The ‘If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask for One!’ Podcast
Stewart Lee’s new book is based on just one stand-up show, in which Stewart Lee examines the mechanics of comedy and the stand-up’s craft, as he explains in this interview with comedy critic and Resonance FM DJ Ben Thompson.
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Following his hugely acclaimed TV come-back Comedy Vehicle, Lee finds himself in search of ideas for a new Edinburgh show. On a long walk across London, he endures a coffee shop humiliation involving a loyalty card which suggests itself as a framing device. Later that month, thanks to Jeremy Clarkson’s casual slur against Gordon Brown and the appearance of a well-meaning young comedian in an advert, a show is born. Featuring a transcript of the show fully annotated with footnotes, the If You Prefer A Milder Comedian EP confirms Stewart Lee as the most original, daring and brilliant comedian of his generation.
‘I’m a comedian, and I think I’m probably slightly more interested in the nuts and bolts of comedy than some comics, and I think there’s some reason of mental illness for that but …. when I have read books about comedians, what I’m interested in is not who they are married to, or what they drank, or did they play golf – I’m interested in the nuts and bolts of the creative process. There aren’t really any books like that …’ Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee’s previous book How I Escaped My Certain Fate drew on three live shows to deconstruct the nature of stand-up comedy. With its heavy use of footnotes there was a nod in structure to T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. For his new book, the slimmer volume Stewart Lee! The ‘If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask for One’ EP, Lee draws inspiration from The Specials’ 1980 five-track EP The Special AKA Live! – live material surplus to any long player (but which featured ‘Too Much Too Young’, which topped the charts).
