I love Stewart Lee...

Stewart Lee is, apparently, the 41st best stand up ever. Or at least that is according to a recent channel 4 poll and consequently the title of his recent UK tour.

There is an argument that since the deaths of Bill Hicks and, more recently, George Carlin there isn't a great deal of angry, effective and funny political comedy. There is a great strain of political satire that runs through British political comedy (from Mock The Week to The Thick of It) and this is still of a great quality but as far as explicit and genuine ideology presented in an amusing way then I struggle to think of anyone and certainly no-one who comes near the ability of Stewart Lee.

As well as being a damn good comedian Lee is also blessed with being a huge fan of The Fall, in fact the one time I have seen him live he was introducing The Fall in Manchester. Lee is the author of the chapter on The Fall in the Wire Primers series.

Stewart Lee on political correctness



Stewart Lee on islamic taboos



Stewart Lee on dreams

Jason Manford...

I spent most of last night working my way through some of the latest batch of UK stand-up comedians. it could just be some affinity with northern humour but my favourite of the lot was Jason Manford.

Future films...

Last night S and I invited probably the biggest movie buff we know round for dinner. He's a really amazing chap and has plenty to talk about but rather predictably a good few hours was spent digesting all the films we have seen recently. For S and I this amounted to a handful of new ones along with a sprinkling of old favourites. For him this involved, I think, every film currently on release in Portugal. He obviously had something of an advantage over us.

What this conversation really inspired however (as these sort of things tend to naturally evolve towards) was a discussion of what's about to come out and what we'd really like to see. We of course mentioned the (obligatory) Where The Wild Things Are (2009) Spike Jonze (released in Portugal on 26th November) and (500) Days of Summer (2009) Marc Webb (no Portuguese release date yet). Two must-sees of the global indie film appreciation society. What we (and shockingly I) forgot to mention was Armando Iannucci's In The Loop (no Portuguese release date) - the movie-length follow up to the hilarious political comedy The Thick Of It. The Thick Of It, it has been said many many times, is the Yes, Minister for the New Labour government. Whilst many of the institutions it satirises are distinctly British I do think there are plenty of universal political truths for people from many countries to find something amusing in this. Perhaps you may not immediately associate the angry Scottish spin doctor with Alister Campbell but his infamous put downs are always going to be funny.

Here are some clips and the trailer for In The Loop...

Tucker's Law <- A good introduction

iPod Rant <- A classic

Tucker Unbound



In The Loop (2009) - Armando Iannucci

Stand Up to hear the laughs...

One of my most favourite art forms of modern times is also one of the hardest to perfect - stand up comedy.

Stand up has a long and noble history starting with music-hall and cabaret and anglo-phone countries reserve a very special place for this particular form of expression. It has always been popular in my house and even I've even been known to spend the odd evening in front of a tape of one of the greats - The Americans: Steven Wright, Bill Hicks or George Carlin or the Brits: Billy Connelly or Jasper Carrott

Here are a few of my current favourites:

Tom Stade (on Wolverhampton and meat):



...again!(on Primark and Argos):



John Bishop (on Liverpool vs. Manchester and Ikea):



Rhod Gilbert (on Edinburgh and rain):



As you can probably tell the Michael McIntyre comedy roadshow has most of the current greats.