0:00:03 > 0:00:06Stewart Lee's comedy act fills the biggest venues.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08He's been doing it for more than 25 years.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12He's one of the biggest successes in stand-up.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15He says he's a comic who investigates that territory
0:00:15 > 0:00:17between what's acceptable and what's shocking and it's the same
0:00:17 > 0:00:19in his writing.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23He says his five years of collected newspaper and magazine pieces
0:00:23 > 0:00:26in Content Provider, the new book, are meant to make
0:00:26 > 0:00:31you smile and then to be used for lining a cat litter tray.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34But they do also bristle with all his passions.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36Welcome.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56Stewart, dealing with a live audience is one thing.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59You're playing with them, using them, feeding off them.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Writing for the page, this is a collection of newspaper
0:01:02 > 0:01:04and magazine pieces, is quite a different thing.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07Do you find it easy to adapt?
0:01:07 > 0:01:11I don't find there's anything that I write for stand up that I can move
0:01:11 > 0:01:14across to newspaper columns and I don't find there's anything
0:01:14 > 0:01:17vice versa in newspaper columns that I can move across to stand up
0:01:17 > 0:01:19because the thing is so different.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22What is interesting though is the idea that in some ways
0:01:22 > 0:01:25stand-up is a live art form and as such, you're shaped
0:01:25 > 0:01:27by the audience response and the funny thing about writing
0:01:27 > 0:01:32for papers now is there is this audience response.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35You can look at the below the line comments, audience feedback,
0:01:35 > 0:01:36and you can interact with them.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39You can change the character to aggravate or patronise even more
0:01:39 > 0:01:41the people that are reading it.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44You can't do it in real time but you can do it over years.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46You raise some interesting points there.
0:01:46 > 0:01:47You're a polemical guy.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50Anybody who reads anything you write or response to you or listens
0:01:50 > 0:01:53to you on stage will know the people for whom you have contempt,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55let's put it like that.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Or the things going on in the country you don't like.
0:01:58 > 0:01:59I want to ask you something about that.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Isn't there a problem in this country at the moment
0:02:02 > 0:02:04that all the people who do your sort of job,
0:02:04 > 0:02:12well, 90% of them, have the same political opinion?
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Yeah.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16That they'll take the skin off anybody as long
0:02:16 > 0:02:19as it's not Jeremy Corbyn?
0:02:19 > 0:02:22Why isn't there anybody who'll take him apart?
0:02:22 > 0:02:24I think a lot of the mainstream media is doing that job
0:02:25 > 0:02:26perfectly well on its own.
0:02:26 > 0:02:27That's a copout.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31It's an interesting problem.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Certainly, I'm not sure what to do now because,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37like you say, most people who work in the arts probably
0:02:37 > 0:02:41have a particular view politically, the majority of them...
0:02:41 > 0:02:43Well, I'm thinking about stand-up comics particularly.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46There's a general view...
0:02:46 > 0:02:50People say that but I don't know that that's the case.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54There seems to be more...
0:02:54 > 0:02:57You read in the Daily Mail that these people are left-wing
0:02:57 > 0:02:59comedians and I don't necessarily see it coming
0:02:59 > 0:03:04through in their lifestyle choices or the work they do.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09I think it's just a sort of, a way of dismissing them
0:03:09 > 0:03:12to the audience of that paper, so I'm not really, I certainly don't
0:03:12 > 0:03:19see where this imaginary...
0:03:19 > 0:03:23There doesn't seem to be that kind of content being created with that
0:03:23 > 0:03:27political angle in the volume that people imagine it is.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30Maybe you've got something there but I think just
0:03:30 > 0:03:34reading your collected pieces and knowing your view,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36particularly of the present government and its predecessor
0:03:36 > 0:03:40government, which is a fairly poisonous view,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44which you're entitled to, of course, it just strikes me that,
0:03:44 > 0:03:49let's take what people call the Corbyn revolution.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51There is no one looking at that with the same
0:03:51 > 0:03:54critical eye in that form, as a comic art, or at
0:03:54 > 0:03:56least if there are, theu are not very well-known.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Yeah.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00And that's a very one-dimensional way of making ourselves
0:04:00 > 0:04:03laugh at ourselves.
0:04:03 > 0:04:10Well, I did half an hour on press attitudes to Corbyn
0:04:10 > 0:04:13on TV in the last series, which was a sixth of the series.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19And I wrote a column three weeks ago about the train thing, so...
