Friday, February 26, 2016

Stewart Lee and Will Self



Good news. A new series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle starts on BBC2 at 10pm on Thursday 3 March.

Stewart Lee is interviewed on the Guardian website today (and in tomorrow's paper?) by Will Self:
On stage, Lee is apparently an embittered, envious, self-lacerating man, caught in a ferocious double-bind: if he’s unsuccessful it’s because his audience are stupid shits who don’t get his jokes; and if he’s successful it’s because he’s a stupid shit churning out jokes that confirm his audience in their prejudices. So convincing is this act – if indeed it is an act – that I became intrigued: was the “real” Lee quite as prickly as his performance persona? In order to find out I asked him over for a serious sit-down.
It's good stuff, but I wish someone would tell Self to stop saying "self-reflexive".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think in this interview this Self is, himSelf, or that self previously played in interviews with Lee by Armando Iannucci and by Chris Morris viz https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=sOCyADJaK_E ?

Bill le Breton

Anonymous said...

Or is Self playing the 'Self' or even the self that Self thinks Lee wants or needs him to play for Lee to be Lee or stage-Lee with or without 'make-up'?