Stewart Lee / Richard Dawson

The diary's been looking a bit threadbare recently, but last Sunday, Stewart Lee's latest stand-up show, 'Room With a Stew', became my first gig of 2015. Lee is a master of the demystification of live comedy. For example, when a laugh failed to arrive from the audience at an expected moment, he pressed pause on the performance, stepped out of character and walked us through the elaborate verbal scaffolding he'd erected to take us to that point, castigating us repeatedly for not sufficiently appreciating the quality of the humour. After reaching an apparent crescendo of rage, verging on a nervous breakdown, with the subtlest of movements he revealed that this too was all a device. The tension was released and a huge roar of laughter followed. The show really was a masterclass of a performance, thought provoking and very, very funny. I'm picking up the tour again in May.

When I briefly caught up with Stewart in the foyer after the show, we took a moment to share our mutual enthusiasm for the brilliant Richard Dawson. Dawson's musical palette is broad, from Faheyesque instrumentals, to cacophonous drones via unaccompanied traditional ballads. Sometimes there aren't adequate words to do justice to such a prodigious talent, so here are three examples of his work, I urge you to seek out more. This live show (here) is a good place to start.

Three For a Laugh

I'm heading out of town for 48 hours and, despite my best efforts, I've run out of time to get a proper post together before I go. Instead, I'll leave you with three short clips that bring a smile to my lips. A classic from The Goons, an inspired moment of daftness that we can all relate to from the recent, patchy, 'Life Of Rock With Brian Pern' and the genius of Kevin Eldon from 'Big Train'.