FEATURE: Stewart Lee Presents the Ten Best Stand-ups in the World Ever

There are many people in the world who claim that they have a better opinion of music, movies and comedy than ourselves. Most times they are wrong, and the editorial staff here like nothing more to stand around and mock their misguided opinions.

Despite this brazen modesty, there are some people whose opinions we take deadly serious, and in terms of comedy, there is no one whose opinion we hold in higher regard than comedian Stewart Lee.

Fresh off the back of a national tour, Stewart Lee is returning to London to host a season of stand-up entitled Stewart Lee Presents the Ten Best Stand-ups in the World Ever. Now, you could ask what qualifications does Stewart Lee have to declare these the best comedians in the world? Surely by saying this, he is just delivering his opinion, much like Channel 4, the BBC or any other compiler of ‘best of’ lists. Well, that’s a fair point, but unlike the these compilers, Stewart Lee has spent the last 20-30 years working in comedy, and, in his own words “I am a comedy industry insider, member of the public and critic, writing for The Sunday Times, Wire, Bucketful Of Brains and Good Housekeeping amongst others. And so I have arrived at my own definitive list of the best ten stand-ups of all time, based on my insider knowledge and a secret ballot of myself conducted by me.”

Naturally, the acts that Stewart has chosen as his top ten aren’t the run of the mill acts you see ranking high on other comedy ‘best-ofs’. Banished from the list are the likes of Peter Kay, Ricky Gervais and Russell Brand and welcomed into the fold in their place come such comedy circuit favourites as Boothby Graffoe, Simon Munnery and John Hegley, as well as more unknown, but still laudable comics such as Josie Long, Stephen Carlin and Kevin McAleer. Add to this a performance by Harry Hill, a ‘mystery guest’ (who looking at the calibre of the other guests, must be pretty darn good) and Stewart Lee performing some work-in-progress material just for you, this could be the best comedy treat people will see this side of the Edinburgh Fringe. If only Stewart’s other two choices (Daniel Kitson and Jerry Sadowitz) were available to join the list as well. We would be verging on some form of comedy utopia…

To get tickets to this cornucopia of comedic merriment, click here. For more Stewart Lee amusement, visit his website here.