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Review: Ricky Gervais And Friends At The Leicester Square Theatre

Ricky Gervais came to the Leicester Square Theatre in London with some friends this week. So did I. How did his first show go down?

Ricky Gervais is a comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director best known for co-creating The Office, Extras, Life's Too Short with Stephen Merchant, and the podcast series The Ricky Gervais Show with Karl Pilkington. He also created, wrote and starred in Derek and After Life, his Golden Globe Awards hosting events and Netflix specials. He also appeared in the movies For Your Consideration, the Night at the Museum trilogy, Stardust, Ghost Town, Muppets Most Wanted, and wrote and directed The Invention of Lying and Special Correspondents.

I first remember him being very funny on The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel 4 in 1998, the same show that also debuted Ali G. And that was the Ricky Gervais I was hoping to see again at the Leicester Square Theatre today, as part of a new show, Ricky Gervais And Friends. Because, apparently, he has some. I applied for tickets like everyone else and somehow managed to get front-row, central seats in the first show that has just finished. I have no idea how, the show sold out in seconds for a 200-seat venue over four shows this week. Maybe I went directly to the theatre website rather than the LiveNation system? Worth knowing for the future. Here was my seat.

Not bad, eh? I didn't leave any items on the stage. And I know this theatre of old; it hosts the regular Richard Herring RHLSTP shows (I saw Armando Iannucci and Rob Brydon on it last week) and Stewart Lee and Jerry Sadowitz. All of whom have had words about Ricky Gervais. But none of whom sold out tickets as fast as he did.

Leicester Square Theatre

Ricky Gervais And Friends is a try-out material show for Gervais, short bursts of his early thoughts for a new stand-up show, interrupted by other stand-up comedians using more tried and tested material. In theory. Sean McLoughlin admitted he'd made much of his routine up on the train to Victoria, and it showed. The karate actions for the Union Jack were pretty good, though.

Playing out at the Leicester Square Theatre this week, Ricky Gervais And Friends was just £17 a ticket plus a booking fee, If you got on the website thirty seconds before he tweeted it and picked a Monday matinee rather than a weekday evening, you got front-row seats, as I did, as did a couple from Plymouth beside me. The small theatre was naturally packed. Ricky himself expressed mock outrage as to how cheap this was. I mean, I think it was mock.

Being fed to the lions

And there was some excellent stuff here: solutions to affluent neighbourhoods not allowing 5G masts, the origins of gossip leading to virtual signalling, and how Harold Shipman probably saved more lives than he took. And how he only wants to do his favourite thing rather than his second. We learned of his plans to be a geriatric Batman, the problems of masturbating when you have been revived from the dead with a new body and someone else's penis, and the realities of hell. Specifically, how the Exorcist line about your mother sucking cocks in hell sounds like one of the lesser punishments in Hades, how he'd volunteer, and in fact, wish it on his own mother. It was very silly and momentarily shocking until the reality sits it and a classic example of perfect timing in the show, and no doubt bludgeoned to death by my mediocre rephrasing. There was also the routine when he told a joke on Conan O'Brien about wanting his body to be fed to the lions at London Zoo on his death and how a Sun journalist got a response from the zoo as if it were a serious proposal. So he got to have a go at the media, one of his actual favourite things, but used it to elaborate with great detail and comic flourish as to the reality of this situation with a final, unforgettable, surreal and savage scene.

Ricky Gervais talks about how much work he puts into his shows, writing, performing with try-out shows such as this, warm-up shows and then international stadium tours and the like, only to be dismissed by a reviewer as "lazy". That will be Nick Hilton at the Independent? Gervais told us it was a "four-eyed c-nt" to boot… "yes, I looked up his picture". Now, that could have been a line delivered in a self-derogatory fashion to suggest Ricky is overly thin-skinned in a comic fashion. But instead, it just suggested that Ricky was actually this thin-skinned,

Well, from one four-eyed fat bearded c-nt in the front row, I don't expect the reviewer meant that Ricky was lazy in the amount of work he put into his touring shows, as much as his material. Or at least some of it, Or at least some of it on show right now.

Because, yes, this was try-out stuff, first ideas, much of which, even as he was saying it, was saying wouldn't end up in the special (though I reckon quite a bit of the stuff about throwing homosexuals off roofs in Pakistan before he said that, will do). But yes, some of it did feel really lazy and not thought through. asking why the world is like this but ignoring the answers because they are inconvenient or he doesn't want to look them up. At times, I didn't feel like laughing; I felt like arguing with him. These arguments can be pursued, taking on the answers rather than leaving things hanging on a "what's all that about then, eh?" vibe. Equally, his jokes about why hate crimes get greater sentences than normal murders ignore any of the actual reasons. It ends on an absolutely killer gag about shooting little people, delivered with the skill of the marksman, but was followed by Ricky ending it saying he can't use any of this. That's the thing: he can, and he probably will, but part of getting to that point is putting in the work to justify it. And it's not always there in the finished shows, either.

