yea people say..arr ricky gervais died on stage at the dianna concert however the people that were shown to be useless were the fuckin organisers and elton john. Instead of trying to improvise tho i think a good move would have been to have just walked off stage and left the organisers with some improvising of their own to do. its not like they would have wrestled him back onto the stage is it
@seanh6370 You make a really good point, because like all other catchphrases, Gervais did bring out "his" dance in every episode of The Office. And it's not like the crowd was baying for him to do it and he consented because he needed to fill time. Oh the irony!
Haha why are people so negative about this, i had a good laugh seeing him pushed so far he had to do the dance, crowd were loving it too. He dealt with that like a pro
Far from dying.. He gave a decent performance of some of his memorable material! I thought it was decent and was smiling for 9 minutes through go and trough! You can't turn up on stage and expect to deliver a perfect performance from scratch.. He did the best he could with no aid
@seanh6370 Wrong phrasing, not that early in his career but early into the time when he'd became well recognised and a household name as the writer of a TV show. A lot of people picked up on the dance, they did the same on Bo' Selecta. They also gave him a pair of boxing gloves to highlight that random charity event. Just because people replicate it doesn't make it a catchphrase, it was just a hilarious piece of TV that went down very well.
@seanh6370 I was being heavily sarcastic through out, which you seem to have detected at some points in my statement but not others. And as I put across last time (sarcasticly, so I'll rephrase as it may have confused you), the crowd started shouting for him to do the dance. Much love.
@humbrolenamel Office and Extras proves otherwise...but each to their own, his stand ups are actually good and fairly thought provoking not the shit observational shit mcantyres and Lee Macks can do (and so can everyone else).
@seanh6370 True. But this was still fairly early in his career and a bit of an odd performance anyway. Being put in the same situation now I don't think he'd do it. My main grievance was the fact you referred to it as some kind catchphrase.
@Clydieooo 2007? early in his career? seriously? you clearly don't know that much about him then. he had been working in the industry for about 8 years..... and it's clearly become the physical equivalent of a catchphrase for him as that's one of the main things he known for even to this day.
People criticising on here clearly don't get Gervais and/or haven't watched The Office and Extras. His whole act is based on awkward, toe curling comedy. It wouldn't surprise me if the continuous delay on stage was all part of the performance.
@Clydieooo even when jon culshaw did his immpressions show impersonating ricky, he chose to pick the one thing he knew would resonate most with his audience and he chose to take the piss out of the fact that the dance was the most well known thing he was known for.
@Clydieooo I'm not denying that the crowd chanted for him to do the dance, but just because they shouted for it, doesn't mean that he had to give in and do it. comedians with more integrity like stewart lee would have simply said no and made some jokes about the crowd wanting him to do it.
This video starts awkward. cold. gets colder. by the end i'm freezing. the (Acapella? come on!) song at the end, although not improvised, probably left more people scratching their heads more than anything...
he clearly didn't want to HAVE to resort to a "greatest hits" sort of show, but was put on the spot. he was visibly reluctant to give the people what they wanted, and he was vocal about his irritation, whereas others would have plastered on the fake grin and made it even more awkward and a lot more phony.
Ah, poor little jealous fella. Anyway, this was pretty good, he had to unexpectedly improvise to a huge mainstream crowd. And I remember people saying he embarrassed himself cos he started dancing - the crowd were all egging him on, and he responded.
Gotta love ricky! Comedy genius in my opinion. And let's not forget this is just a very quick fill-in performane from ricky, if you want great laugh out loud comedy then watch his stand ups or listen to his podcasts etc.
That could be the reason why he can't really improvise. It may be possible that if he did start his stand up career in pubs and clubs, he may be able to handle hecklers or be able to improvise or motivate a crowd. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying every professional comedian can handle hecklers appropriately or improvise amazingly even if they started out in the small clubs, but it may have helped
Gervais is a comedy genius - However every comedian has a skeleton in their closet and this is Rickys, stick to the stand ups, the podcasts and the tv shows!
