Ricky Gervais Live 2: Politics

After massive success with the hit TV show 'The Office', Ricky Gervais decided to turn his hand to stand-up comedy, again to massive success with the hilarious show 'Animals'. Now, Ricky is back! This time tackling the world of politics, and once again; to great success. Although sometimes Ricky goes off the boil a little bit, the show is almost constantly hilarious, and some of Ricky's jokes will no doubt generate belly laughs; unless you're easily offended. Threads involving Humpty Dumpty, the drought in Africa and the holocaust (I told you it's not for everyone!) are particular highlights. Gervais is great because he goes that extra mile that most comedians wouldn't dare tread on. From the moment it starts, with a hilarious sequence involving Ricky and an Egyptian gay man in a wheel chair (he's not gay really), you know you're going to be in for a stand up show that is likely to offend, and offend it does. But when taken in good humour, Gervais' humour is witty and intelligent and I recommend this show to anyone that enjoys this style of comedy. Oh...and just so you know, he doesn't do the dance.

Starting out at the Houses of Parliament, Ricky Gervais shows how politics are all around us – even demonstrating on a passing disabled man. This trend continues once he is onstage and he covers all sorts of topics with a vague connection to politics and daily life. The connections are perhaps a little thin but Gervais certainly says the stuff that the rest of us are either too scared to say or just have the decency not to even think of saying.

And that is perhaps the main problem with this show – the material doesn't really have a flow to it because mostly Gervais is just out to shock and the laughs come mainly from the surprise of hearing what he has said rather than it being actually that clever or witty. Before he was famous for The Office, this was what Gervais did – a small section in the 11 o'clock show where he used to come on and be politically incorrect. On this show it worked because it was such a small part of the show and that was all he had to do. When he did The Office he scaled back the political incorrect content and made it into a person that many of us know and managed to be both funny and also painfully human. However for the majority of this film there is no real connection with character or reality; instead Gervais takes everything to extremes and, by doing so, he is quite funny but it doesn't really stay with you.

I laughed quite a bit during it but it isn't that clever or witty. The bits I did think were good were the clips in between where his warm-up Robin Ince and Gervais talk about their weird relationship. That was actually funny and interesting because it was clever and involved characters that were slightly exaggerated but still possible. If the main show had been as good as that then it would have been better. Its not helped by Gervais at the end acting shocked as he relates the words of his non-PC producer – why shocked? Isn't it just the sort of stuff he had been saying for the past hour? Overall Gervais fans and people who enjoy going "can't believe he said that" will enjoy this and it does have enough laughs to just about justify watching, but really it is pretty unimaginative stuff that relies on soft shock value to get laughs rather than real wit or invention.

Everything Ricky Gervais does turns into gold. He's for sure one of the top comedians with a very particular humor and a brilliant way to bring it. His gestures, his mimics, his sometimes mumbling are all a part of the whole concept of being funny on stage. Most of the time he brings his jokes like he couldn't care less, and that's brilliant acting, to finish the joke with a little smile that says it all. Personally I thought his first show 'Animals' was better than 'Politics' but that will obviously not be the same to everybody. Ricky Gervais' humor isn't for everybody, if you're easily offended then you won't get his sarcasm. I can't wait to watch his next show because I know I won't get disappointed.

Ricky Gervais in my mind is quite a funny man so I was looking forward to watching this when it came out. And on the whole, I wasn't disappointed. This is a pretty good show that on the whole is pretty darned funny with weird and wonderful perspectives brought down by Mr Gervais himself, who seems in his element here walking around and talking about some of the ills in our society.

My main gripe with the show was its length. It came in at 70-odd minutes long, and while that in itself is short, it was further compounded by the fact that Ricky Gervais kept walking back and fourth for water, or notes, etc. Which leads to the second gripe of the show, which is the fact that while this was stand up comedy the show seemed incredibly...tame. I don't mean the jokes were bad, but the show seemed very structured and prepared so at times it seemed almost like a comic lecture rather than a stand up like Billy Connoly, Robin Williams or Ross Noble who will go off on tangents and keep the atmosphere loose.

I must admit though that some of the material was very good and there is no doubt that Ricky Gervais is a clever man. Politics is a show that is clever and funny and will remind you of the comic talent that Britain has to offer.

After watching "Animals" I was highly looking forward to watching the long awaited "politics". I was soon to be very disappointed! I thought Gervais's jokes on the holocaust was sick and unfunny. I cannot find that subject to be amusing and I certainly wouldn't expect a top comedian adding the holocaust in to their material.

Most of the show is ridiculing the disabled and homosexuals. The remainder is telling stories of his youth and nursery rhymes?? It has certainly put me off watching any further stand up material by him, and I have the feeling that he is about to become the next Jim Davidson style of humour. I am not one to be easily offended, but I just found most of this show sick.