On The Daily Show 2011 pt1

On atheism

More Ricky Gervais videos

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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He has completely changed the face of British comedy - and changed it for the better. The more I watch Extras the better it gets - it makes me laugh so much I feel sick.

Chris, January 2006

Loved The Office, but abhor the man otherwise. He has one talent, and that was David Brent. Now that's over, he's just milking his fame. I doubt in tenmaybe even five years people will look back on Gervais and say he was a real comedian. Very ordinary routine and a very unlikeable persona.

James Phillips, January 2006

Gervais is a genius - end of conversation.

Foxey, January 2006

I can't stand the man. Had to sit through the Office as my girlfriend loved it. I didn't laugh once! Likewise his Politics stand up show. Yawn. Reading through these comments it seems I am not alone in thinking he's a prat. He is unfortunately already to big for his boots. Still, when you are as rich as he is I guess you have the right to be. Give me decent sitcoms like Fawlty Towers and quality stand up UK comedians like Jasper Carrott any day

Tony Sharp, January 2006

He is not funny. people who like The Office like it because they have been told it is funny. It isn't funny in the slightest as a writer he is awful compare it to the greats like Richard Curtis who wrote Blackadder. Stand-up he is even worse. he throws gags which have been done better by those before him. He is over hyped and over rated he shouldn't be famous because he can get a couple of smirks out of people. He is diluting any creditbility to British comedy.

Steven Henry, December 2005

Ricky Gervais is the most unfunny man on television. Truth is he isn't funny at all. The Office" was the most useless television there was; who is telling us that Gervais is a funny? Some TV critic I suppose. One day I look forward to some real comedy on television.Ricky Gervais won't be anywhere near it.

Dave, December 2005

He is undoubtedly the best and most entertaining thing to happen to the comedy scene in years. A legend, and the definitive 'laid-back entertainer'.

Oisin, December 2005

I like Ricky Gervais,and loved The Office I'm a huge fan of all the comed.. Now the bad news, I thought Extras was total and utter crap.The comedy emperor is butt naked. Someone needs to have a word.

Ian, December 2005

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