There was a point during Stewart Lee’s final Comedy Vehicle when I thought I could see the cogs moving. I thought I’d cracked it and knew what he was doing. And then he went and pulled the rug and dismantled the comedy process further, going out in excellent style. I’m not sure if we should be analysing this show though. As he persists in saying to speccy interrogator Chris Morris, De-Niro-in-Deer-Hunter style, “this is this”.
Editor's note 2020: Before his current show Adam Kay did a show celebrating the work of Tom Lehrer. Beyond The Joke invited Kay to shed a little more light on Mr Lehrer.
Every so often I find myself interviewed by journalists – generally because some show I’ve written on is starting on TV and all the actors are busy – and I get asked the same fucking bunch of questions. (Except by the excellent Bruce Dessau though I’m sure.)
I went to see Adam Riches in Coach Coach at the Soho Theatre the other week and I thought that managed to squeeze in every sports movie cliche in the book. But then last night I saw Eddie the Eagle and I think Riches might have been trumped. This film has it all, from alcoholic coach seeking redemption to working class hero going for gold. The only thing it doesn’t have is working class hero winning gold. But as the film’s pay-off says, winning isn’t everything, doing your best is.
Anyone who has visited Glasgow will know what a seductive city it is. I was there for the Comedy Festival a couple of weeks ago and even though I’ve got a partner and family in London I still thought about moving there. So I can totally relate to Josie Long’s new slightly autobiographical four-part comedy about a Londoner relocating.
One thing in particular intrigues me about Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. It felt as if he was doing warm-ups and works-in-progress for this series for at least a year in advance around the UK. I assumed that this was to get every phrase, every comma, every pause in the right place. And then along comes episode 5 and, unless he is pulling the wool over the liberal intelligentsia’s eyes and engages plants and stooges like a hack magician, he frequently seems to be winging it here.
My partner couldn’t join me for Francis Veber’s The Painkiller last night as she was at the theatre elsewhere. She had gone to see a play by another French writer, Jean Genet’s The Maids, at Trafalgar Studios. In an ideal world The Painkiller should have been at the Trafalgar – it used to be the Whitehall Theatre, London’s home of farce. And there isn't a more farcical – in a Good Way – play in the West End at the moment than this romp starring Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon.
Russell Kane has spoken out about people making jokes about his real age.
Veteran comedian John Dowie is writing his autobiography and is hoping to finance it via crowdfunding.
The finalists have been confirmed for the first-ever Sketch-Off competition.
American comedian Garry Shandling has died. He was 66.
Shandling was best known as the star of chat show satire The Larry Sanders Show. Before that he broke through with the postmodern sitcom It's Garry Shandling's Show in which he paused the action to speak directly to the audience.
According to reports Los Angeles police told the BBC that Shandling "suffered a medical emergency" on Thursday. Reports elsewhere suggest it may have been a heart attack.
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