Ricky Gervais with The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman

oh that's really absurd comfy chair that's not even in the film right now just a little viral we did yeah for fun yeah right so let's there's so much to talk about because you have multiple projects going and like I said he's kicking off the humanity tour back to stand-up back on your stand-up routes basically and it's your fifth one and you're starting he started starting that tomorrow Madison Square Garden but let's start with with David Brent and I did like the hashtag rents back what made you want to take a such an iconic character and I know that as actors a lot of times when you make some someone that famous and you become known for it it kind of follows you around to your career and you've done a lot of work spacing yourself at throughout the variety of shows and we're but why bring him back I never thought about though I never that's not why I stopped the office when I did because I was worried about me in time cast I stopped because I want to do other stuff and I thought you know that was enough and I said I'd never bring the office back and I never would having said that it never really went away you know I minded my version in 2003 with a special but then started work on you know the remakes the American one being the biggest and most famous for there were seven or eight others we've just finished another one a finished version and so that's like nine oh it's crazy it's and I you know every day I was doing some before even it was oh you know okaying a clip for a quiz machine or something and then on the 10-year anniversary of the office which were in 2013 there was a bit of a thing going on in England the BBC per hour a special edition where we know they had interviews about the things of I love David Brent type thing and I did a thing for comic relief which was a little sketch and I had to think about what we're doing now and I had him still working as a wreck in Slough and and he was on the periphery of entertainment it's sort of giving up his dream but he was managing a local back he thought was the local simon cowell and it was meant to be paying for him to do a demo any worms is way in to that and it is one of his own tracks at quality street which was an ad lib in Episode four series one of the office where I just say we used to have a political reggae song called equality Street and I thought I better write that and so we did that into the video and that went viral and and I thought would be fun to do a gig as well and so I I knew him a guy called Andy burrows it was a drummer of quite a big pop act in England called razorlight and yeah the ready-made band and so we rehearse the songs and we did a little gig and about 500 CEO and there was a hundred thousand ticket requests which was crazy and I thought I don't know why David Brent got this great band and why all these people coming to see him this doesn't this isn't in the narrative so I built in our there were session musicians and I was losing money on this gig and and that's why I thought that's what he'd be doing now he'd be paying to be famous he'd be you know and I'm so glad I left it this long because the world has changed enough you know in that 12 years I worked in Austin is that's obviously the main influence and I wrote about that but apart from that I'd watched a lot of doctors where ordinary people got their 15 minutes of fame and that was it but now Fame different now it's insatiable now people live their life like an open wound to stay famous people do anything to be famous these days people do bad things to be famous and they know they're rewarded for it you know you've got internet trolls that are invited on telly to be so-called journalists you've got I mean since the since the original office we've had a pop idol America's Got Talent we've had The Apprentice where the host is now president [Laughter] you know and so so it was great and so what's different in this movie is that our sympathies are with David Brent because by today's standards he's not as bad as we thought he was right yeah well and that's kind of a miracle that's what I'm doing because at the time he was at that combination of just cringy and such yeah getting it but now it seemed but he was he was he was you embarrassed an uncle right but they didn't have their own TV shows into that you know I mean yeah and now they do and there's also an edge to it that David Brent isn't a bad person he is an early narcissist and he does want to be loved but he's not evil I mean he's not a mean he's not you know and so see in the movie as wow he he he's sort of out of place in the office he's always bullied with a new alpha male you know those people who do get on the apprentice by saying things like I would destroy anyone who stands in my way when did that become a good thing to brag about right you know I mean it's it's really odd and so when it when you were trying to imagine him in this stage of his career and you put put all this together I was it did you have to because it he's still a little bit of the same person but he is and so I did there's a few check you can't just agree exactly the same thing and try and make him look and he was 39 40 which is that I always play my age it's easier than trying to do stuff you know I mean yeah anytime that I've been the makeup chair yeah oh so so he was 39 40 we would say the peak of his powers you know and now he's 55 and he's not the boss anymore and so I knew that was instantly a little bit sadder and I knew I did want to show that he wasn't so bad but playing him he was almost the same it was like putting on old pair of slippers he just fitted but I gave him one little change and that was the other sort of nervous laugh