Stewart Lee performed at Pestival 2007, later describing his idea to perform as an insect, costume and all in his book, How I Escaped My Certain Fate.
Stewart details his return to live performance, and the journey that took him from an early retirement to his position as the most critically acclaimed stand-up in Britain, the winner of BAFTAs and British Comedy Awards, and of course his involvement with Pestival.
“Then I was approached by an old friend, Bridget Nicholls, an eco-activist with pirate blood who was organising an entomology-based arts event called Pestival at Barnes Wetlands Centre that May. Would I do the opening-night cabaret in some capacity?
.. Now, I’m known as a maverick within the world of comedy, I play by my own rules, not the rules of entomologists. If I want to do a joke about a spider, no amount of entomologists are going to stop me. You can threaten me with court and I’m still not scared . . . except with that TV thing cancelled I need this to work out, I need this. I need this. I need Pestival’
Watch the one and only elusive clip from Stewart Lee’s now cult-esque Pestival performance, filmed by Junita Baggett: