Stewart Lee
London
When Stewart Lee was named 41st best stand-up in a Channel 4 poll, it gave him a great title for his one-man show. Now he's gone one step further with Stewart Lee Presents The 10 Best Stand-Ups In The World Ever. "I have arrived at my own definitive list of the best stand-ups based on my insider knowledge and a secret ballot of myself conducted by me," he says. Every Friday for five weeks, he'll share the stage with two of his favourite comics, including Harry Hill, John Hegley and Josie Long, starting with Simon Munnery, AKA The League Against Tedium. "Simon has been travelling round telling his jokes to dwindling crowds for half his life, and feels it's pointless stopping at this stage," reveals Lee. "There's an uninhabited wasteland where comedy becomes art, which Simon has made entirely his own; though, admittedly, no one else wanted it."
· Bloomsbury Theatre, WC1, Fri 25 to May 23
Todd Barry
CD
The phrase "slow burn humour" could have been invented for Todd Barry, a laid-back New Yorker who brings new meaning to the term "chilled out". If he were an animal, he'd be a sloth, or possibly an extremely lazy panda. On this excellent live album, recorded in NYC in 2004, but released for the first time in Britain, he reveals that a punter once asked if he was gay. "No, I'm not," said Todd, who's been in Larry Sanders and Sex And The City. "What was it about my performance that seemed gay?" "Your timing," she told him. "Really?" said Todd. "I have gay timing?" "But then I started thinking about it," he adds, "and I do speak slowly... And in the space between my jokes, I could meet a man." Critics have likened his shows to yoga classes, with a delivery level one notch above hypnosis, but his stand-up is all the better for it.
· Todd Barry - Falling Off The Bone, Comedy Central Records, £11.99
Henning Wehn
London
Only bores and bullies think they have a great sense of humour, and a lot of Brits are a bit of both. Sure, we all love to laugh at other people, but are we really any good at laughing at ourselves? Watching Henning Wehn, you soon realise the so-called Great British sense of humour is pretty selective. Although we all enjoy jokes that reinforce our prejudices, we hate it when a comic turns those prejudices on their heads. Henning Wehn is German, so, according to the British myth, he ought to have no sense of humour. That suits him just fine; it's the basis of his act. His Beginner's Guide To German Humour is really a guide to anti-Teutonic stereotypes - by playing up to our idea of the dour, efficient kraut, he lulls his audience into a false sense of superiority before revealing what he thinks about the Brits. He's joined by Otto Kuhnle on the accordion, but don't be fooled by his portrayal of a lovable buffoon. He's actually an accomplished actor, with credits such as Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire.
· Questors Theatre, W5, Mon 21 to Apr 26