because I wanted to so that you'd have a bit of a breakdown I wanted to show that fame had treated him badly so he came back with just a little bit interrupted do not I mean yeah absolutely and you touch and it's touched on in this in this series I've got several times yeah well are doing exactly what you're saying where they note that the times have changed and like oh here you are back seeking more of the same and they're much meaner to him and I wanted I wanted that to be quite an important theme as well because I don't think this fame is good for people those people that they go into you know we see it in England like things like Celebrity Big Brother where you know a sort of see list or d-list celebrity who's had a bit of a fall from grace often through no fault of their own you know they say things like I want to show the public a different side of me and I'm screaming why do you care what the public they want you to fight again but this is entertainment for them this is not good for you this is not therapy so in the show that it was it was that sort of he's been sold a lie that Fame could sort it out you know it's always that second but now it be different this time and I suppose deep down I wanted to leave people with a flavour that he doesn't need it you can just be he's just not happy with himself right and there's once he gets happy with himself he's alright you know so well in that and that's the tail end of that arc of the movie because we're going to call it a movie right and uh but before we before before he gets there before we get to that element of really feeling sorry for him there is there is at the beginning he's you can't kind of feel him like putting the shoes back on of what what it's like to what when the document went be with you yeah I can man serene he felt good again and it is you know I I did want to put a little bit bravado in there which again we touched upon in the office where he was trying to be cool and then he begs for his job back you know and I did want it to look like um you know does he really think this is going to be good right that's the other thing people people have that delusion that if they say everything's good than it is but it isn't right you know he's trying to heal himself but he's doing it in the wrong way so it is there is quite a serious size and it is sort of about Fame again I've been obsessed with that for all my career really and it's also about people it starts saying you know we're all idiots right that that's not a bad thing right it's whether you're with you an evil idiot or a nice idiot I think what yeah yeah and they're in there and there's not an evil idiot part of it there was a nice idiot part of it we should probably roll a clip were or David is is it at the beginning of this talking about kind of coming back and and there's he's being interviewed on camera let's let's run that he's talking about women so that's the example of him saying awful things but accidentally he's trying to do the right thing and he gets because he's childlike but he's I think he's good childlike do not I mean right he's not that evil to you just he's not the little man boy who wants everything his own way and destroys other people's toys no he's not he's not that one he's just again he's nervous mm-hmm he's nervous he's nervous around everything you want people to know he's a nice guy so he thinks the best way to do that is just to say I'm a nice guy okay you know he wants to walk into a room and say I am NOT a racist you know it's about that sort of white middle-class angst around any difference because he is a nice bloke but um he's nervous so sometimes he says the wrong thing right but isn't his guys he's never malicious well it's in this part we where he has that we're very familiar David Brent ISM you can see that from the ridge of the office and then it as in the movie or in the movie amorous a little bit more but you've covered this ground in a way that you obviously have a lot to say about this and you and I have talked before that the extras which I as a TV critic think is probably one of your best things you've ever done thank you and I a part of my part of my appeal was to say it wish it was more known and got the act likes but he did actually win the Emmy for it so that kind of undermines that at that part but that was a fantastic look at a Fame and be careful what you wish for yeah there's echoes of this in here as well that I think there is I feared Fame when I want to first started doing this and it claimed I came to it late and almost accidentally and I suppose organically I got a little radio job when I was about 37 38 after I'd worked in an austere ten years and then I started popping up and then it sort of grew from that a little bit on a thing called the eleven o'clock show and and then the office came but I knew I knew if I was I know a famous actor or comedian and that I'd be you know recognized but I want to know that was an upshot of it I wasn't doing it to be famous and I sort of feared it I didn't sign that I didn't sign that contract you know with the devil make me famous and you can go through my bins and do not I mean right and I was sort of worried I think I worried about because I thought oh you know they say how all the things about famous people and what you don't you don't want to have horrible things said about you and now it's like water off a duck's back because it's good I mean it happens all the time Twitter and which is like reading every toilet war in the world at one and you shouldn't you should know those things about you you know you shouldn't hear things about you in a normal life you shouldn't be famous it's odd to be famous and I sort of feared that and for the first few years at all that's not fair