What a sell-out

Huge demand for Gervais tour

Ricky Gervias tickets sold out within hours at venues across Britain yesterday.

One venue, Oxford’s New Theatre, sold out in 45 minutes – a rate of 40 tickets a minute.

But hundreds of those buying tickets had no intention of ever going to the shows, with around 500 tickets already being sold on eBay at inflated prices. The £25 seats were going for up to £100 each on the internet auction site.

Gervais even managed to outsell Peter Kay in his North-West heartland, with the Blackpool Winter Gardens reporting that the Office star shifted his 3,000 tickets faster than Kay’s Mum Wants A Bungalow tour.

Kevin Allcock, managing director of venue owner Leisure Parcs, said: ‘Ricky Gervais represents the fastest Winter Gardens sell-out on record.’

Fans queued outside the venue from the early hours to get their hands on a ticket, which went on sale at 10am

In Sheffield, too, fans were waiting in the cold for the City Halls box office to open. Dan Whittaker, 24, told the Sheffield Star: ‘I'll queue as long as it takes. I've been to see a lot of comedians but I really want to see Ricky Gervais.’

And Richard Fitzsimmons, 23, said: ‘I've taken the day off work to get them, rather than battle with the website. This is the first stand-up show I've ever been to.’

In Portsmouth, the Fame show sold out in four-and-a-half hours, matching the record set by Little Britain earlier this year.

Guildhall manager Danny Green said: 'It's quite impressive. I was surprised to see people queuing. You'd think most would buy their tickets via the internet or over the phone these days.'

Oxford New Theatre spokesman Joel Barnett said : ‘I did expect it to sell out fast, but certainly not this quickly.’

Gervais’s tour, Fame, starts in Glasgow on January 8 and takes in 11 cities, although more dates are expected to be added later. Click here for dates.

Published: 13 Dec 2006

Live comedy picks

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.