When Stewart Lee was mistaken for a tramp

...and the year he was cut out of the Baftas

comedy He might be one of Britain’s most respected comedians – but not everybody recognises Stewart Lee.

The comic - who often makes sarcastic jokes about looking like celebrities who have ‘let themselves go’ – reveals he was once mistaken for a homeless person.

Speaking to Kate Thornton on her White Wine Question Time podcast, Lee recalled: 'Just as lockdown was finished, I had put on lots of weight and had grown a massive beard, kind of gave up on life a bit.

‘I went to buy a takeaway coffee in Camden, and I went and sat on steps over the road by where the Electric Ballroom is, and a security guard came up to me and said I couldn’t sit there. I was going, "well, I can, I'm just sitting on outside the shop. Is it your shop?"

And he went, "no you can't, you've got to move on." I thought, "wow, he thinks I'm homeless.

So I had a really long conversation with him about what he felt gave him authority and why he had decided to move me on. Obviously he couldn't say ‘because you looked like a tramp’, right?

It’s really interesting being famous enough to sell out 250,000 people on a tour but also to have the experience of what it’s like to be viewed as a disreputable character that will bring shame upon Camden Market by lowering the tone of the place.’

Lee previously encountered Thornton at the 2012 Banta awards, when she was the presenter. His acceptance speech was cut from TV, after he told her that acclaim was a random phenomenon, which no one should ascribe any significance.

On the podcast, her recalled: ‘I was so freaked out about the exposure that I did such a modest interview where I refused to be praised for anything, and they cut it out of the broadcasting.

‘Then that year I also won two British Comedy Awards and they had a cartoon of Dennis the Menace and all them Beano characters having a big cow pie feast with all the comedy award winners.

‘So there were cartoons of Jimmy Carr and Lee Mack and all them, and I wasn't even in that I was, I was cut from I was cut from the Baftas and then I wasn't even put in the Beano cartoon.

• Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time is available on all platforms now, while Lee’s stand-up special, Basic Lee, is on Sky Comedy at 9pm tomorrow.

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Published: 19 Jul 2024