because I thought reputation is everything and I realize it's not reputation is what strangers think of you and who you really are was what your friends and family think of you and they stay forever so I just don't care now and the other one I take you to get that car well it wasn't confidence it was ambulation it was realization it was a observational you know the first bad review I thought oh my god no oh no I'm still alive did I mean right and then year more and more anything and people say I didn't like that and I want to go I'm not giving the money back you know it's it's all so subjective that the only real thing is is what you what you do with it you know but I suppose them probably the last few years because it is horrible to his nasty things about you but it's virtual it's really virtual and I can't complain you know it's been it's been good or you could well I could do it you know there are some people that that have a real hard time and I really haven't really you know um but I did fear it and I think I I think I probably overreacted because it's it's fine it's just fine you know right and in that element that's in the exercise I think you like you know if you have if you haven't seen extras for anybody who hasn't then what he's talking about here is completely wrapped up there and as I said to you backstage and I've written before it is one of the greatest endings to a series you'll ever see poignant spot-on great acting anyone you want acting award for that and in this in when we revisit Brandt now and he's moving on he hasn't yet come to the full realization that Andy Millman doesn't in in extras but he's so excited to be back in his in a spotlight it's difficult with men because they were sort of opposite sides of the same coin because David Ben has always been the sort of satisfied fall quite a delusional character with laughing the blind spot we laugh at the difference between how he sees himself and how we see in yeah Andy Millman is the dissatisfied Socrates yeah he knows he's a bottom line he doesn't like it yeah you know and so to make Brent too aware kills David Brent as the character yeah that's the problem with David Brent it's a it's a it's a minefield right whereas Andy you can keep getting them annoyed and you just get angry right with David Brent he's got to keep falling over and not realize that wine falling over but that's where Fame comes in because it's a true observation people do it every day half the population fall over to be famous every day and they get back up and they think this would be different you know I may yet we've had a whole generation now of people watching people be famous for being famous I'm doing anything to be famous and so why do they why are they going to train to be a doctor when they look at a family's on telly making millions for just running around and I mean yeah I think oh well I think we're gonna we're gonna run out of doctors because everyone's kind of getting up you're gonna have a heart attack and someone's going to come and go there's no doctors but we can sing and well yeah it's before before David Brent is clean that self-aware enough he still runs into things and he still runs into his own self we have a clip here we're in David Brent life on the road where he's you know in a nutshell for this movie he's he's just going after this goal and continuing his his lifelong desire to be a rockstar he's as you said earlier basically paying for it to happen yeah it's a series of terrible and saddening realizations along the road and in life and and on this cliff and David but and I do want to talk about songwriting and musics and I was really passionate for you and and I think the secret sauce in this this movie is the actual writing of the songs and the singing of the songs because you actually have a really good room Floyd's anybody should know that but the creating of the songs in this because as David goes out on the road you'll find out that him singing the songs is painful and here's a song called don't make fun of the disabled that's the song that we vented for any consideration for best music and lyrics I I dunno I'm not sure that's gonna win okay things like I will go on and stuff like Titanic it's basically a head of the pillow yeah I guess so outside what we did we did some proper gigs and you helped you take our album of the four things I mean really really yeah and we played like like arenas and when you have 5,000 people sing along to it's basically a head on a pillow that is a thrill yeah yeah that is a thrill it's tremendous we'll talk a little bit about us and end as you have seen this there are any of those you haven't there are so many great songs in here where it's it's David once again rocks are basically wanted to make all the most he really wants to prove how sensitive is to these songs in it of course yeah he's going through that that phase where he wants he want the best of both worlds so he he they're not bad songs the joke isn't there they're not comedy songs of such without one is I suppose but he means them he didn't think nothing funny about them so you know it into a song up called Native American where he thinks he's the first person ever to sort out the plight of the Native America and then he's got he gets off Wikipedia and he gets it all wrong you know he just he brings up scalping that he's probably seen in the 50s Western or something you know and you know it's something like free love freeway it's a cracking song about crossing America picking up chicks but then you realize this is being sung by a 55 year old tampon rep who's never been outside cloud though it's the back story that makes it I mean if you this is the album yeah you probably a double album yeah if you didn't know it was a spoof