Part-autobiography, part-script, part-critical commentary: How I Escaped My Certain Fate, by the comedian Stewart Lee, is something of an experiment. To my knowledge, no other such book exists. This seems entirely fitting for a performer who, after carving out a relatively straight-forward but highly amusing career with Richard Herring on Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy, went on to perform some of the most daring and intelligent stand-up of the last ten years. Luckily, like his four latest tours, it is an experiment which is entirely successful.

The focal points of the book are Lee’s three tours between 2005 and 2008: Stand-Up Comedian, ‘90s Comedian and 41^st Best Stand-Up Ever. The full text of each is included, taken verbatim from the performances recorded for DVD. Nevertheless, they probably comprise less than half of the book’s word-count. What makes How I Escaped My Certain Fate such a fascinating read is Lee’s introduction to and commentary on each of these shows. The section preceding each transcript places the work in the context of Lee’s life at the time, showing how his personal experiences, both positive and negative, effect not just the content, but the very form of each show. The commentary to the transcripts comes in the form of footnotes, but they are rarely the one-sentence interjections normally found nestled neatly at the bottom of an academic textbook. Some footnotes take up half the page, some take up multiple pages. Lee explores every aspect of each show, from opening music, to his position on (or off) the stage, his manipulation of the audience, his pauses, and, most importantly, his jokes. Or, rather, his lack of jokes. For, as he points out both during performance and in the book, he is not a comedian who delivers pithy one-liners. Instead, he produces carefully structured shows, with long build-ups to (hopefully) large payoffs, which play with not just the audiences expectations, but with the very concept of stand-up.

What becomes clear as you read through this book is that for Stewart Lee, his comedy is an art form of the purest kind. Perhaps most comedians think of their work in the same way, but what separates Lee is that in his case it is entirely justified. In his attention to detail, his deep awareness of his influences, and his ceaseless search for new ways to approach comedy vindicates the high-regard he has for the medium he has chosen. As he says in the introduction to ‘90s Comedian: “Leave me here, all you legitimate artists, at the tradesman’s entrance, with my can of lager and my notebook. I can draw a magic circle all around myself and do whatever I want. I am a stand-up comedian. You can’t touch this!”

However, for all the talk of holy fools and shaman clowns, his invocation of worldwide jesting rituals and his acknowledgments of debt to avant-garde showmen, Stewart Lee never takes himself or his work seriously enough to let it interfere with the humour which is on display throughout, often brilliantly so. A word of warning though: so much of Lee’s appeal lies in the tone with which he delivers his lines, the rhythm of his sentences, and the timing of the dénouements, that those with no previous experience of his style may struggle to see the funny side of some segments. This is a problem Lee himself acknowledges, and he even expresses a hope that in the future he could refine his stand-up so much that it would be impossible to transfer to the page.

Although one suspects that its actual audience will consist almost entirely of those who are already fans of Stewart Lee, this is a book worth reading by anyone with an interest in comedy as an art form, anyone who would like to understand more about the creative process, and by anyone who simply wants to be entertained.

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