Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle - Series 2

If you like Stewart Lee, then this is for you. If you don't it's probably best to avoid it. Series 2 retains most of the elements from Series 1. There is the occasional 'illustrative' sketch and the talks with Armando Iannucci that provided most of the 'red button' extras in the first series now punctuate Lee's stand up; but for the most part, it's Stewart Lee performing stand up in a room. Where it differs from Series 1 is that it lacks the opening titles and has far less sketches so you won't see the likes of Paul Putner, Simon Munnery, Kevin Eldon and Tony Law popping up. This isn't neccesarily a bad thing - I complained that the sketches really just acted out what Lee had just said, but there does seem to be a sketch-shaped hole if you've grown used to them. With essentially 3 hours worth of comedy, some of the material is recycled from his stand up shows (also available on DVD), some of it may have been viewed live on last year's Vegetable Stew tour (which was explicitly promoted as being a testing of these shows) and some it just feels familiar. There are probably better places to start if you haven't seen him before, but this does a good job of setting out his approach, philosophy and, self-proclaimed, short-comings. A slightly disappointing thing, for me, was the lack of 'red button' extras. These featured stand up and music from Lee's support acts. One has been included - Lee performing 'Russell Brand's Wedding' with Nick Pynn - and there is an extended version of Lee and Alan Moore looking around Churchill's secret bunker, but it's a shame they couldn't have put more on this disc or included a bonus disc. Maybe we've come to expect too many extras with our DVDs, but it seems a shame to have wasted them.

I didn't LOL. My chest contracted involuntarily and real noises came out of my mouth (and occassionally more embarrassingly my nose). Given that I was watching this on screen at work with headphones on pretending to be doing something else this was problematic. Stewart Lee is brilliant. His aloof style, combining a degree of self-deprecation with that sense that maybe he should be more successful than he is perfectly suits his musings on the world and especially on comedy. There's one episode where he improvises a conversation between two librarians for whom he worked (as unsurprisingly a librarian) imaging how he would turn out as a comedian. "He'll talk about comedy but in a style that suggests it's beneath him." "So he'll have his cake and eat it?" "Yes!" He has detached rambling and forensic dissection of comedy and his unbounded contempt for people like Michael McIntyre and unlike anyone else on the comedy scene at the moment. And somehow this self-analysis, bile and resignation is just very, very funny. There aren't many people who can say "All the flavours of crisps" over and over again and actually make people laugh but he manages it. But if you are reading this you probably already know that. You probably already know his backstory and you probably already have a lot of his DVDs and CDs. And that may be an issue. This series consists of six half hour episodes shot in the same style and (I think) location as the first series but with slightly fewer but more elaborate sequences outside the studio. The interviews with Armando Iannucci which were used as extras in the first series are shot through the episode but are quite short and are not intrusive. But if you are a fan you may have heard the material before. The epsidoe on identity includes his William Wallace routine. The episode on democracy includes a reworked version of his why I hate Richard Hammond routine with David Cameron as the subject. The journey is different but the destination is the same. And there are a fair few sections of "47th best standup" and "If you prefer a milder comedian.." in this. That siad everything is reworked and it is as much about how he delivers the lines as the lines themselves which makes them funny so it's not a huge issue. There are two extras. The first is a song about Russell Brand's wedding - which is good. The second is Lee and Alan Moore (the comic book writer) breaking into a WWII bunker to uncover a national secret - which isn't so good. Overall I loved this but, given Lee's status and following, I suspect any positive review is preaching to the choir.

Firstly, the service received from Amazon was first rate again. Very fast delivery and good SMS text communication re order confirmation and delivery time etc every step of the way. The DVD was well wrapped and in perfect condition on receipt. Very happy. Now the product itself. I am a huge Lee fan and had seen both series of 'Stewart Lees Comedy Vehicle' when they were first broadcast on TV. If you know and like his comedy already, then rest assured, this is some of his best stuff. Which style of comedy one finds funny is such a personal, individual, thing that reviews shouldn't really be allowed to influence the decision, being as they are, written for general and anonymous consumption. His style could be described as clever social commentary, done in a sarcastic, but extremely intelligent and sometimes aloof and superior way. He enjoys slaying sacred cows, mocking mainstream comedians, even dishing out withering put downs to his own audience. If you're unfamiliar with his work, i say give it a try anyway. He is the best there is at what he does. No red button extras on this DVD. The Ianucci interviews are present but in this series they are cutaways interwoven through the main stand up routine. No sketches either, which in my opinion is a very good thing.

