Review: Stewart Lee, Carpet Remnant World, Hall for Cornwall

“If I was Cornish, I wouldn’t like the English either, after what we have done to you; we destroyed the tin industry, made smuggling illegal and now were taxing your main source of food” – Stewart Lee

It took ten minutes of surprisingly accessible topical material and some localised banter about Cornwall and pasties before Stewart Lee turned on us.

As a fan, there’s always a worry that you will find yourself in an auditorium of people not accustomed to Lee’s post ironic deconstruction of his own routine or the acerbic, condescending and repeated assaults on the intelligence of his audience members, however it was obvious after just a few minutes that I was in good company.

The first half of “Carpet Remnant world” is based around the audience almost entirely, with Lee painstakingly examining routines he has performed just minutes earlier, with a focus on explaining WHY they are funny and despairing over the idiocy of the people he has found himself in front of.

Lee, as usual, obsesses over “pockets” of good audience members and dismisses large portions of the crowd as people who only came because they were “Invited by mates”. These friends of fans are baited with cheap, easy jokes and are confronted by Lee for being the sort of people that would find that material funny.

“Some jokes aren’t meant to be laughed at, some jokes… are traps”

– Stewart Lee


The second half of the show is where Lee picks up the pace and gets into the longer, more absurd jokes which require a little more audience investment. At this point the audience are trying desperately not to be one of the people he targeted in the first half and this in turn allows Lee to start weaving a more complex set of anti-tropes and stories, connecting them to the areas he highlighted in his early set.

This increase in complexity and pace results in little silence from the audience with a steady chuckle rolling round the room like an intellect dependant Mexican wave. This, punctuated with big moments of shared pay off between performer and audience filling the small venue with laughter.

I would say that of all of the stand-up sets I have seen Stewart Lee perform, this was one of the more accessible, which isn’t to say you should bring your kids. The show is extremely adult in nature, containing frequent (but not over used) profanity, some hilariously disgusting imagery and jokes you wouldn't want to try and explain in conservative company.

The show finishes with a bizarre, unexpectedly gentle, mood lit monologue against the shining backdrop of the fantastical “Carpet Remnant World”. Lee thanks the audience and quickly exits the auditorium to man his own merchandise stand.

In short, Stewart Lee has not lost anything of what made him such a visceral, stand out performer when he hit the scene in the nineties and I personally think his material has aged well, like the cherub faced comedian himself. This show is masterful examination of performer, performance and the relationship with an audience.  He has not lost his edge, merely relocated it.