 |
 Online Review - UK Fusion Zoo  Ricky continues the kind of form that bagged him two Golden Globes with his second stand-up DVD. After last year's Animals we now get Politics. But don't worry - Ricky plays fast and loose with the title. Instead we get some cracking gags and a pre-filmed sketch in front of Parliament. Extras?Behind the scenes stuff and a commmentary that plays like a second stand-up routine. So you get twice as much for your money. The bottom lineRicky Gervais can do no wrong - we'd kiss his Golden Globes, if we could. Guardian Guide Ricky Gervias isn't mad about complete strangers calling him David Brent, but you can see why it happens. Not only has he created the greatest sitcom character since Basil Fawlty - even when he's doing stand-up, apparently as himself, his stage persona isn't a million miles away from Britain's most atrocious boss. Like Tony Hancock, it can be hard to tell where the character ends and the real person begins. Actually, the offstage Ricky is tangibly different from David Brent - as the extras on this new DVD prove - but onstage, he does seem to flit between the two. This makes for bizarre viewing, but it's still very amusing, albeit in a mates-chatting-in-the-pub kind of way. Whereas his first stand-up show, Animals was (mainly) about animals, his second, Politics, is about all sorts of things. Politics do feature now and then, but the digressions are often more entertaining - like when he's complaining about being mistaken for Johnny Vegas. GQ  "Most commedians slog around the country for 15 years playing to students, drunks and even women in grotty venues, with the hope someone will give them their own TV show. I'm doing it the other way round." So says Ricky Gervais at the start of the latest offering frfom Vritain's funniest man. TV Magazine  This is for the grown-ups only! Award-winning The office comedian Ricky Gervias delivers a great stand-up show as a follow-up to Animals. Filmed live at London's Palace theatre during his sell-out UK tour, Ricky turns his attention to political correctness including such topics as beret-wearing communist students! Arena This year's live show from the portly star of The Office, which sold out 25 nights in the UK, is an hour-long tirade on subjects as broad as avoiding "chuggers", a lazy Thora Hird and why Humpty Dumpty shouldn't have been rescued by horses - "If you were to construct a perfect egg-crushing device it would be horses' hooves!" Gervais doesn't circle around delicate subjects either, preferring to trample all over them instead so people in wheelchairs as well as the Holocaust, to name two, get the treatment. Extras: A "you're not sure if it's a spoof or not" "Living With Ricky" featurette in which his support act/best mate/whipping boy Robin Ince reveals what it's like to be continually around David Brent - "By showing an initial weakness to him, I've been destroyed". A commentary from Gervais and Ince in which not much attention is paid to what is happening on screen (instead, Gervais reads from a very funny diary he kept on Ince's movements in 2001, e.g. "September 10, 2001. I called Robin, he was in a car on the motorway, he cannot drive. Then when I called him later, 11.48pm, he was on a train. I was in bed and he was in the same clothes. Robin sleeps in his glasses. I once went into his room he was in bed with his glasses on." There are also highlights of Ince's live show, an interview with Gervais's Xfm producer and friend the politically incorrect Karl Pilkington, on topics such as his favourite freaks, race ("You never see an old Chinaman"), homosexuals and education. We learnt: Gervias, 42, likes to hide in the shower cubicle for 15 or 20 minutes, hust so he can jump out on Ince when he walks into his dressing room. Metro - Life  Ricky Gervias here shows many an indentured comic how to work a room. Politics is the theme but really this is just Ricky talking about himself. The real eye-opener is a documentary-ette extra, which shows Mr G to be a paid-up member of the seriously odd society. Very funny, faintly disturbing. Maxim GOD SAYS: Besides Maxim, this is the funniest thing in my creation right now. I pissed myself laughing, and I don't even have a sense of humour. Or a urinary tract. I'm warning you now, if I catch a single one of you failing to buy this, I'll strike you down with another plague, or some other ancient and incurable disease. Or worse I will simply turn you into Posh Spice's tapeworm. NME If I have to see another bollockwad treating me to a 'hilarious' rendition of David Brent's office dancing then it might tip me over the edge. But you can't blame Ricky Gervais for copyists. He is, after all, a funny fucker. Whether he's labelling Ghandi a "sarky bastard", mistaking Schindler's List for a porn flick ("Barry Norman's quote on the back is what did it: 'Have a kleenex at the ready'") or repeating a sexual health leaflet's alternatives to anal sex ("Number four: Why not come into a watermelon?"), this is quality stuff. You'll be taking notes and annoying friends for weeks. Nuts The sold-out stand-up tour that saw Ricky ripping into any subject that took his fancy. Best line: "Mandela has been out of prison for 14 years and hasn't reoffended - which just goes to show that prison works." Genius at work. Star Magazine  Feeling glum? Winter blues getting the better of you? Well, stick on this DVD and Ricky will soon have you giggling your bloomers off. The star of The Office has a second stand-up DVD, which sees him shooting out loads of brilliant gags machine-gun style. And don't worry that it's called Politics, it's not all whiney ramblings - phew! |
![](\"images/register.gif\")
![](\"images/news_hr.gif\")
![](\"images/blank.gif\"){kind=spacer}
" ."sign up | forgotten your password?
Already signed up? Sign in here...
![](\"images/registered.gif\")
" ."username\">my details | " ."edit details"; if($session->isAdmin()){ $toptagline = $toptagline." | admin"; } $toptagline = $toptagline." | sign off
---
copyright © Ricky Gervais 2004 - 2005