After the first series, which was still good, Lee fully finds his feet in series 2. There is some clever stuff going on here; from the set-up, the mock and self-mocking interview/therapy session with Armando Iannucci (another authentic comedian) to how Lee manages to give a real funny live stand-up set to a small audience, while at the same time, using them as a device to both mock the fact he's being filmed for tv and as a tool to engage with the tv audience. His use of the audience and asides to the camera makes you feel he's presenting it for you (which, of course, he basically is!) and not eavesdropping on a live show, like other comedy dvds. The sets themselves are very smart and sly. Lee has been doing stand- up for 20 years and it shows. Loved some of his themes. Some of the sketches (involving other comics not seen on BBC 3 comedy shows, thank God), did get a bit to "in joke" and absurd for me, but made a great change of pace and style and brought you back to his stand up, afresh for the next topic. Recommended.

The shows are great, possibly even as good as series 1. Several moments had me absolutely in stitches. There are some notable format changes compared to series 1: 1. The intentionally disparaging Armando Iannucci interviews are included within the show itself. 2. Gone are the cut-away sketches with the likes of Kevin Eldon and Paul Putner. 3. The opening titles and theme music are gone. The show just starts with Stew on stage. 4. Each show ends with a filmed sequence punctuating one or more of the ideas in the show. These are often quite dark. The DVD menu is strikingly sleek and professional; much love has gone into this. But where are the wonderful red-button extras? When broadcast, each episode show-cased a different underground act in a ten-minute show as Stewart Lee Presents... I was really looking forward to being able to watch these again, especially the Nick Pynn and Kevin Eldon ones. In the way of DVDs extras there is only a single Nick Pynn/Stewart Lee collaboration and an extended version of the Allan Moore scene from one of the episodes. The first series of this show included all six-episodes plus all the red-button stuff spread across two disks. Shame on you, BBC. PAL UK: Region 2 & 4. SUBTITLES: English for the Hard of Hearing NB. The missing Kevin Eldon set was recorded at a show in Cardiff and released as Kevin Eldon is Titting About by GoFasterStripe. Highly recommended.

Stewart Lee takes time to engage you in his clinical demolition of conventional values. No quick fire jokes for him. Once inside his world you can't help but laugh and think at the same time. His taxi driver story "These days, in England" is a jewel of risky comedy technique but then everything he does is deliberately dangerous. The first time in years I've laughed so hard I thought I'd do myself an injury. Try it.

Even better than the first series. Purpose built comedy for people who know the difference between great stand up comedy, and well, you know what I mean (perhaps). The scenes with Armando are great, and a nice change of pace from the more traditional stuff seen in the first series (not that they weren't any good). Stewart Lee is a true comedy genius, and stand up doesn't get much better than this.

I was a huge fan of the first series of Comedy Vehicle and series 2 is certainly very good as well, though I would argue it is very much a different beast. The series overrall feels more improvised and less structured than s1, with the appearance that Lee is working things out as he goes along. This is most likely because s1 drew heavily on his excellent repertoire of existing stand-up material, whereas there is noticably less of it in s2. The sketches from before are also gone, replaced by conversations with an unseen Armando Iannucci, which I personally found preferable as I thought the majority of the sketches in s1 fell rather flat and generally only served to visually illustrate something he'd talked about minutes before. Nonetheless, in spite of the more unstructured approach and more rambling nature (even to, what some might call, excess). Lee remains consistently funny, with the London and Stand-up (or is the Sit-down?) episodes being the highlights. It may not be as good as the first series (absence of sketches aside) but Lee is still one of the best alternative comedians out there.

There is no better comedian working today, in Britain or otherwise. Buy a region-free player, and get everything of his you can.

Not his best DVD but there are some classic moments and it has me consider buying more of his material

This man is a gem.

Comedy God.

I like Stewart Lee so, for me it was great:)