you might be a bit confused but yeah once you know where he's coming from they all sort of falls into place now how much how much of joy did you take in writing neurons and also actually performing them and making the album well as a failed musician in a real musician well I suppose you've gotta be a real musician do this but you know I mean a real rock star taking yourself seriously without irony and it was it was a joy it was an absolute joy in fact there's points when we were sort of laying it down because we do it for real you know and I'm you know using the strings nothing now why is this smooth this is a really good start you know why have I ruined it right now um but now I know which side my bread's buttered and the way when I when I bring out an album of under my own name of Ricky Gervais sings The Ballad that you've got shoot me then because that's when that's when I've lost it all um but it was great fun and you know you have to you have to do it as well as you can right cuz I think anything less would would diminish the joke a little bit I think the fact that it's a vanity project you would try its hardest he you know he's stealing from everyone from Bruce yeah you know from bow for you know Tom Petty and then he just happens to be like thank [ __ ] it's Friday yeah that's like a stones track or something but Jagger didn't sing about getting his dry cleaning down on a Sunday right now so he's bogged down in the admin right you know right so yeah and you are I like that you don't because you exclude your love of music and and knowledge deep knowledge of it you don't do a big wink at the the references that are so clearly there in the song structures no um I when I usually write I try and write in the style and some some songs have a direct influence like Lady gypsy one of my favorite songs when I was like 14 or 15 was a song by Cat Stevens called the boy with us moon and star on his head and it starts off a gardeners daughter stopped me on my way on the day I was to Wed it until that sort of all deal about and so as I started off with though when I had known only 18 summers yes don't you say in a folk song you can't say I was 18 I might have known only 18 summer you know yeah so I do you know try and get into that it's almost a pastiche of but then you have to make it quite settled and and hide it a little bit and as I say you know free that freeway could be a Tom Petty songs about you know Slough is a bit bowing meets Radiohead so I you know you you do all those things and do it for real but they're that what's interesting about it is because you'd say it's pretty clear I'm obviously you you know musicians you've you know you know David Bowie all those stories have come out people who are fans here has already know all that stuff you were maybe you didn't end up coming across obviously we're in the game it takes sound to be in the game it seems like that that love of doing the music is there so I kind of want to circle back when you said if I had make an album and is did it and Ricky Gervais sings your song shoot me but well others lose out then I don't think I could look myself in the eyes and go back to being a comedian because I think that that's me becoming David Brent if I could think that I am a real rock star you know then it's then it's all over as much as I'd love to be a real rock star right I'm it's out of the question right you know I can't do both I can't you can't be a comedian it was basically a clown and you're there for people to laugh at and then think you're sexy or call you doesn't it doesn't work it's that it's you're finished you've got to you've got to choose one or the other but no I'm serious about this because you are really good at it if you took this sexy and the rocks are and the big famous out I mean Hugh Laurie has made a jazz album people love jump and it was oh you are you're laughing now was pretty good actually right I haven't heard it um jazz is different I'd like it yeah dad is already funny okay yeah well if you everything about watching this and maybe just maybe I also love music watching it I was like you could tell how passionate you were about the music and structuring these things yeah you have to yeah I mean you ever say in character I've got to be more passionate than I was when I was being a rock star I probably didn't take being a rock star when I was trying to be one as seriously as I take David Brent Tigra because it makes sense to me you know particularly when you've got that value of irony it's it's almost easier because I've got a gout jail free card I'm not being serious whereas when you're a real musician you've got to worry about what people think of the song do not I mean so it's even worse you know in fact when I was a when I was writing real songs they're probably more embarrassing than these because I meant it Jenai me sure sure so pretension I've got I can't out that's it you know and I was I was twenty and also we're only talking about this now because I'm famous something else it really was it started and finished in a year right exactly there's a couple of photos that they get out you know yeah I've seen them you've seen them yeah um yeah and also also because it is some I think people partly they they know I was a failed musician and partly it's a cool thing to be right so I think always this you living vicariously through David Brent and it's honestly not you know they didn't ask that after ghost town or do you want to be a dentist do you want to be a dentist really you know it's just another tool no I can I can play the guitar and I can sing and it came in useful and again you worry about what you know so I suppose David Brent was a little bit for you know you know there for the grace of God guy you know if I'd have