Re-introducing... Stewart Lee, comedian and co-creator of Jerry Springer - The Opera.

Ricky Gervais calls him "the cleverest, funniest, most clich-free comedian on the circuit". In his 15-year career, Stewart Lee has written for Steve Coogan and Michael Barrymore; squandered development deals with American TV networks, written a confusing novel about native American clowns; left behind his Lee and Herring double act; and had two TV series cancelled by the BBC. After three years in musical theatre, garnering an Olivier Award nomination for directing Jerry Springer - The Opera, he has decided the only way to stop himself turning into Ben Elton is to return to stand-up. The Shed at Hovingham Village Hall is his next destination, as CHARLES HUTCHINSON reports.

Welcome back, Stewart, but what had made you step off the stand-up treadmill in the first place?

"Four or five years ago I got fed up with it. Everything I was working on just got stopped, such as pilots for Channel 4. With stand-up I found it very easy but I just wasn't getting anywhere with new material.

"Then in April 2001 I was asked by the composer Richard Thomas to help with some of the words to a show he was writing... and I ended up directing it because there was no money. At first it was put on in the back studio of Battersea Arts Centre with just Richard on piano. The show was How To Write An Opera About Jerry Springer, and it just started out as a bit of fun."

From that seed grew the satirical hit show Jerry Springer - The Opera, West End success and all. Prompted by the recent BBC2 screening, the controversy rages on, but you are ready to move on.

"Having done that show, two things happened. By the start of last year I wanted to do more than work with 40 people on one show. I wanted to make things hard for myself again.

"Working with Richard Thomas, what I noticed is that he doesn't recognise taboos and he's right not to. The 50,000 complaints aside, most people thought the Springer opera show was done with taste.

How did you go about re-acquainting yourself with stand-up after your "enforced lay-off"?

"I did lots of ten-minute slots around the country, where some people did recognise me and others told me I was like other people on the circuit. Lots of people who had started at the same time as me had got famous, but I'd been more quietly influential. I was the 'comic's comic'."

Does the time feel right to stand up and be counted once more?

"In every interview Ricky Gervais was mentioning me and saying it was a shame I wasn't performing any more.

"I seem to have always been about 18 months ahead, but now I appear to be just about in synch and the new young comedians are very much into the comic style from when I started, whereas the Nineties were about suits and aspirational things. Weirdoes were in the minority: just Harry Hill, Simon Munnery and me.

"When I quit I felt I was still part of that Comedy is the New Rock'n'Roll thing, but now I'm older, greyer and heavier and I think I can talk about things that actually concern me, rather than talking about nothing, which used to be fun.

"I never want to take anything personal on stage. I want to talk about ideas and politics with a small 'p'.

"I'm 36, 37, and I just hope Grumpy Old Men is still on in ten years' time."

Stewart Lee, Stand-Up Comedian, The Shed, Hovingham Village Hall, March 5, 8pm, sold out. Lee's favourite new act, youthful absurdist Josie Long, supports.

Jerry Springer - The Opera, Grand Opera House, York, November 28 to December 3; 0870 606 3590.

Updated: 09:13 Friday, March 04, 2005