Stewart Lee

The world is the problem and the stage is the safest place because within certain parameters...

You feel protected.

And this show even more so.

Because at the start of the second half, once I'm in that werewolf costume, it's not even me doing it.

I get to the end and I think, oh, I'm done now.

And then the stuff happens to this puppet that I'm operating.

It's not even me.

When the kids were little, I would, you know, depending on who was working or whatever, I'd get them from school.

I'd do their tea.

I'd try and get their homework going.

And then I'd get on the bus to Finsbury Park Station and try to be at the Leicester Square Theatre for 7.30 or whatever for four months when I was doing my run.

And the moment I walked on stage, I would think, ah, some time to myself.

You know, it's not a problem.

I'm never nervous.

And I feel a sense of incredible calm, even when things are going wrong.

Whereas to come here or to deal with emails about admin and finance or...

Anything like that is much worse.

And I think that for me, in retrospect, becoming a comedian was a means of escape from the world and to live in a certain controlled environment.

And it's not a job I would do today if I was starting out.

You have to generate internet content and be a personality and interact with people.