carried on trying till I was 55 right as opposed to giving up you know it might have been a little more awkward you do it now though right you'd come you'd sing a song right now if we made you write not as might not I say be frank that's dinner brand yeah yeah how about we haven't synced yeah there we go yep you've gotta pretend I'm David Brent no because other otherwise it's just if it's just me doing this let me get into character okay yeah there is right I'll do Slough Siuslaw yeah and it's actually quite a nice song and in yeah okay I didn't even know what Slough is about Jenelle though we yeah you know what flowers like yeah it was we made it Scranton for the but I think like that's better than flower thing just like they made the actors teeth better in the remains same way okay this is Slough and when David Brent introduces he says um you know this is a song about the best place in the world and everything in this song is factually accurate so okay here we go right pretend I'm David Brent here we go right oh my god I haven't played for ages I've got I got Trump hands not they haven't done a day's work in their life they're so soft well vote okay cool all right that coming out there [Music] you [Music] more convenient than a Tesco Express close to winds up at the profit is less it keeps the businesses of Britain gray it's got your biggest trading mistake it doesn't matter where you're from you wanna work then come along the station's just got a new floor and the motorway runs by your door and you know just where you're heading it's equi distant wean London and ready whoa whoops laughs my kind of town I don't know how anyone who put you down whoa whoa slide out my kind of time I don't know haha anyone who put you down to the west you've got Tablo and Bray you got Hillingdon the other way it's a brilliant place to live and work it wasn't but now officially its birth don't believe what the critics say like it's only ten more in and gray before yourself what you waiting for we're on the bath road that's the eight ball and you know just where you're heading it's equities than tween landon and ready whoa my time of time I don't know anyone could put you down whoa ha ha my kind of town I don't know how anyone could put you down Oh it's a hurting thank you to delica just to that a to delicate but bigger bigger than the fat bacon boy not much much well it's a in the David Brent life on the road of heat and not to ruin it for you haven't watched it you can imagine it goes sideways it goes terribly sideways for him and but as it arced sources and I'm wondering there is a revelation for for Brent in this and you is also I found it very melancholy and that almost in the same way that extras was what I think well I think I found out what I sword would want him to know if he was a friend of mine or her brother or an uncle but he doesn't have to be on stage to be liked um and you know someone who it was the thorn on this side til that point was sort of nice and brutally honest but parentally brutally honest and and you could sees he's not totally happy with it and again he you know it in a he's got a hard shell when he says some you know I can live without being famous but I couldn't live without trying right it's a great moment in the Malena you know and he's not perfectly he's not healed but he's he's getting there and then something that he wasn't looking for was under his nose and that so many likes him for who he is and right and all those all those things that are more important than being a rock star right I mean absolutely - one quick question along that did you ever did you ever since you have this deal with an ongoing relationship with Netflix did you ever think or was it just too much effort to take that story and make it say like a 10 episode series I don't know I don't know I think I just wanted to revisit in for sort of like you know catching up on an old friend verb and and and sort of end it really and never say never but I I think too much I've never done never than that many anyway of any series so you know but I think it's it's a bit on the edge of sad versus comedy you're ready you know yeah I think we visit Emmitt the 60 and he's a revenues trying to be a rockstar I just think what there might not be any comedy it might be to trap do not I mean Robbie right it might be too tragic yeah although you leave although it does in fairness it does it end with some positive nodes that I wonder I mean so are we saying that well I am positive I am positive despite all the things I you know talk about and in what you whinge about the world and all the awful things I am an optimist yeah and and this discrepant being like that me a shot comedian or being cruel i I don't I've never seen it I've never seen that in myself I think it's you know because you deal in tubu subjects and then the Golden Globes you know that all but I mean I was teasing some millionaires yeah that wasn't a room full of wounded soldiers i man and it's like and and I'm and I'm one of them but I was playing an outsider because it's nauseating to go out there and go alright Brad hey George thanks for letting me use it that is horrible yeah you know people at home aren't winning award so you you it was a I tried to make it more of a spectator sport right III don't think is any cool way in my comedy or drama or anything I I um my favorite show growing up was the Waltons but you know I mean yeah and every time I stand up it even if I stand up I deal with taboo subjects when I talk about this in this new one humanity but I try and explain a joke about a bad thing isn't necessarily a bad thing it's not as same as the bad thing it's not a bad thing to joke about it it depends what the joke is it doesn't have to be pro or anti the bad thing you could just be you know we talk about things all the time and we haven't got assigned right we just discussing them and that's what a joke is often a joke is it's best discussing something not coming down and on one side or the other because that's rallying I try and keep politics and no I think a Jocasta standard when its comedic value not on whether the person agrees with it or not right you're not I'm saying absolutely and ng and do you think that because your career has been fascinating for some of the terms it's taking some of the and and in some ways some of the perception that's out there doesn't obviously you said doesn't jive with who you are in real life and I think you've done a really good job on social media to sort of show that side of you the the animal rights side of it and then they're good like all the good cause yeah yeah well I suppose it's because people think whatever they see of you that that is you like you know with standard particularly my my early my first for stand up and it was a persona I was playing sort of like a a pub or who said the wrong thing got things wrong right you know that I'm you know almost not quite Archie Bunker but you know that sort of you know there was a veil of irony - yeah and it's great now because people get it and so I'm still doing those things but the audience knows that I'm not like that just like you do with friends just like you say all four things with friends and you're and they know you're not like that but and and um so that that's nice for them to be able to know your real self and you can you can always go further in your comedy you know and it's funny because you know with everything that happen in the last couple of years when I started warming this show up I was worried about playing that persona because there are too many people that would have grief with the wrong reason right you know I mean you know you don't want the wrong round of applause we're doing irony right now yeah and that's well I mean it brings us to what you're doing and now I but you've you've done enough in your or you can't I mean what whispers are saying about you can't like you can't spend your whole life telling people hey that's not really me if they don't get it they don't get it that's their problem yeah I mean you can't legislate against stupidity but you do your best yeah and you know you know if you if every joke must get 99% hit right and those might be one person who doesn't like it or doesn't get it or but you can't worry about that because you know you're gonna everything offend someone somewhere and I've often said and I'm trying to get this out there that just cuz you're offended doesn't mean you're right right you know it's some people are offended by a quality yeah you know right right some people are offended by my very existence right did you did you think that I mean I don't know when you gave up trying to sort of reconcile knowledge of that there was a like yeah yeah we yeah but when did you give up trying to sort of say explain it are good because I mean you can do it when I don't know if I have given up I I just try and do it within the work now as opposed to you know in the pay-for on Twitter you know I now I do it in the work my work is almost explaining it comes with it comes with a little explanation I think you know and so I've tried I've tried to put the put the small print in the gags yeah so this is great it's great that's what I think this is my best show ever because of that I go out and confront all these myths and legends and this nonsense and this this you know I even discussed the fact that you know people don't respect facts anymore mmm-hmm we were more familiar with that it's crazy because you know everyone knows my opinion is worth as much as your opinion but now there's this myth that my opinion is worth as much as your fact which just isn't true it's and it's and it's going to send this back into the dark ages it's ludicrous I'm wondering a couple of things uh you know you're you or a humanist even espousing humanism when that actual thing and now you have the tool called humanity at all that's coming together it's also as you noted it seems would be a little bit more personal tour where people are seeing you less as someone playing a role and more just as Ricky Gervais yeah would I know what I'm doing now they know that I'm not slipping in our character I'm always me and I make I make jokes that are either on the nose or ironic or satirical or but they know what I'm doing they just know me because they know me just like you know your friend when your friends doing it and weddings kidding and you know and someone else might not right you know when he's kidding because you know him and so now I've got that luxury I've been around so long and that everyone knows what I'm doing now so that's great so I suppose them I forgot any question well what let's say how about this because the bigger the bigger issue now as you do this humanity tour and what you just talked about having an opinion and having fact the gigantic orange elephant in the room here is that you're coming to America you're kicking off the the North American part of this tour yeah how how are you trying when you're there was a whole nation there's a whole part of a nation that didn't get this joke so what do you do now I just think I discuss things in all ways in principle and in the nebulous I never I'm never part of that I never go by political I never say this guy's Bible as well I I do it by example and so I think comedy is an intellectual pursuit and I think as soon as you I think soon as you start bringing emotion into it you're dividing the room and it's not that some people agree with you or they won't it doesn't matter in fact if