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A late entrant to the world of comedy, Gervais only started to try to tap his talent for making people laugh in 1998, at the age of 36.

Before that, he had spent seven years spent as an entertainments manager for a student union.

And his initial ambitions were musical, playing in a failed Eighties band called Seona Dancing.

He later, briefly, managed the band Suede, before landing a job on London's XFM radio station where he started developing a taste for comedy, and a character called Seedy Boss who would later become The Office's David Brent.

Ricky Gervais: Science on tour
Live Review
Oxford New Theatre

Movies are keeping Ricky Gervais busy these days; yet somewhere between the promotional junkets for The Invention Of Lying and writing and directing Cemetery Junction, he’s found the time to troll round the country on a stand-up tour.

However, he doesn’t seem to have quite found the time to polish off the writing. This show is substantially the same as a work-in-progress show he performed in London back in April, but there’s little evidence of the work actually having progressed, with straightforward routines offering plenty to enjoy, but few surprises.

It’s still a pretty funny 70 minutes, as you’d expect from a comic of Gervais’s talent, but Science feels like he’s treading water. Given that he’s such a perfectionist on his screen work, he seems happy to settle for the adequate, rather than the excellent, on stage.

His shows rarely have much to do with their titles, and Science is probably the most tenuously named yet, as he’s the first to admit. Reading the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for ‘science’ is as deep as it gets, unless you count the debunking of the Noah myth or the homophobic prejudices of the religious Right as striking a stand for rationality over superstition.

But we start – after an hilariously inappropriate video by gifted American stand-up Louis CK – with Britain’s Got Talent, and Gervais questioning what qualifications Amanda Holden has to sit in judgment, save for breaking up with Gervais’s old Extras guest star, Les Dennis. It’s graphically gross but forensically pedantic, repeating the points with subtle shifts in emphasis, heavily influenced by Stewart Lee’s style, but made more accessible.

A couple of other comedians are channelled over the night, too, recycling Russell Brand’s famous line about heroin being ‘a bit morish’ and offering a selfish take on the charity Christmas gifts that relies on a very familiar attitude, though the gags are Gervais’s own.

This is why the show never really flies, it sounds too much like a club set that other people could – and in some cases have - done. His extended deconstruction of Noah’s Ark, as told through a kids’ book, for example, is a ridiculously easy target. That doesn’t mean it can’t be funny – and in the early stages this proudly atheist routine is – but the sarcastic comments run out of steam before the legend does. Likewise a rant against fatties is both enjoyably vicious and largely predictable, while the inherent stupidity of opposing gay marriage is nicely encapsulated, but quickly degenerates into descriptions of increasingly depraved sexual activities, using shock as a substitute for surprise.

But taste always takes a holiday when Gervais is on stage. He’s far from PC, and if it’s behind a cloak of irony, it’s sometimes hard to see. An extended routine about an obsessed at the front of a Ken Dodd routine is ruthlessly offensive about someone who’s clearly a troubled woman – especially given Dodd’s well-publicised troubles with a mentally ill stalker. While many of Gervais’s comments are as funny as they are unkind, they are far from guilt-free.

His delivery, as always, is of the cheeky child – saying the latest rude thing he’s heard in the knowledge it will provoke a reaction from the grown-ups, then trying to act all coy when it does. His favourite stance is to jut his face towards the audience – making him almost look as if he’s wearing a cheap cardboard cut-out mask of himself - and pull a fax-innocent ‘what did I say?’ shrug. The fact his voice cracks into a high, vivacious laugh is something of a giveaway, though.

The engaging tongue-in-cheek performance helps ensure this is a fun night. Yes, he does mention his Golden Globes, of course, but rather more cheesily, he’s selling his autographs for £10 a pop at the merchandise stall. Poor chap, must be down on his fortune – that, or keen to avoid the dweeby autograph-hunters that’s another of his bugbears.

An entertaining hour and a bit, yes, but falling short of a memorable one. Maybe Gervais is spreading himself just a little too thin.

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Deeply deeply untalented, unfunny man

elinor, January 2007

The Britsih sense of humour really does become more bizarre as time passes. Having deliberately watched Gervais over the last five years, I have yet to raise a smile let alone a laugh at any of his so called "comedy". It is so very sad to see how the UK public react to Ricky Gervais; a man who has no sense of comedy or humour and yet has a huge following of people who somehow think that the man is actually funny. Gervais is truly a vacuous and unfunny little man who needs some good lessons in comedy and the art of humour

Carlo, December 2006

Ricky Gervais is the funniest person ever! Fact. His observations are top class and anyone that doesn't think he is a genius needs to have another look at The Office. The way he portrays everyone's boss is spot on. It's an incredible in depth observation of a character that we all know and love to hate in life. His stand up is quality too. Again if you dont think this man is a genius then I urge you to watch Politics and listen to what Gervais has to say about Humpty Dumpty. Brilliant. Gervas's humour is original and at times so subtle, this is maybe the reason why people sometimes dont get it. I cant wait for the new series of Extras.

Luke, September 2006

He is just not funny full stop. People have forgotten how to judge things. Go back... Look at it again... Oh its a piece of poo. repeat to yourself 'its a piece of poo' the fact that he is listed along such comedy masterminds as David Jason, Ronnie Barker and other such greats just sickens me to the core. Unfortunately its the moronity that decides what is good and bad in today's society and im saddened to think that some turely great unknowns are being held back just to make room for Ricky Gervais. He has made me laugh a few times but then again most people I know have made me laugh at some point does that mean they are comic geniuses?

Edward, September 2006

Always a pleasure

Ross, September 2006

Ricky's projection of the egotistical Brent is an example of the bores we see everyday - bravo Ricky for upstanding the wankers in the workplace; bravo for showing the drones what they really look like.

Elki, July 2006

He isn't funny, I honestly do not see why other people find him funny. The episode of the Simpsons he wrote was one of the worst ever, and after sitting through an episode of The Office my sister was watching I only even smiled once.

James, July 2006

Ricky Gervais is in no way shape or form a comedy genuis. If creating a series that simply induces embarassment is classed as comedy then so be it. The Office was truly horrendous and dont even let me get started on his stand up work.

Sharron, June 2006

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