@Clydieooo he doesn't need to bring it out in every episode. the fact that this dance was the first thing on his mind when he needed to fill time means that it may as well be his catchphrase. also i don't think you understand 'irony'. how is what i said before ironic? unless i have a secret catchphrase that i use unecessarily and constantly that i'm unaware of......
i do feel sorry 4 him havin 2 do so much more than he planned,,, but maybe he was resting on those laurels. he might have changed up the dialogue bits of freelove freeway if he was making the effort. and he got a wee frisson from singing his own tune at wembley at the end
Poor Ricky, suppose to finish after the song and he's just forced to stand there like a dumpling - can't do if his usual stuff so just bickers with the crowd and dances. Just painful towards the end - I agree with him though it was all a bit shambolic at the end. God knows what Elton was bitching about so much.
i agree it wasn't his best stuff, but i doubt any of us could do better to be honest, i mean to come up with on the spot funny and clean jokes that appeal to a mass audience consisting of a range of different demographics is not at all easy. Also, from the looks of how this played out , it seemed to be as though there was some delay backstage which he obviously couldn't anticipate.
I could come up with something witty or biting like “He’s a bit.” but I don’t cause I’m a professional and professionalism is… and that is what I want. OK?
He's a funny guy, but apparently he needs rehearsal time. It might have been fine except he kept drawing attention to the fact they still weren't ready! NOT the purpose of a time filler.
He'd prepared for the time they'd allocated him and then decided he needed to do an extra 5 minute set, and he wasn't allowed to use his stand up material because of legal reasons. Love to see another comedian do better in these circumstances. The crowd loved it anyway, don't see what the fuss was about.
The Office gave us cringe comedy at its finest. Then Ricky pushed the boundaries by giving this cringy acting performance of David Brent. Meta cringe comedy.
this was not as bad as people said it was. a couple of years back i saw phil jupitas come on in the break at a "who" concert at the albert hall in london. i have never ever seen anybody get so destroyed by the crowd in my life, it was brutal. in the end pete townsend had to rush back on and save him, a total and utter pasting my god.
If i was him, id be furious, but he did alright. i love how if any of the people who have been taking the piss in the comments had been the ones who had to wing it in front of a stadium audience and millions of viewers, theyd certainly shit their pants and run away.
Completely died a slow death - couldn’t ad-lib, without a script gervais cannot performanHighly overratedJimmy Carr, Lee Mack, Frankie Boyle would have had the audience eating out of their hands
@gerrydunbar513 this is completely illogical fallacy, this is something people do countless times, when arguing, don't attack the person instead of the argument! Using this logic, you could say, "Oh Hitler wasn't a very nice person" and then I reply with "Well I'd like to see you do better" This is why critics exist, to point things out to possible customers. Ricky Gervais fails to entertain, so you don't have to start a career to become a comedian just to say that he has flaws. DONE.
always thought his standup was crazy overrated, I loved the office, but I think people were just too influenced by it's awesomeness and held that opinion of him for his standup. I mean just listen to that last song, all he does is repeat how he's a fat man with a pug nose HAHA ITS FUNNY COZ HIS CALLIN HIMSEFLF FAT, most comedians who self deprecate include humour in it (kinda important) e.g. Lavell Crawford. Gervais is just terrible.
The Office was great but it was all downhill after that. (Don't mention that shite, Extras.) Gervais would just be another mediocre comic if he wasn't so smug. The fact that he actually thinks he's one of the greats puts him in the realms of twatdom.
That was so awful to watch for so many reasons...He is more seasoned now but i remember seeing this and thinking,its a train wreck.He has and will never be a good improviser , doesn't matter. But it was as if he was doing things he hated just to get a laugh and had no idea how to fill the time...resorting to the bowie song made me think ' o no, it can't get any more embarassing.'For someone so confident and self assured, it was quite humbling to see him so nervous.8.28 reaction to joke says it
Unfortunately my undying image of Ricky Gervais's is him dying on his arse at this concert. Elton was late on for his act, so Mr Gervais had to fill in but He didn't know what to do. He tried his daft dance and looked ridiculous. He can't ad-lib - he's strictly script driven. His contemporaries - Lee Mack, Michael McIntyre etc. would have had the audience eating out of their hands Brilliant Guy, Great Scripts, but ad-libbing - Can’t Do - Died on his arse
No-one has ever mentioned how inappropriate the song is at the start. Its about a woman 'on the hood of a Cadillac' who Gareth sings is dead! Am I seeing it the wrong way? Gervais' stand up has always been crap in my opinion. He is starting to blur the lines of the arrogance in his 'act' with how arrogant he can be in reality. He is so desperate to convince everyone he is educated, its embarrassing. He is much stronger writing. Mind you, watched Cemetery Junction recently....oh dear.
This is the first time I've ever seen this, it's not as bad as I expected but you can tell he's getting frustrated and want's to get off as quick as possible. I felt sorry for him in that situation. The crowd were more or less clueless overall.
