving each of them a star-rating out of five as all major comedy coverage now does.
Josie Long was one of my favourite comedians even before she co-founded Arts Emergency to help students study arts degrees. I don't always agree with her but I admire the way that she throws herself headlong into everything she does, whether it is her pursuit of social justice or her hobby of outdoor swimming.
I'm usually reluctant to give the opposition the oxygen of publicity, but this week Time Out's comedy section has done a nice round-up of the Edinburgh Fringe's work-in-progress shows coming up in London. I'd been working on a similar piece myself to launch BTJ's new Preview Section and will be posting Preview of the Day tweets to highlight the shows you really must see
I enjoyed Billy Bragg's latest album Tooth & Nail when it came out earlier this year and now, thanks to Johnny Vegas, Kevin Eldon, Stewart Lee, Ross Noble, Ricky Grover, Phill Jupitus, Neil Morrissey and Samuel West I've been enjoying the track Handyman Blues again. In case you haven't heard, Johnny Vegas directed the other names mentioned plus the Barking Bard in the video for the song.
Stewart Lee recently wrote an article in the New Statesman about the lack of right wing comedians. I sort-of doubt if Simon Evans is a card-carrying Cameronite, but there is something distinctly conservative about him. Not in a horrible Bernard Manning/Bob Monkhouse way, but in his love of traditional old values.
It's amazing what you can find when you go rummaging around in your cellar. This feature on Richard Herring and Stewart Lee appeared in Vox (a monthly magazine from the NME's publishers) in May 1995 to tie in with the first TV series of Fist of Fun on BBC2 and was one of the first comedy features I wrote (excuse the clunky bits). It is a real Blue Peter-style time capsule, interesting for all sorts of reasons.
You won't see much of Stewart Lee in his latest TV series starting on February 5. He is executive producer/curator of Comedy Central's The Alternative Comedy Experience and only crops up briefly interviewing the acts between their appearances.
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