Stewart Lee

I attended Stewart Lee's show at the Stockton Arc on Tuesday night. It was, quite simply, sensational.

The show kicked off with Lee introducing warm up act Tony Law who was, after a frighteningly surreal start, quite brilliant in his own unique way. His Zagreb, Croatia story was, quite easily, the highlight of his small set.

After a quick toilet and drink break on came Stewart Lee and within moments, the crowd was drawn in to the world and web of this fantastic story teller. He covered a variety of subjects and there was no point during the act where I once thought, this is a bit boring, uninteresting or uncomfortable.

It was almost as if he was conducting us the audience, as if we were some giant Bach organ that he was playing and in full masterful command of. He was slowly building each of his flowing stories, carefully choosing each word, each pause and each sigh and then increasing the intensity, volume, atmosphere and electricity in the theatre as he continued his act. It really was sheer genius.

His ability to create a repetitive line or key point from something incredibly obscure which can, and does, leave you close to sheer frustration. He continually plays on this during chapters of his performance until you are almost locked in on every word until he reaches a climactic point where finally, he leaves the viewer completely satisfied.

There is no comedian out there today who can do that. If there is I would like to see them.