Stewart Lee vs. the Man-Wulf ★★★☆☆

I have not seen a tonne of Stewart Lee’s standup outside of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle but I absolutely adored that, so I was looking forward to seeing him live. Unfortunately while it was still very funny I don’t think the central conceit lands very well. Lee circles the topic of right-wing comedians and how comedy that is cruel is easy, satisfying and apparently very well compensated, and how much impact such performance has on the world and the moral culpability comedians who engage with it have, but as he said himself in the act: He’s been doing this routine for eighteen months and those seem like very small questions compared to everything that’s been happening since then.

I don’t think the shift in the second half, to his over-the-top impression of a white-wing standup (after being bitten by werewolf and turning into a chud) landed very well, and neither did the final act where he tries to explore and show the silliness the idea of a left-wing version of the same shtick. This isn’t helped by the concept of “the Joe Rogan of the left” being a phrase that everyone is sick of at this point and I think the energy of the room was just not with him either. References to British popular culture made a lot of jokes sail over my head as well. I am unfortunately too checked out of what’s on television these days.