Across the Stew-niverse: A podcast about Stewart Lee

Melancholy. Hopeful. Whimsical. Poetic. Bearded. These are just some of the accusatory adjectives that have been laid at the feet of the Yorkshire born overlord of theatrical stand-up, Daniel Kitson. To understand the sheer breadth of his influence upon the comedy scene in the UK and beyond would take more words than the count here allows, so you'll have to settle for me telling you that this man...

If ATS podcast episodes were to adopt the naming conventions of the popular nineties American Sitcom Friends, this episode would be "The One Where Dan Gets Cancelled" After a minor misunderstanding over the conventions regarding the context of analysis and reportage vs actual bigotry, Dan gets himself into hot water (no, not the popular male only stand-up venue in the North West of England) and do...

Do not adjust your podcast listening equipment. This is not a glitch, virus, or other undesirable affect of living in the modern media landscape. We are in fact back.  Now, whilst this may be an unwelcome event for most of you, to those of you who care about such things, we are sorry for the lengthy absence, it will probably happen again because no one is paying us to do this (could you imagi...

Here, Dan and Joe step back in time to a world when no one had any money and the world was on the brink of complete financial collapse. No, it wasn't last week. It was fifteen years ago. And although the world recovered financially for a little while, normal service has been resumed and no one has any money again.  "AT LEAST WE STILL HAVE STEWART LEE" I hear you cry. Yes, but at what cost? In...

Dan caught up with bona fide COMEDY GENIUS Dave Cohen (Horrible Histories, HIGNFY, Spitting Image, loads of other stuff) to Stew the Fat (yes we will continuously repeat these tedious puns) about his days as a stand up in the erly days of Alternative Comedy, establishing the now world famous Comedy Store players (with, amongst others, Paul Merton and some unknown Canadian called Mike Myers... wond...

This week Dan and Joe take a rambling (and detour filled) ride around Political Correctness, episode three of series one of Comedy Vehicle. Amongst the topics discussed are motorway service stations, not reading books, and racism. All the topics. Because this episode contains loads of content that was already covered in the 41st Best episode, we've given ourselves license to twat about much more t...

Dan and Joe look at the second episode from Comedy Vehicle Series 1, Television. This episode features arguably some of the weakest stand-up of the series (Stew's words) but some of the strongest sketches (our words), with the classic Del Boy/Wicker Man nightmare crossover that you never asked for. Recording of this episode was a tricky proposition due to time constraints, so was recorded in two s...

Greetings A-stew-nauts! (that's like a Time Vine pun, not something I would do, really) Back in February, we did an experimental live episode to see how it feels to a) let someone else talk for most of it, b) do it in front of a live audience (insert Lee Mack joke here) and c) only do it for an hour (Lee Mack Style topper goes here). Our guest Michael Legge (one of the funniest comedians currently...

Dan and Joe dive headfirst into Stew's Comedy Vehicle series, starting unsurprisingly with episode 1 - Toilet Books. This episode explores the world of literature through the prism of it's lowest forms, principally the work of Dan Brown, former Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles and rap singer/Jesus like figure Asher D of So Solid Crew. Stew also takes aim at Jeremy Clarkson, Russell Brand and the Harry Pott...

On February 9th 2024, Dan and Joe scurried along to the Leeds Playhouse to watch Stew on his Basic Lee tour. this is them talking about it. Dan has seen it before and Joe is seeing it for the first time. Includes amusing/tedious (delete as applicable) asides about Fleabag, Dan's recent Vasectomy and other things that we've probably forgotten. These days, you get arrested and thrown in jail for not...

In this episode, Dan and Joe battle adverse weather and terrible internet connections to bring you this mammoth episode, looking at Stew's 2008 effort '41st Best Stand-Up...Ever'. This special finds 'The Comedian Stewart Lee' in an odd state of limbo, as he is lauded as the 41st best stand-up ever by one of those rubbish late night countdown shows on Channel 4, whilst simultaneously struggling to...

In this special 'Stewin' The Fat' episode, Dan talks to Leeds based comedian, actor, musician and host of the 'Punk Rock Elite' podcast, Eddie French. They discuss Eddie's comedy origin story, experiences running comedy nights in Leeds and crossing paths with current TV comedy stars early in their career, at which point Eddie drops the single best impression of 'Live at the Apollo' star Scott Benn...

In this episode, Dan and Joe revisit Stew's seminal, revolutionary 2006 work '90s Comedian', which largely deals with the backlash faced by Stew and the composer Richard Thomas in response to their critically acclaimed (and Olivier Award winning) theatre show 'Jerry Springer: The Opera'. Joe and Dan pick apart the finer points of this set and discuss the themes of censorship and boundaries of tast...

Dan and Joe take a deep dive into Stewart Lee's first ever live stand-up DVD "Stand-Up Comedian", filmed at The Stand in Glasgow. There were some issues with the audio on this recording, despite flawless test runs, although, other than the audio suddenly switching from mono to stereo after the intro (and a bit too much of Dan and Joe's awfully labored breathing being picked up on the mic) We're fa...