Ricky Gervais doesn't make the laws.

Here's another example. The Pakistan stuff from above was from part of a routine looking at how liberals, of which he counts himself as one, champion gay rights and female empowerment, but then give countries like Pakistan a pass because otherwise it would be racist. And adds "I don't make their laws" to excuse his comments. But then doesn't take the next step to realise that these draconian laws came in under the Raj, under British rule. We, as a country, did actually make their laws. There's irony there, but I was left thinking that maybe he doesn't know that, Which means he didn't even look up these laws on Wikipedia when writing a routine about them. And that's why some, not all, of his material might be criticised as lazy. He doesn't appear to do the research that might make it cleverer, better, or funnier; if he does, he ignores it. I'm not asking for a university dissertation, just something beyond the surface level. It might be even more outrageous as a result, but it will be worthy outrage.

Someone like Jerry Sadowitz, who takes offence to a new level, does a long, arduous routine about Prime Minister Rishi Sunak being a "P-word" bastard at length, at great repetition, before totally undermining his whole act by ending it saying, "I know Rishi Sunak's family are from India, not Pakistan, but what's racism without ignorance?", accompanied by a stamp of his foot on the stage with jazz hands. It got him cancelled in Edinburgh, but at least he'd put the work in,

Equally, Gervais had a very funny routine about relative morality and how we can't be smug about our current actions against those of our ancestors because we would have behaved just like them. But then dives into a routine about how 400 years ago, we would all have had slaves, but he would have virtue signalled as being a nice slave owner. Which might play better in America because it doesn't really work in London. Aside from the Americans in the audience. Does he not know that we didn't have slaves here? Is he equating a feudal system of serfdom? Or doesn't it matter since he has turned his gaze towards America, and we were all meant to pretend that's where we were? The bewilderment dulled my laughter that would have been at his unaware ignorance of a self-important slave owner believing they were virtuous.

Choosing not to mention trans people at this time.

He did a fair bit about reaction to his work, how he pointed out that people offended by his work and complained just sent his shows to the top of the charts, and when they complained about that, it sent it to the top again. As well as reviewers, the media, and the lawyers at the Golden Globes who debated whether or not he could refer to Dame Judy Dench's "minge". Oh, and a line comparing being called a sh-t comedian by comedian Nish Kumar to being called an anti-Semite by Adolf Hitler, died on the stage. It turns out that people in a comedy club in London think Nish Kumar is quite funny.

But, unexpectedly, there wasn't a single mention of trans people, the previous statements he's made and the specific fuss that created, or even the James Acaster (another Leicester Square Theatre favourite) line mocking Gervais, "you know who's been long overdue a challenge? The trans community. They've had their guard down for too long if you ask me." Not a peep, not in this warm up at least. The closest he got was looking at the profiles of people on Twitter and reckoning he could drive them to suicide if he wanted. Is that an improvement? I don't think that will make it to the final show.

Ricky Gervais is a master at this though, whatever misgivings I may sometimes have, Probably my own fault rather than his. And hey, for £17? Absolutely, utterly, totally worth it. I note there have been no other reviews published for this show because it wasn't a show for the press unless they actually paid to attend. And that, yesterday, it seems, was me. And yes, Ricky, you are probably exactly right in how you think I look.

Ricky Gervais using his friends

As to his other Friends. Sean McLoughlin may have stumbled a bit, but Josh Pugh kicked off with the best gag I've heard about a vacuum cleaner, followed by one about being a deadbeat dad. And Red Richardson, who had some stunning gags, stumbling over the admission of small penis size, infanticide warnings and Hello Fresh ads in true crime podcasts, kissing men in Dubai for the adrenaline rush, why men post memes with lions in them and end with a great Calm app gag that I will definitely steal…

But it worked; the Friends gave Ricky a chance to recover from the first time he'd ever presented some of his material, work out what did and didn't work, and come back better. And for me, it got me to think a lot. It was a privilege to be there. And I think I understand Ricky a little bit more.

Ricky Gervais And Friends

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Review by Rich Johnston

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7.5/10

Ricky Gervais And Friends is a try-out material show for Gervais, short bursts of his early thoughts for a new stand up show, interrupted by other stand up comedians using more tried and tested material. In theory.

Credits

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Comedian

Ricky Gervais

Comedian

Red Richardson

Comedian

Sean McLoughlin

Comedian

Josh Pugh

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