Grand Theatre, Swansea

Fri 9 Feb

For all of you that get a kick from the painstakingly self-analytical comedy stylings of Stewart Lee (and those that don’t but should), he’s deep into an 18-month tour of Content Provider, his first full-length show since 2012’s award-winning Carpet Remnant World. The unconventional writer, performer and, since the BBC’s axing of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle in 2016, “ex-TV comic”, is giving voice to his frustration with the fact that both Brexit and Trump have derailed the original purpose behind Content Provider.

Should Lee open an issue of Buzz this month, he may find himself yelling at the clouds, as Richard Herring, his old comedic partner from the classic 90s TV show Fist Of Fun, will have a full page all to himself (the duo, still friends, enjoy making jibes at the other’s expense onstage). Not that that diminishes Lee’s act. With a range of controversial, funny topics and unapologetic wit, he is unlike any other comedian, commenting on everyone and everything, using repetition, shaggy-dog stories, meta-gags, endless self-reflections and that inimitable smug, lefty-elitist liberal persona he so dearly loves to put across onstage. Which is another thing that recent events may force him to change, now that The Guardian has switched from broadsheet to tabloid format. Bound to provide some content at least.

Tickets: £23.50. Info: 01792 475715 / www.swansea.gov.uk/stewartlee (YA)