A year on from our last encounter with Stewart Lee‘s Man-Wulf magic, and plenty has changed. The veteran comic has made necessary adjustments to his stand-up set which, much like his preceding works, has taken on a new form in the latter stages of the tour because the world around us has fallen in line with Lee’s predictions. Stewart Lee vs. The Man-Wulf has a phenomenal foundation to work with, and the last year has emboldened both Lee and the material. He’s threading the needle between what returning audience members expect and what new people would want phenomenally, and it all comes to a head during his Tyne Theatre and Opera House show. Lee has now recorded the special tied to this tour and it appears he’s willing to be a little fast and loose with his material, lingering on jokes that prove the key to comedy is still timing.
Take the bit where Lee begins toying with his chair. It lingers, the conclusion right there for the audience to see. On it goes. The key to comedy is still repetition. Lee has a handful of jokes that he can return to littered throughout his set, and they’re as charming the first time as they are the fifth. Returning to see the same set, just on a different date, you get to appreciate the little details. There’s a general rhythm that Lee has perfected in the early dates that now offers him a chance to toy around with the smaller details that, because he’s been touring this for so long, become larger parts of the set. Riffing on the latecomers and general lack of enthusiasm for ancient stones in the audience, it becomes a charming collection of faux rage but a little drop of sincere disappointment. Tyne Theatre and Opera House are a room that warms to Lee almost immediately, and it makes for a delightful evening made all the better by several glasses of red wine.
Among the outlandish Man-Wulf material and many caveats is a point to Lee’s material that has only solidified over the last year. He mocks the Netflix comedians of today, the millionaires going on billionaires who have landed themselves sweet spots in the public eye because they’re saying what people believe is taboo. Lee has proven before that taboo and meanness can be unravelled separately, and the latter half of Stewart Lee vs. The Man-Wulf is an exceptional deep dive into how true, shock value comedy depends on a knowledgeable audience. Netflix aren’t making material for knowledgeable audiences and accepting that as truth is easily done when Lee makes such a convincing argument on the state of modern-day arts. It feeds in brilliantly to the sleight of hand Lee has as a comedian, disguising thought out theories on the state of culture, and by extension the politics of the time, as riffs against the audience and other, more popular comedians.
But doing that means Lee can maintain the high and mighty position while at the same time punching up at the figures who make him seem bitter of their success. He clearly isn’t, as he reminds the audience, he’s been doing this for nearly 40 years and remains the highest-rated stand-up comedian around. Why don’t you like it? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t need to know, either. Beyond the value of Lee’s points, there’s an incredibly tight and funny show within Stewart Lee vs. The Man-Wulf. He manages to blur the objectively silly suggestions of fabled beasts with a touching and sincere takedown of where we are as a culture. Lee’s greatest strength is angling himself in a manner that, when he touches on delicate material, the joke is on him, or us as a collective audience. That’s the key to comedy. That, and timing and repetition.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
