Ricky Gervais

Just (literally, about 20 mins ago) got back from seeing the fantastically funny Ricky Gervais and his "Fame" stand up show at Manchester's M.E.N. Arena. A complete sell-out, about 6000 people, it was another typical example of his amazingly funny talent. Now, to be honest, I don't think it's quite as good as the previous two shows, "Animals" and "Politics", but it was well worth the entrance fee. His unique brand of humour, a mix of political incorrectness and dry observational sharpness, is enthralling especially when he's talking about religion, which is a subject which crops up in a lot of his humour. Snippets such as "I prefer Old-Testament God with the floods and the pestilence whereas New-Testament God is a bit on the wet side" or "Everybody's entitled to their opinion, and if people do believe in God, I don't mind as long as they realise they're wrong", leaves me in no doubt that he is very much in my top 3 of stand-up comics, the other two being Eddie Izzard and, as long time readers of this blog will know, Bill Bailey.

The show starts off with Ricky bursting through the curtains dressed in kingly robes and crown, with a large lit "RICKY" behind him. After that (and explaining how the whole budget went on just that one effect), the show goes along at a good rate, occasionally taking a sip from the handy can of beer which is placed behind the large gold Emmy which is placed on the stage, which actually precipitated a shout from one member of the audience that they couldn't see much of him from where they were, but they were put down once he'd explained that the majority of the show didn't get much more visual than just watching him speak.

One of Ricky Gervais's strengths is just how obviously clever the guy is, but it's often his ramblings about things he doesn't know which is the funniest, such as the oft-said "how did the first human get AIDS, since we know it comes from monkeys?" to which his funny conversation carries on "the human goes to the doctor, doctor tells him he's got AIDS, he asks how he got it.. and is given two reasons... 1) He's been having sexual relations with monkeys, or 2) he's been chopping up monkeys and accidentally cut his finger at the same time", guess which option the human chose to save embarrassment!

His charity work also features prominently in the show, including his AIDS and Cancer benefit gigs in the UK as well as the US, and also there were a few little digs to Dawn French, after her funny sketch in "French and Saunders" ridiculing Ricky Gervais' weight.

Overall, a good show. Not the best he's done (I personally think that accolade goes to "Animals"), but still worth the entrance fee.