Stewart Lee: 'Imitators are a bit annoying'

Stewart Lee has said that it is "a bit annoying" to see younger stand-ups imitating him.

The Fist of Fun comedian told the Irish Times that he had changed his style on new tour Carpet Remnant World.

Lee said: "Things like long silences, lots of repetition that slightly changes over a 20-minute bit, stating very cruel things very bluntly as if they were facts, getting off the stage and performing from unlit, unamplified areas of darkness, all those things I've done a lot of - I haven't gone near them in this show because I've seen little kids doing them in open-spot nights.

"It's kind of like a Lego version of you. Reduced. Oh dear. It's a bit annoying. I sort of think, that's what I do."

He added: "I've got two kids and I'm 43 years old and I'd quite like to be able to eke this out until I die, and yet you're making what I do a cliché and you haven't even got any dependants, you horrible, selfish child. But, on the other hand, it forces you on."

Of the British Comedy Award he won last month, Lee said: "Most acclaimed things aren't very good, and they're normally a compromise.

"It's a bit weird to get a British Comedy Award, because you sense you must have failed in some way."

> Stewart Lee interview (Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle)

Watch Stewart Lee talk about Travelodge Hotels on the first series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle below: