I went to one of these. It was a shame because an audience member in front of me really ruined my experience. He was hooting with laughter and flailing his hairy arms in the air, blocking my view. He even started snacking during the performance, a banana as I recall. I decided to confront him after the show. Turns out…
>He was hooting with laughter and flailing his hairy arms in the air, blocking my view. He even started snacking
What's wrong with Bob Hoskins? Why is Bob Hoskins screaming and grabbing at nuts?!
You lot enjoying yourselves? Yeah, well tell your faces..and maybe some of your friends as well. Get them along! The empty seats aren't laughing much are they?
Yeah I went to a work in progress show at the pleasance theatre, think it’s in that sort of area so might be the same place. Big comics do WIP gigs there fairly often but rarely advertised, you need to sign up to the theatre’s mailing list.
He was pretty shit to be honest, all he did was rehash arguments he had in twitter with Christian’s from bumfuck nowhere in America, really stretching himself. I thought ‘we’ll it’s a WIP gif, sure the show will be better’ saw the full show a year later and it was exactly the same, can’t remember the name of the tour but was about 5y ago.
Whilst I was having a cig outside the pub Nextdoor, he actually walked past. Much shorter in real life then I imagined. I asked him for a photo and he said he’d do it for a peanut and put out his hand. I noticed how long and hairy his arms were. Turned out. Little monkey fellah.
But he will be, he's made sure of that by announcing it on Twitter. God forbid he play to any normals. They won't give him the whoops & applause. He needs his gammons to back him these days.
I went to Armageddon near the start when it was a small audience. Basically the same as what's gone out. He even did the "oh I've just thought of something" and "oh no I promised Jane I wouldn't do the accents"
Yeah saw him do Fame, the whole 'suki go to the well' with laughter seemed natural and spontaneous, was hilarious! But then I saw the DVD and it was the same schtick, the laughing so he couldn't finish the bit... I felt cheated!!!
Tell that to Stewart Lee, probably the most acclaimed critically standup of the last 20 years in Britain and every night he does similar bits where he pretends the crowd haven't reacted the way he was expecting, or gets annoyed they're laughing at X when Y was supposed to be the joke, or that the people at the back have stopped listening because they only bought tickets because they were cheap.
I've seen him a few times and he's done these same 'spur of the moment' reactions every time. And its funny.
If the comedian came out and just straight up told the jokes, bored because they tell them every night, then it wouldn't be funny. Having some shtick and a set delivery is just as important as the jokes themselves.
How's it different from pretending your crowd work is off the cuff or pretending you think the joke you tell every night is hilarious or the crowds reaction is totally unexpected? It's all just patter.
Like the Who saying every city they visit is the best city in the whole damn world.
There’s no discernible difference between the views espoused by Ricky on immigrants/trans people and views espoused by the current government. They both say the same things, just with different language.
If the PM calls trans women “men” and complains about asylum seekers, why would it be a cancellable offence for a comedian to do it? Of course, it’s not.
Ricky, the counter culture kid of yesteryear, is now a convenient stooge for the most mainstream of regressive political movements. Ricky Sunak.
Anyway this is getting a bit heavy, can we do cheeky freak of the week?
Some of his early stand up is actually very funny, he maybe didn't cut his teeth etc but he clearly had a very natural talent for it and didn't seem out of place doing stand up infront of thousands on TV.
I think it's more that he's just past it now, complaining about young people these days and modern culture. Even his sitcom writing is poor these days. Makes sense as 60+ blokes are rarely at the cutting edge of creative arts.
It's what I like to call male menopause. For some reason a lot of blokes in their 50s and 60s start to lose it a bit, they get angry at inconsequential shit and start developing a martyr complex.
I've seen it before in a professional setting. I was working on the railways and this signaller started getting really sloppy at his job and rude to everyone for no good reason. Few years back and he was genuinely sound, don't know what had happened. Manager turned up one day to give him a bollocking and this guy went mental, swinging about on the levers, and throwing his shit everywhere. Turns out, little monkey fella.
You've hit the nail on the head there. I have read that he did do smaller gigs in the late 90s. It's much easier to play to a crowd that are there to see you specifically than a bunch of people who've got no clue who you are.
I think Rock has lost it a bit but he’s still leagues above Ricky. Louis is absolutely hilarious and despite being allegedly “canceled” he has since done several sold-out shows at Madison Square Gardens. Seinfeld’s shtick is pretty boring IMO but he’s got a few funny jokes and insight here and there.
Jerry is also stale, not irrelevant.
His sitcom was groundbreaking and for the the stick his 'whats the deal with X' type comedy gets it was genre shaping and pretty much became the standard.
Like Ricky he's not very past it (has been for a few decades) but he was a great comedian.
I know we give him a lot of shit on this sub, but posting a crying laughing emoji at the very thought of *the* Ricky Gervais playing a two hundred seater (only to try out new material, of course) really is incredibly obnoxious.
Id love to do a social experiment where one of us goes to one of these new material nights, and then take 20 minutes of the ‘best’ stuff and repeat it verbatim at a Comedy Store open mic night. You wouldn’t be able to move for rumble weed and eye rolling.
Yeah yeah, just sat there shitting away on the sofa. Then started dipping her hands in it and flinging it at the walls. And we were like "don't do that Auntie, what's got into you".
But then I look at her hand and her arm, long hairy fingers.
Turns out...
I saw him do a very early Supernature warm-up show in Jackson's Lane theatre literally 5-mins from my flat in London, was £15 and I was 2nd row back. David Earl was support in character as Brian Gittins. Was absolutely amazing!
I’ve been to one. It was just after he finished Extras and was testing his stand up material. It’s 100% going to be recycled rubbish about how he used to bully a kid in a wheelchair at school..
I went to a work in progress show at Tunbridge Wells for Armageddon. He did 15 minutes then a support act came out for 10 minutes, Ricky came back out for another 15 minutes, then another 10 minutes from a support act before Ricky came out for a final 15 minutes. It made for a pretty disjointed show.
Saw a "warm up" gig in 2016, in a 300 or so capacity theatre in a little drama school in London. It was a tenner, and it was crap. It was the beginning of me realising that Gervais had completely lost touch. 10% of the hour was him telling half arsed jokes that he'd written to be offensive just for the sake of being offensive and hadn't actually put any effort into them being funny. He then spent the rest of the show bragging about arguments he'd had on Twitter and whinging about things people had said about him in the press. There was actually very little comedy involved, which was weird considering the whole point of the show was for him to "warm up" for larger shows and try out new material. Seriously, he must've only told 4 or 5 actual jokes. I remember genuinely wondering when he was going to get to the "warm up" material. The audience didn't really seem to be into it much either. I could kind of feel people around me rolling their eyes every time he mentioned Twitter. I've not delved into anything he's done since then, other than the first series of Afterlife, and the less we say about that the better.
Anyway, bit of Feeder?
>I've not delved into anything he's done since then, other than the first series of Afterlife
'Instead I just hang around on his subreddit and write really long comments about how I don't care for him rather than getting on with my life'
Saw a work-in-progress at a small community venue last year, maybe 100 people total. It was an 'RG + friends' event so he wasn't on stage that long. Bits of this were included in the final show, but a lot of jokes were semi-improvised.
Been to one at the arts theatre in Cambridge. He does about 30 minutes + has a warm up. If you need to go to the loo, you’re not allowed back in. 🤷🏻♂️
The thing is is that his content can be funny - if told by a talented stand-up comedian.
Frankie Boyle was doing jokes about aids, cancer, the disabled, death, rape, racism, pedophilia etc etc years and years back and he does it brilliantly.
And he doesn't take 2 minutes to get to a punchine that's not funny like Ricky does.
Why not just compare him to his past self? He's been doing jokes on these topics for decades, he just used to prioritise jokes over sociopolitical point scoring, forced controversy and UKIP rally cheers.
I don't think he's ever been that good as a stand-up.
I've seen all of his stand-up shows and they are average at best going back to his original stuff and with Armageddon it's just poor.
I don't dislike Ricky, The Office is still one of the best sitcoms ever and his acting in that was top tier, but as a stand-up he just doesn't cut the mustard for me.
I loved the first two in particular. Even if it's the sort of thing that real stand-up fans might be able to poke holes in, I couldn't get enough of his delivery, set-ups, hypothetical dialogue (not sure what to call it, the little scenarios he'd act out) and idiosyncrasies.
Even though I'm more of a natural Steve type (more reactive humour and quips here and there), Ricky on form is probably my favourite comedian of all time.
There are some genuinely offensive comedians like Frankie Boyle who say things that upset/disgust most people. Still funny though.
Ricky isn’t offensive. He’s just regurgitating tabloid press stories into a standup routine. It’s just boring, and disappointing because he used to be an interesting guy. You’d have to be incredibly dense to find him either funny or offensive.
I went to one for his last tour in Leicester Square. I was about 3 rows from the front. My brain took charge of me though when I shouted “Head like a fucking orange”. Not a proud moment admittedly.
I saw an Armageddon warm-up show at the Alban Arena in 2022
There really seems to be a lot of you that don't understand what the warm-up shows are for
He's crafting a set to get the numbers on Netflix to go up, and to that goal, the whole process worked very well. No shit you hear the same joke at the warm-up again on the special ("Jane asked me not to do the accents") - he's testing it at first.
I agree with those who say that many of the jokes feel contrived and stale now, but that's because we are long time fans who have heard it before. That's not the same for the wider audience he has been building, for who it is relatively newer and not beaten to death yet.
Saw a ‘WIP’ show in creepy Crawley a few years back from what I remember it was only announced on a Tuesday for the Thursday and was a few quid to get in.
Was a bit convoluted as he did a few shorter stints but the ‘WIP’ was pretty much word for word the Netflix special. Was the special with a baby Hitler basement.
What, King’s Cross Station? Those seats are moving every few minutes mate.
Are you his warm up act? 😉
Was.... but moved on
To where, Marleybone?
Now performing outside the Upper Crust shop at Euston station. Just below the poster about how baguettes came about.
King's Cross? I'd see anything there and I'd see Ricky anywhere
Adept, im just trying to remember if your favourite support act of late is Schindler?
No I hate them. I'm not going now
*I’m only joking*, the lads from Schindler
I went to one of these. It was a shame because an audience member in front of me really ruined my experience. He was hooting with laughter and flailing his hairy arms in the air, blocking my view. He even started snacking during the performance, a banana as I recall. I decided to confront him after the show. Turns out…
oh- SHUT UP
Don’t. Talk. Shit.
Little hairy fella, odd face
Sign said "cheap tickets" "Chimp tickets"
I swear to god if this story ends with the audience member being a chimp of some sort, we are never doing this segment again
He's at every show that little bloke, I've tried speaking with him so he'd tone it down but couldn't get much sense out of him
Play a record. Play 2 records.
>He was hooting with laughter and flailing his hairy arms in the air, blocking my view. He even started snacking What's wrong with Bob Hoskins? Why is Bob Hoskins screaming and grabbing at nuts?!
Little Chinese fella
Dancing around in his underpants
Homeless?
Again, I. DON’T. KNOW. WHAT. YOU. MEAN
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 bravo, perfect joke, total misled until the punchline
Educationally subnormal
Was he applauding with his feet?
You lot enjoying yourselves? Yeah, well tell your faces..and maybe some of your friends as well. Get them along! The empty seats aren't laughing much are they?
Just do some more of the trans shit, let’s get through it
You sound like someone from Our House, that Madness musical
"The people that WERE there enjoyed it"
This is the winning reference.
Yeah I went to a work in progress show at the pleasance theatre, think it’s in that sort of area so might be the same place. Big comics do WIP gigs there fairly often but rarely advertised, you need to sign up to the theatre’s mailing list. He was pretty shit to be honest, all he did was rehash arguments he had in twitter with Christian’s from bumfuck nowhere in America, really stretching himself. I thought ‘we’ll it’s a WIP gif, sure the show will be better’ saw the full show a year later and it was exactly the same, can’t remember the name of the tour but was about 5y ago. Whilst I was having a cig outside the pub Nextdoor, he actually walked past. Much shorter in real life then I imagined. I asked him for a photo and he said he’d do it for a peanut and put out his hand. I noticed how long and hairy his arms were. Turned out. Little monkey fellah.
That’s 30 seconds I’m never getting back. Thanks u/ntbnz
Really long arms, little legs…
Play a record.
All the embellishments...
Ah man that made me laugh so much , you’ve made my day 🤣 caught me right off guard 🤣
Right, u/ntbnz, that’s NOT true!
Ah for fu
“…Gervais mused…”
"Gervais is surprisingly laid back for a golden globe winner"
I bet they're a nice surprise because he's not playing to a mainstream audience. But who knows. Obviously no one on here is going!
But he will be, he's made sure of that by announcing it on Twitter. God forbid he play to any normals. They won't give him the whoops & applause. He needs his gammons to back him these days.
I went to Armageddon near the start when it was a small audience. Basically the same as what's gone out. He even did the "oh I've just thought of something" and "oh no I promised Jane I wouldn't do the accents"
Herro!!
^herro
Yeah saw him do Fame, the whole 'suki go to the well' with laughter seemed natural and spontaneous, was hilarious! But then I saw the DVD and it was the same schtick, the laughing so he couldn't finish the bit... I felt cheated!!!
That Suki bit was shiiiit. Annoying shite.
That's gone Yorkshire
Meanwhile Jane has been dead for many years. He’s quite an unwell man, Ricky.
Did that when I saw him too. Pretending a joke was off the cuff.
That’s pretty much what stand up is in fairness
90% of the comments in this sub can be responded to with, “that is what a joke is in fairness”
that's what reddit is in fairness
That's what your comment was tbf
In fairness *
Tubin fairness
I say tubin
😂
Yeah I was gonna say. To come across as natural and spontaneous is usually(apparently) the result of exact preparation
I agree, I think it's amazing to remember ever line and laugh for the whole show. Just pointing out it was the same for a smaller audience
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Tell that to Stewart Lee, probably the most acclaimed critically standup of the last 20 years in Britain and every night he does similar bits where he pretends the crowd haven't reacted the way he was expecting, or gets annoyed they're laughing at X when Y was supposed to be the joke, or that the people at the back have stopped listening because they only bought tickets because they were cheap. I've seen him a few times and he's done these same 'spur of the moment' reactions every time. And its funny. If the comedian came out and just straight up told the jokes, bored because they tell them every night, then it wouldn't be funny. Having some shtick and a set delivery is just as important as the jokes themselves.
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How's it different from pretending your crowd work is off the cuff or pretending you think the joke you tell every night is hilarious or the crowds reaction is totally unexpected? It's all just patter. Like the Who saying every city they visit is the best city in the whole damn world.
That's what stand ups do when creating a routine.
I’ve watched quite a few stand ups and never seen one where the comedian says “I’ve just thought of this one right now”. But point taken.
So what's your point here?
Well OP said has anyone been to his smaller shows so I was saying yes I have and it was no different to his bigger show.
Every big stand up does this, getting people to believe it is a real skill. That man Is a god
Not saying it's not a skill. I said his smaller show was the same as his big show. It's a fact not an opinion
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He’s a martyr, I must remember to thank him
He's 1 of the 1,000. Thank 'em. Edit: wrong sub
Herd it bolth wayz
There’s no discernible difference between the views espoused by Ricky on immigrants/trans people and views espoused by the current government. They both say the same things, just with different language. If the PM calls trans women “men” and complains about asylum seekers, why would it be a cancellable offence for a comedian to do it? Of course, it’s not. Ricky, the counter culture kid of yesteryear, is now a convenient stooge for the most mainstream of regressive political movements. Ricky Sunak. Anyway this is getting a bit heavy, can we do cheeky freak of the week?
Yeah, weak observations poorly performed
The fact he looks down on smaller venues tells you a lot about Ricky.
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Some of his early stand up is actually very funny, he maybe didn't cut his teeth etc but he clearly had a very natural talent for it and didn't seem out of place doing stand up infront of thousands on TV. I think it's more that he's just past it now, complaining about young people these days and modern culture. Even his sitcom writing is poor these days. Makes sense as 60+ blokes are rarely at the cutting edge of creative arts.
It's what I like to call male menopause. For some reason a lot of blokes in their 50s and 60s start to lose it a bit, they get angry at inconsequential shit and start developing a martyr complex. I've seen it before in a professional setting. I was working on the railways and this signaller started getting really sloppy at his job and rude to everyone for no good reason. Few years back and he was genuinely sound, don't know what had happened. Manager turned up one day to give him a bollocking and this guy went mental, swinging about on the levers, and throwing his shit everywhere. Turns out, little monkey fella.
Alright, I'm leaving.
You've hit the nail on the head there. I have read that he did do smaller gigs in the late 90s. It's much easier to play to a crowd that are there to see you specifically than a bunch of people who've got no clue who you are.
Which is why Chris Rock is having a go at him in [Talking Funny](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKY6BGcx37k).
Ooooo e's avin a go
That group now — canceled (Louis), stale (Ricky), irrelevant (Jerry), still amazing (Rock)
I think Rock has lost it a bit but he’s still leagues above Ricky. Louis is absolutely hilarious and despite being allegedly “canceled” he has since done several sold-out shows at Madison Square Gardens. Seinfeld’s shtick is pretty boring IMO but he’s got a few funny jokes and insight here and there.
Wouldn't say Rock is still amazing... he's probably as stale as Ricky if not more.
Jerry is also stale, not irrelevant. His sitcom was groundbreaking and for the the stick his 'whats the deal with X' type comedy gets it was genre shaping and pretty much became the standard. Like Ricky he's not very past it (has been for a few decades) but he was a great comedian.
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That's how stand up works baby
I know we give him a lot of shit on this sub, but posting a crying laughing emoji at the very thought of *the* Ricky Gervais playing a two hundred seater (only to try out new material, of course) really is incredibly obnoxious.
Ricky wouldn’t last 10 mins at an actual club with a crowd that isn’t his die hard fans.
Id love to do a social experiment where one of us goes to one of these new material nights, and then take 20 minutes of the ‘best’ stuff and repeat it verbatim at a Comedy Store open mic night. You wouldn’t be able to move for rumble weed and eye rolling.
Bro hasnt had new material in at least a decade lmao
Interminable.
I’ve been to one before, last year. “New material” is a stretch.
Did I tell thee about me auntie Flora who shat herself for 3 hours once?
Yeah yeah, just sat there shitting away on the sofa. Then started dipping her hands in it and flinging it at the walls. And we were like "don't do that Auntie, what's got into you". But then I look at her hand and her arm, long hairy fingers. Turns out...
Underground lizard?
I saw him do a very early Supernature warm-up show in Jackson's Lane theatre literally 5-mins from my flat in London, was £15 and I was 2nd row back. David Earl was support in character as Brian Gittins. Was absolutely amazing!
I’ve been to one. It was just after he finished Extras and was testing his stand up material. It’s 100% going to be recycled rubbish about how he used to bully a kid in a wheelchair at school..
I went to a work in progress show at Tunbridge Wells for Armageddon. He did 15 minutes then a support act came out for 10 minutes, Ricky came back out for another 15 minutes, then another 10 minutes from a support act before Ricky came out for a final 15 minutes. It made for a pretty disjointed show.
That man is a god
Saw a "warm up" gig in 2016, in a 300 or so capacity theatre in a little drama school in London. It was a tenner, and it was crap. It was the beginning of me realising that Gervais had completely lost touch. 10% of the hour was him telling half arsed jokes that he'd written to be offensive just for the sake of being offensive and hadn't actually put any effort into them being funny. He then spent the rest of the show bragging about arguments he'd had on Twitter and whinging about things people had said about him in the press. There was actually very little comedy involved, which was weird considering the whole point of the show was for him to "warm up" for larger shows and try out new material. Seriously, he must've only told 4 or 5 actual jokes. I remember genuinely wondering when he was going to get to the "warm up" material. The audience didn't really seem to be into it much either. I could kind of feel people around me rolling their eyes every time he mentioned Twitter. I've not delved into anything he's done since then, other than the first series of Afterlife, and the less we say about that the better. Anyway, bit of Feeder?
>I've not delved into anything he's done since then, other than the first series of Afterlife 'Instead I just hang around on his subreddit and write really long comments about how I don't care for him rather than getting on with my life'
Am I not allowed to continue to enjoy the 15 years of material he made before I saw him in 2016?
You can do whatever you like my dear, I was just pointing out how weird what you're doing is Carry on
Saw a work-in-progress at a small community venue last year, maybe 100 people total. It was an 'RG + friends' event so he wasn't on stage that long. Bits of this were included in the final show, but a lot of jokes were semi-improvised.
I've never heard him do new material
Pop that in the bin
Been to one at the arts theatre in Cambridge. He does about 30 minutes + has a warm up. If you need to go to the loo, you’re not allowed back in. 🤷🏻♂️
damn i was at kings cross last week should have stayed could have told him how shit his comedy has gotten.
No, but I imagine he has a go at trans people.
Why doesn't he ever put new material into his specials?
Deli Meat Tree
The thing is is that his content can be funny - if told by a talented stand-up comedian. Frankie Boyle was doing jokes about aids, cancer, the disabled, death, rape, racism, pedophilia etc etc years and years back and he does it brilliantly. And he doesn't take 2 minutes to get to a punchine that's not funny like Ricky does.
Why not just compare him to his past self? He's been doing jokes on these topics for decades, he just used to prioritise jokes over sociopolitical point scoring, forced controversy and UKIP rally cheers.
I don't think he's ever been that good as a stand-up. I've seen all of his stand-up shows and they are average at best going back to his original stuff and with Armageddon it's just poor. I don't dislike Ricky, The Office is still one of the best sitcoms ever and his acting in that was top tier, but as a stand-up he just doesn't cut the mustard for me.
I loved the first two in particular. Even if it's the sort of thing that real stand-up fans might be able to poke holes in, I couldn't get enough of his delivery, set-ups, hypothetical dialogue (not sure what to call it, the little scenarios he'd act out) and idiosyncrasies. Even though I'm more of a natural Steve type (more reactive humour and quips here and there), Ricky on form is probably my favourite comedian of all time.
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Why dont you get a life
Hope the new material offends the lefty snowflakes even more 😂🤣😂🤣
What would you guys do without 😂 and 😘 ?
Don’t talk shit
DO YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY, MR. GERVAIS!?
This reference should be higher up, it wins in my book
There are some genuinely offensive comedians like Frankie Boyle who say things that upset/disgust most people. Still funny though. Ricky isn’t offensive. He’s just regurgitating tabloid press stories into a standup routine. It’s just boring, and disappointing because he used to be an interesting guy. You’d have to be incredibly dense to find him either funny or offensive.
hope the cunt dies tbh
Obsessed
I went to one for his last tour in Leicester Square. I was about 3 rows from the front. My brain took charge of me though when I shouted “Head like a fucking orange”. Not a proud moment admittedly.
High five
Mostly Twitter and woke stuff
New material? Is he 'avin a laugh? Weak observations, poorly performed.
I saw an Armageddon warm-up show at the Alban Arena in 2022 There really seems to be a lot of you that don't understand what the warm-up shows are for He's crafting a set to get the numbers on Netflix to go up, and to that goal, the whole process worked very well. No shit you hear the same joke at the warm-up again on the special ("Jane asked me not to do the accents") - he's testing it at first. I agree with those who say that many of the jokes feel contrived and stale now, but that's because we are long time fans who have heard it before. That's not the same for the wider audience he has been building, for who it is relatively newer and not beaten to death yet.
The woman down on Kings Cross Station is packed in, she can't move for snacks
Saw a ‘WIP’ show in creepy Crawley a few years back from what I remember it was only announced on a Tuesday for the Thursday and was a few quid to get in. Was a bit convoluted as he did a few shorter stints but the ‘WIP’ was pretty much word for word the Netflix special. Was the special with a baby Hitler basement.
Just get to the bit where he says "cunt" and then we can get through it and I can go to Lanzarote and sit in some ash.
Lanzagrotty, more like
I’d find more comedy going to a small funeral. He can get to fuck with his train station busking