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Filmed
in front of a live audience at the Palace Theatre in London
in 2004, the theme of Ricky Gervais's latest show is politics,
though he does have a tendency to digress. Tackling such political
hot potatoes as Thora Hird, being mistaken for Johnny Vegas,
beret wearing students and Humpty Dumpty, this is not for
the faint-hearted nor is it very PC...
Politics
is Ricky Gervais's second live performance DVD, following
the successful Animals tour. Live recordings of shows
have never really appealed to me. The majority of the time
the comic never really lives up to the hype. And, in truth,
Gervais switches between material a bad '80s comic would have
used - analysing nursery rhymes and musing on how the Spastics
Society's name change to Scope now means that you can't get
a laugh out of calling kids "spastics" any more.
The later example was just one of a couple of 'jokes' that
I've heard from other comics - and a little out dated.
In
fact, that seemed to be a common thread here. A lot of the
material would have been a lot funnier if it had been performed
ten or twenty years ago. Unfortunately, in today's society,
a lot of the observations are too out of date. Gervais attacks
Thora Hird... fine, but she's been dead for a while now; makes
observations about Nelson Mandela's incarceration... he's
been free for years now; and generally potters along with
what seems like old material.
Gervais,
every once in a while, lets his alter ego, David Brent from
The Office, slip through. I wasn't sure whether this
was intentional, to appease the numerous The Office
fans who no doubt turned up to his show expecting to see Brent,
or whether that is how Gervais really is?
DVD Extras include the bonus film Living With Ricky
(a behind the scenes look at Ricky and Robin Ince on tour;
Meet Karl Pilkington - An Interview With Ricky Gervais
(which sees Ricky discussing the subjects in his show
with his XFM producer), DVD commentary by Ricky Gervais and
Robin Ince; Robin on Stage and Politics Short (a
rather pointless extra as it simply repeats the short film
that opens up the Politics show.
I
have to admit to being intrigued by these extras. Living
With Ricky makes Gervais out to be a psychotic nutter
with Tourettes Syndrome, who stalks his old friend Ince trying
to think up new and painful ways to irritate him.
Meet Karl Pilkington is a bizarre interview with Gervais's
XFM producer. This is brilliantly funny - assuming that Pilkington
is not the racist, misguided fool that he comes across as.
Gervais asks Pilkington his views on some of the subjects
that were raised in Politics. Gems in the interview
include: On foreigners - 'The Chinese. They're alright, as
long as they keep themselves to themselves'; On OAPs - 'You
never see them eating Twixs'; On the disabled - 'I like freaks.'
Sadly, though, I really do know people who will share a lot
of his views.
The
audio commentary is amusing. Neither Ince nor Gervais actually
comment on the tour very much. Instead, Gervais reads a diary
he was keeping for Ince on the tour - very surreal.
The
RRP for this release is rather odd. £21.99 seems a bizarre
price to pay for this DVD which really offers nothing that
special when compared to other DVDs in this style.
If,
like me, your only real experience of Gervais is from his
work on The Office, you may be a little disappointed
by this release. It's not that it isn't funny - it is - it's
just that there were a few too many jokes were I wasn't sure
whether the opinions expressed were firmly held convictions,
or Gervais extracting the urine out of society at large.
Nick
Smithson
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