Stewart Lee: Carpet Remnant World (Video 2012)

Stewart Lee: Carpet Remnant World: Directed by Tim Kirkby. With Stewart Lee. What can a middle-aged man possibly find to write comedy about? Join Mr Lee to find out how journeys to indistinct provincial theatres and roadside retail outlets can be quite inspirational…

“Stewart Leeu0026#39;s life is now mostly driving around and looking after kids so his frame of cultural references has dramatically shrunk and at the same time his ability to compete with the more modern stand-up style of the Mock the Week regulars and the like, with their stadium shows and sound-bite gags. Of course it is made even harder for him when a third of the Sheffield audience have clearly never seen him before but heard good things and were perhaps not prepared for his rather unique style of delivery.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI like Stewart Lee and recently I watched the 41st Best Stand-Up show and enjoyed it a lot and soon after got this one. The approach is the same in Carpet Remnant World because Lee gives a comedy show while also pushing against the norms of the stand-up circuit whether it be the delivery and jokes of the big names who pack stadiums, or the audience who struggle unless (in his perception) they are given what they are used to and donu0026#39;t have to do anything themselves. Previously he has walked that lined really well and there are times in this show where he gets it right – pushing back against his craft and his audience but not so much that he pushes away, just challenges. However in this show I think he does it too often, for too long and with almost too much effort to attack. It isnu0026#39;t helped by the feeling that the show is too long – and it does feel it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis sort of hurts the material more than it should because he is joking that the audience isnu0026#39;t with him and that the material isnu0026#39;t working at the same time as the audience are unsure and some of the material is falling flat. Despite this this, Lee himself is still funny even if some of his morbid moments make him seem like Jack Dee more than he would like Iu0026#39;d guess. Leeu0026#39;s greatest skill is to deliver a great comedy show while also deconstructing it, you and the craft while you enjoy it – here he does a bit too much of the latter and is weaker than normal on the former – although Iu0026#39;d still watch this again and again over the generic big Christmas DVDu0026#39;s from u0026quot;properu0026quot; stand-ups selling out Wembley Arena.”