0:04:19 > 0:04:22Well, that is a comic episode.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25You're perfectly entitled to have a go at the media in general
0:04:25 > 0:04:31or indeed at the government in general.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35I'm just surprised that, since we're talking about Corbyn,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37he seems, as far as many comics are concerned,
0:04:37 > 0:04:38to be off-limits.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40You can't make fun of him.
0:04:40 > 0:04:41Why not?
0:04:41 > 0:04:43I think that it is covered.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48The problem is that it's not as funny.
0:04:48 > 0:04:55It's not as funny or as likely to inspire you in a passionate way
0:04:55 > 0:04:59as the things that are happening on the other side of the house,
0:04:59 > 0:05:03which you could argue, given the chaos that the country's
0:05:03 > 0:05:07descended into in the last few months, as a result of people, many
0:05:07 > 0:05:09of whom are still in government, has actually got off incredibly
0:05:09 > 0:05:11lightly, because broadcasters are very worried about appearing
0:05:11 > 0:05:19to make fun of it in too definite terms because of the extent
0:05:19 > 0:05:22to which their future is beholden to the people on that side
0:05:22 > 0:05:24of the house.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26If you look at our present condition in this country,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28what bugs you most?
0:05:28 > 0:05:30What bugs me most?
0:05:30 > 0:05:33It's difficult to know how to move forwards,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35doing stand-up or sort of funny columns, because everything
0:05:35 > 0:05:39is so influx at the moment.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42There isn't a clear plan forwards post-Brexit.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45We don't know what our international relationships are.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47We don't even know which politicians are going to rise or fall
0:05:47 > 0:05:49in the next six months.
0:05:49 > 0:05:50It's very unpredictable.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55So, now, I've got to file a column for Sunday.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58And the worrying thing is you could put something
0:05:58 > 0:06:01in on Thursday and the person you've written about may have
0:06:01 > 0:06:04lost their job by Saturday.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Also, the public mood seems to swing back and forwards very quickly now
0:06:07 > 0:06:09depending what information is given to us.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13It's very hard at the moment to know how to write in opposition.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17It's hard to know how to take a comic position against an accepted
0:06:17 > 0:06:19truth because it's not clear what the accepted truths
0:06:19 > 0:06:22are because we know the country is split 50-50.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25It's an interesting point that, that you think people
0:06:25 > 0:06:29don't have a settled view of where we are going.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Do you feel that sense of uncertainty quite strongly?
0:06:31 > 0:06:35I do and the interesting thing now is I'll be going out on the road
0:06:35 > 0:06:38in the autumn with a new show, partly out of my genuine beliefs
0:06:38 > 0:06:45but partly as a comic position.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48My role on stage is the sort of metrosexual, slightly out
0:06:48 > 0:06:53of touch liberal.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55But I know now that 52% of the country have taken
0:06:55 > 0:06:57a kind of political stand, broadly speaking, against
0:06:57 > 0:07:02the values of that class.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06So it will be interesting to see how that plays around the place.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Obviously an audience going to a theatre on some level,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11it's been thinned out or there's a filter on it,
0:07:11 > 0:07:15but it's an interesting time to be a content provider.
0:07:15 > 0:07:21I didn't really think about how...
0:07:21 > 0:07:23That name was a bit of a fluke as well.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26It was a sort of catchall title for the book but now
0:07:26 > 0:07:29there is a question about what sort of content do you provide
0:07:29 > 0:07:30to the country?
0:07:30 > 0:07:34Are you one of the people who always likes to be in a minority?
0:07:34 > 0:07:36Would you ever be worried if most people agreed with your political
0:07:36 > 0:07:38position and you weren't in the minority?
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Well, I think it would make doing stand-up harder because it's nice
0:07:41 > 0:07:43to occupy an opposition position because I think,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48on some level, all comedy is about tragedy.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53The stand-up is a clown on some level and the clown for me,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56the tragedy of it is that his ideals or hopes are continually defeated
0:07:56 > 0:07:58by reality, so it would be problematic if you suddenly found
0:07:59 > 0:08:03yourself on the winning side.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08Then I think it would feel like you were the cheerleader
0:08:08 > 0:08:10of some horrible rally rather than this tragically
0:08:10 > 0:08:12frustrated figure railing against the dying of the light.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14So I think there's an interesting thing in that.
0:08:14 > 0:08:15Stewart Lee, thank you very much.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17Thank you.