In the new issue of Hot Press, (out today, Aslan/Paul Weller cover), UK comedian Stewart Lee opens up about how he was initially drawn to comedy as a career by Irish comedians. In a frank and open interview, he also shares his thoughts on fellow comedian Frankie Boyle, and talks about the response to comedy from religious groups...

Regarding Irish comedians being an inspiration in his early days, Lee, says, “I feel very privileged doing stand-up in Ireland because, when I was starting out, all the comics that I liked were Irish comics doing stories rather than gags. The best people at that were the Irish ones. So in a way it seems odd to me that I’d be remotely popular in Ireland, because I think they’ve got a shit foreign copy of their better thing.”

Speaking about fellow comic Frankie Boyle, Lee says, “With the subjects he’s dealing with, sometimes it doesn’t add up. Sometimes he’s angry on behalf of disenfranchised Palestinians, then the next minute he’s making fun of a handicapped kid. It doesn’t quite square up. They’re bloody good jokes though.”

He also speaks about the hostile reaction from the Christian right to his jokes. “Islamic offense takes a different form to Western-Christian offense," he observes. "It gets violent more quickly, or at least the rhetoric does. So it just seemed really glib to have a 90 minute show about religious censorship and to not mention specific examples drawn from Islam. It was all about my personal grievances with Christian protestors, no-one from Islam had tried to put me out of work."

Read the interview in its entirety in the new issue of Hot Press, out now.