Comic takes a year out

Stewart Lee says he won’t be touring again for at least 12 months.

The comic, who will return to BBC Two with a second series of his Comedy Vehicle next year, says he is taking a year off before returning with ‘a big new tour show in 2012’.

He says he might use the time off to learn a new talent, as he wants to keep pushing himself as a performer – but he also has a second baby on the way with wife Bridget Christie, a sibling for his three-year-old son.

In an interview with Mustard magazine – an extract of which is published on Chortle today – Lee said: ‘I’m not touring again till 2012.

‘There may be time next year – although we’re having another baby – to learn to dance or do martial arts. Something that no one would expect from an out-of-shape middle-aged man, especially not someone who’s perceived as a deadpan, lumpy act.

‘Each new tour, I try to do things I feel uncomfortable with. Initially, it was going off stage and talking to people. In the last tour, it was singing a song.’

Lee is currently in residence at London’s Leicester Square Theatre until December 18, and has five final shows of his Vegetable Stew show scheduled in for March, before taking his time off.

The second series of Comedy Vehicle will be recorded next month.

Published: 7 Dec 2010