His latest book is a stonker. Wow.

So after borrowing copies of this from mates several times I decided to get my own. Amazon had it second hand. The parcel that just arrived is even better than I could have hoped.

I bumped into Stewart Lee a year or so ago in a newsagent's in Worthing. I was trying to buy a delicious gelatin-based snack and he was seeking blu tac². I introduced myself and offered to help him before also requesting an interview about his secular humanist beliefs - partly for my students and partly because I was interested to just have a decent chat about his perspective.¹

I have felt a kind of fascination towards Stewart Lee for a while now - the comedy fraternity that I most respect (for being funny) tend to revere or nod towards him from time to time.³ I also feel a slight tension because the whole Jerry Springer thing is surely something that I, as a practicing Christian, should be at odds with.⁴  

This raises a genuine frustration in my heart that probably needs outlining before I continue: I have a few students, peers and friends who would describe themselves as secular humanists. It is interesting to see that they are often puzzled to see that I have a similar sense of humour to them and that I don't read/like the Daily Mail. It is also curious (and occasionally annoying) to see the kind of arguments that these people form (and wear) in their dismissal of Christianity, the Bible and Jesus Christ. I am often drawn into discussions about evolution, science and right wing politics as if certain conclusions were synonymous with being a Christian. They are intrigued by my position which I sometimes refer to as Orthodox Christian Agnosticism.⁵ Adoption into the Christian worldview is not (I try to say to them) transference into a uniform culture, where certain things are funny and others aren't, where music is boxed into 'approved' and 'rejected'. It is far richer than that, and involves a wonderful exploration of culture through an increasingly redeemed perspective.⁶ 

Thinking and engaging. Asking questions and exploring. These are all permissible and encouraged for the true Christian believer. This is something my humanist acquaintances are often puzzled by because it doesn't appear to fit with the Media Stereotype of a right-wing reactionary photofit.⁷ 

Anyways - enough said. I am trying to say that reading and enjoying Stewart Lee's book is not inconsistent with being a Christian.

Here are some bulleted highlights from the book:

• On all sorts of levels I was drinking in what he had to say and how he was trying to think through the act of engaging the audience in something meaningful.
• His experience of doing a lot of speaking.
• His analysis/extensive footnotes that give a great inside voice to the transcripts of the live shows. This works really well to create a different kind of text. Transcription would be okay on it's own, but these extended sequences add a lot of value.
• The Ang Lee interview - even though he said it wasn't funny - had me laughing in a crazy public way on the train.
• His inspiring decision to move away from stale, tired and worn material, to embrace fresher material
• Stepping into fatherhood and marriage. I loved the obvious growth in sensitivity. 
• His experience of suffering and how this has moulded him into a more thoughtful, convinced and calm comedian.
• The way he thoughtfully turns the tables on subjects - the Richard Littlejohn piece was excellent, if crude. 
• His understanding of how to grow an audience: that numbers aren't the answer. 
• Getting an insight into how he views other comics - like McIntyre and Elton. 
• How he had to deal with management, TV rejection, rights issues, legal stuff and personal health.
• His kindness to his mum in showing a difference between his stage routine and what he really felt about her quilting.

I have to say that I haven't read and enjoyed a book as much as this one in a long time.

As a schoolteacher and (very occasional) speaker/preacher in Christian contexts I often feel an overwhelming desire to do something surprising, interesting and fresh. To take the audience somewhere that they have never been before. Stewart Lee is a sort of hero in this regard - even though we have such different worldviews - his attitude towards cultural engagement and delivery of quality material is something I am in total agreement with. I drank this book in and felt able to reflect deeply on the journey he had made. It is a great book. Bravo for getting it into print. 

¹He was very friendly and directed me to his agent. I recently wrote an email asking for help but haven't had anything back yet. Oh well.  ²He was performing a few hours later locally. ³ Adam and Joe, Graham Linehan, Gervais, Vegas, Morris, Iannuccii etc. ⁴I recently conducted an interview with the Christian Institute about their run-in with the BBC over it. I was glad to see that they implicitly disagreed with the approach of Christian Voice - a group who appear to be more interested in causing an empire-building fuss rather than reasonable, intelligent peacemaking and discussion. I was also in agreement with their stance on how Christians need to take the 'salt' idea seriously and stand up for standards in society. While I haven't yet seen JSTO I am inclined to agree with their conclusions about the BBC being unwise to respond to the 60k complaints. ⁵This is something I partly borrowed from the great man John Stott, who uses Deuteronomy 29v29 as a way of saying that there are some things that have been revealed by God and other stuff which hasn't. His conclusion is that a Christian has to stand sensitively - be grey when the Bible is and be bold when it gives good grounds to be so. ⁶And yes this might mean that somethings get rejected, but it is not the role of the Daily Mail or a Political Party to say what that is. ⁷Another massive bugbear of mine - and one that I know is shared by many of my most perceptive Bible-believing mates - is the whole Republican=Christian divide in the US. Liberal Arts are often seen as something unworthy of Christianity, and this is sadly untrue.