90s Comedian enjoys renaissance

This is a true story about a man called Stewart Lee. Stewart Lee is an idealistic, intelligent comedian who achieved modest television success in the mid 90s as part of the double act Lee and Herring. When his friend Richard Thomas began to write a musical show based on The Jerry Springer Lee agreed to help expand it, offering structure and additional lyrics. He also became director of the show by default.

That show became Jerry Springer: The Opera. You might've heard of it. It's been subject to critical raves and won a sackful of awards, including a clutch of prestigious Oliviers. Despite featuring gently mocking portrayals of Jesus, God, Adam, Eve and Satan it even earned positive reviews in The Church Times and The Catholic Herald. It is also, thanks to the BBC's television broadcast of the show, the most complained about programme in British television history.

Although the initial theatre runs at the Edinborough Festival, the National Theatre and a tour all went off without a hitch, news of the forthcoming television screening proved to be a catalyst for extremist group the Christian Voice to spring into indignant action. They campaigned against it, issueing death threats to the shows creators and the BBC executives responsible for bringing it to our screens. They gave out misleading information about the show's content and motivated 60,000 people to complain, mostly without even seeing the show.

The tabloid press helped stir up the trouble by printing inacurate reports about the show's content, bumping up the number of swear words by multiplying them by the number of people on stage and claiming that Jesus wears a nappy. He doesn't, he wears a loin cloth. The BBC decided to stick to their guns and broadcast anyway but that was just the start of the trouble.

Next, the Christian Voice began threatening theatres and the show's backers with arcane blasphemy laws. With scared supporters pulling out the show was forced to tour with a reduced cast. The creators waived their royalties and put in their own money to meet their commitments but still the show was picketed everywhere it went. The once highly successful show had been made financially unviable. Thomas and Lee were forced to face the fact that their award winning Opera would never tour again and would never make them any money. The Christian Voice did bring a blasphemy case but it was thrown out of court.

After four years away from stand up, Lee returned to the day job as a way of sorting out his money problems as much as anything. He had spent the past few years defending Jerry Springer intelligently and eloquently. He used 90s Comedian, the second show after his comeback, to put the boot in. He attacked the catholic church and pushed the envelope with a routine about Jesus, before passionately justifying every word.

In part due to Lee's low public profile and in part because the show's content and concerns about The Christian Voice, nobody wanted to broadcast the show, or film it for a DVD. This was a pity because the show was brilliant and had earned rave reviews. It was angry, intelligent, but most of all very funny. Then a bloke called Chris Evans stepped in.

It wasn't the famous Chris Evans from radio 2. This Chris Evans is a Welsh bloke who works at the Chapterhouse Theatre in Cardiff. He saw the show and wanted to see it released so together with some friends, one of whom was a cameraman, they invited Lee back to perform and record the show at the Chapterhouse. Then they set up Go Faster Stripe, a company to release and sell DVDs.

The DVDs aren't available in the shops but Stewart Lee will be selling them on tour. Alternatively you can buy them at www.gofasterstripe.com where you can also see clips from the show. The DVD is just £10, with high sound and picture quality as well as a bonus interview with Stewart Lee.

Go Faster Stripe already have their second release planned, with Richard Herring lined up to record his Someone Likes Yoghurt show at the Chapterhouse on the 17th of January. Tickets are still available via Herring's website at www.richardherring.com