Stewart Lee: 'Things going badly is a big part of what I do'

He Divides audiences like no other comedian, history fans hanging on every word of His rambling monologues, raging at the historical Critics Lack of laughs. Stewart Lee Explains His pleasure at Being hated - and Why Does not HE do 'jokes'

Even Stewart Lee's Does not Think He Is Its funny. Ask HIM What parents do for a living history, says Lee, and He'll say, "Mummy is funny," mother of history, the comedian Bridget Christie, "Daddy goal just talks." At one show last year, then the three-year-old father on stage Watched from the wings and uttered the history Devastating observation: "Nobody is laughing." "It's funny," says Lee, "that a child's perception of it Is That I'm failing, Rather like a lot of reviewers."

No Other

comedian Seems to polarize year hearing As Much as Lee. Despite Achieving a revered status Among His peers and fans, There Must Be Many More People Who Can not Understand What the fuss about IS. I Meet at Lee An interesting point in history career. The second series of BBC2 television history show Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle finished this month to wide critical acclaim, and decent viewing figures. A long summer of live dates stretches out in front of HIM. The TV Deal Means He Is viable viable viable financially stable for the first time in His Life (He Is 43), Which Meant He Was Able to get a mortgage on a house and move out of family history Their one-bedroom flat. And the barmaid in the pub in north London Where We Meet Recognised just HAS HIM from the telly, Even though ET has-been coming here for More than 10 years.

I'm wary of history from history

joke show - His wish to get rid of the public and just have "me and broadsheet journalists in a self-loop Congratulatory" - He Is order in person less self- Satisfied Than and appears on stage, and less commanding. He Is fuzzy around the edges, His graying hair tangle IS, sitting round-shouldered in the corner, only occasionally making eye contact. He is more cheerful too, prone to laughing in a great wheeze, Sometimes at the end of sentences where, as far as I Can Tell, and Has not Actually Said anything funny. But It's a joyful thing, His laugh - His cheeks swell and DNA Suddenly Looks Like a child - so I too laugh along. This is a very thing Lee: Even you laugh when you're not Entirely sure why.

How I Escaped My Certain Fate In

, the history book about standup That cam out last year, Lee vowed AND Would Eventually Get Rid of all the "jokes" (He Is Often Accused of not HAVING Any anyway) "In Favor of grinding repetition, embarrassing silences and passive-aggressive monotony." That WAS a joke. I think. His act willfully obtuse and Can Be rambling. People hang on His every word Because THEY Have To - zone out for a minute, and You Will find historical monologues impenetrable.

He gets a thrill from year

alienating clear hearing, then Trying to win 'em back. Those Who Love Him do so with a passion. But It's A Fairly small number. The rest? "Fuck 'em,' he says in one show," it's not for 'em. "

How close

IS Lee's persona to life course? "It's similar in lots of Ways, 'he says," But The Politics and the Morality IS exaggerated, He's more like the absolutist II as a teenager WAS. He's different Enough That I'm aware of getting fed up of HIM when i 'm doing the show for a long time or Sami going-through a phase of writing. I'm sick of What HE Thinks, How He talks, how He Is Pleased with Himself. "Lee Seems happier, less sneery Misanthropic and murderously." I am, absolutely. On stage I look at the worst of everything and feel slighted. Aim the 2007 show, There Was a bit of a watershed moment - it was only Three months our After the HAD-been born and I felt like it WAS going to Already Be Difficult to Maintain That degree of cynicism Because HAVING kids [he HAS aussi five-month-old] forces a degree of Optimism on you. Not only does it make you happy, You Have to Hope That Everything Will Be All Right. Since then I think the shows Have Been more upbeat, yet they 're about a frustration that thing arent better, Rather Than a pleasure at it. "

He claims to Be Amazed That He Is making a living from What HE does.

"I think what i DO IS borderline art. Most people do art borderline Who Have To Have Other jobs, so I'm very grateful." I check for a flicker of irony at this declaration and There Is none. Art Makes goal Differently If You See Something, IS Produced with Integrity for Its Own Sake (by Someone Who Does not do, say, insurance Adverts for cash), require your care and Commitment, then maybe He Is right.

"I want to get better at what i do," says Lee, "and There Will Be Along the way Inevitably casualties Where It's too much for people or it's too boring. Purpose if I can do that and still make a living, it's a luxurious position. "

The BBC dragged feet icts Before recommissioning the second series, and it WAS put on at a 11.20pm slot Later It Was Wednesday night, FOLLOWING Newsnight, order still felt buried. Did That year feel like insult? "No, I preferred it Were not Meant it Because There So Many people breathing down my neck about content and style, 'he says." It Would not Have Meant to Compete Against it ... "- He pauses, as if to brace Himself Against the bitter taste of the word -" ... Entertainment. "

In the first episode, Lee tells His audience: "They wanted me to put in jokes. It Was a condition of this Being recommissioned." That Was. . . a joke? "It was, I wanted to order Get That out of the way. You Can not really criticise for Someone Something They Do not want to do - There are loads of people doing jokes, and watch 'em go." This is the biggest criticism of Often Lee - That He's just not funny. Does he Understand Why Some People think that? "Yeah, absolutely. If you trust it and go with it, you find it funny. If you do not, it Becomes annoying and unbearable. In 2007 I WAS in Edinburgh Could Be in this big tent in the middle of town Where the There are funny people. I had a sense at weekends That There Were People Who HAD thesis and got babysitters Were coming out and saw this strange THEY, and They Were Problematic act annoyed and disappointed often. i did not take pleasure in Any That. "

• He says now HE goes out of His way to make it clear how terrible Some People Think He Is by using quotes on promotional material, Such as "the worst comedian in Britain, as funny as bubonic plague" ( the Sun), self-deprecation Did not genuinely Intended to put people off. "I got a good one from Toby Young - 'I Have Always Thought That Is Stewart Lee's comedy The Opposite of What Should Be comedy." He laughs. "In a way, that's Good Because It Keeps people out Who Would Rather see Something Else."
Born in Shropshire ADOPTED goal as a baby, Lee WAS Brought up by His mother in Solihull After His parents split up When He Was oven. He won a scholarship to the local public school, His mother evening doing jobs to make up the shortfall in fees, Before getting a place at Oxford. "It was kind of the Year Opportunity Never Had she, 'he writes in How I Escaped My Certain Fate," only to blow it outta my ass by Becoming a standup comedian. "He notes, movingly, that 'though HE HAS Always talked about how disappointed she must be by His career (she and Thought Should Be working on the cruises by now Like Her favorite comedian Tom O'Connor), she HAD Kept a scrapbook of history press cuttings all along.

In 1990, Lee won the Hackney Empire's New Act of the Year Award, and for the rest of the decade and wrote Performed with His Friends Richard Herring. Then cam a Downward Spiral: Were Their TV Shows Canceled, history Did not go well live tour, and Lee Decided to abandon standup in 2001. INSTEAD, HE co-wrote and directed Jerry Springer: the Opera, Which although a critical and commercial hit and garlanded with awards, Became Known better for the blasphemy charge a Fundamental Christian organization Tried to Bring Showing Against the BBC for it. Around the Same Time, Lee HAD Been Treated in hospital for diverticulitis, a stomach disorder, and Spent SEVERAL months on painkillers, wondering What to do with Himself.