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.

Cute vignettes of life with a local flavour. Did feel like it was winding up at one point only to continue dragging out resolutions for what felt a tad too long.

Second time seeing Milo Edwards doing standup and while it was really good I don’t think it hit quite as strongly or consistently for me as the first one. This routine was, as he admitted himself, a bit more about parts of British culture in a way that wasn’t going to land perfectly for an Irish audience. But there was definitely enough general British cultural exposure here to get a lot of it and he had a decent grasp of what gaps he did need to bridge as well as skill at rolling with what worked and moving on from what didn’t, though I think most people in the room were a bit lost when he briefly started referencing obscure members of the Windsor family.

Lovely little anthology play from local lesbian community group.

As I sit down to write this it occurs to me that I have never reviewed a standup show before and I am not really sure what to say? It was funny? Well, yes, my throat was sore from laughing by the end. And as someone who has been dealing with the passing of my girlfriend in a variety of ways, including dark humour and (sometimes just screaming, which Milo Edwards justifiably asks why we aren’t just doing all the time considering everything), a show about how we handle death was very resonant.

It was also interesting hearing him in very different mode to what I’m used to from listening to him improvising on Trash Future. This is very carefully prepared and layered material with a delivery that occasionally reminds me of Stewart Lee.

The final faux-sentimental multimedia video projection that ends the show was also really enhanced by the gig organisers having completely forgotten to prepare for it and having to hastily cobble together a projection screen by sellotaping a bunch of blank posters together.