they all agree with you you've failed in a way and if they all disagree with you you've failed I just think that I talked about it in principle I do what you know and I don't think I I don't think I mentioned his name right was it bit harder is it harder knowing that that kind of I mean yeah we you can't I mean you can't come you can't compare Trump to David Brad because because David Brent is actually a really sweet person and under enemy and whoa yeah that's right a harm few know I've said that Trump has more in common with David Brent than he has JFK because he's he's a sort of in a nastiest man-child who wants to be famous and loved and that and that's him deep down whatever else he does and whatever he's I mean I don't even know his policies you know i but I saw I suppose I always look at them I think it's about character mm-hmm you know I'm not good well um I think that in in comedy and in fiction any fiction we create our own heroes and villains as role play for the soul so no one really gets hurt you know I mean it was in real life people do get hurt so it's very different when you talk about politics and it's and it's really meaningful it's hard to be sort of funny because you know I mean it's it's just it's just on the nose it's there's right and wrong in sort of politics whereas in comedy there isn't it is it a good joke or not mm-hmm just to see them saying yes yes explain did any material you were creating through humanities or have did you have to regenerate it in any way as you look from the outside into this country and there any like I haven't honestly I haven't I never I never worry about that I never worry about what's fashionable what's having everything stands on its own two feet I mean a big difference between stand-up and write in a movie or a sitcom is with with a write in a movie a sitcom you do your best you get your best case and you put it out there and that's it you know there's nothing you can do now you can't change it sometimes I don't like you god I can't change it right whereas stand-up the audience sort chooses what's right and wrong because they laugh and the more you do it you hone that laugh and you make this one that didn't laugh funnier or you lose it and so you know after 50 gigs that hour and a half there laughing all the time right so it's almost like it's more like evolution and it's more like science than art because it either works or it doesn't so I never I never pander I never worry I do my you know I I don't change a pedophile - pedophile I know the audience is a lot as a lot a lot of that in it you know fair warning but I mean just that just I'm wondering it if as you were what were you what were your private thoughts not as a the jokes that we're going to hear an Amanda tour but what were you thinking when you were just as a person the person of the world a humanist sitting down saying I'm in a country that has breakfast breakfast and I'm looking across at what's happening a shot right see it was a shock I thought that was odd and but well it was odd I mean I've talked about this you know in the show that um I don't even know why there was a referendum about that you know I think this I didn't need to happen I don't most people didn't know what they were voting for I went after it often people say I didn't know I thought I thought it wouldn't win so I but what do you vote to the other side what you think we worry about hurting people's feelings you know yeah and I think you know you can't win about democracy but um I think democracy works when people know what they're voting for and I do a joke in the show I'm sorry to ruin it for people but I do say that you know this the Twitter generation has made popularity more important than truth in a way and that was picked up by politicians and I just want to do what's popular not what's right and so we should know whether referendum and sale we want that let's ask the average person and I say no let's not ask yeah in England we still on bottles of bleach we still have do not drink and I say let's take those off better take those labels off for two years and then have a referenda very good excellent all right well we have questions from the audience that I'm sure will be good this first question from the audience might be actor Pro from what just happened but do you have a special place where you write well I've got I've got an office in my house and I've got an office near my house and they probably seem less writing than me on planes or trains or weren't going for a run you know that I rarely sit down to decide to write something it just sort of comes and I've always you know and I rarely write things down putting the stand up I do it in my head I go for a run and I come back and I love like the little idea I tell Jane it she says please don't do that in public and I know it's good uh-huh well that's interesting to you I mean it but now when I'm writing a script I have to I have to eventually put it into the the laptop which is which is the boring bit for me right um I I wish I could just download my thoughts because the admin is the boring bit dude I mean yeah it's it's a um I want just pure fun very might be there what for you what's more fun is it writing a special we were going to do all the jobs or is it putting together a narrative or a scripted series until this year putting together a now if put in doing it doing a sitcom or doing a movie or doing the sketch and this year it's flipped because of humanity because of humanity it's my favorite thing in the world now I honestly can't get enough of it I it's it's taken me this long to realize what a privilege is to just go out there and talk I approached it differently my first voice or wrote it I wrote it like a writer director and an actor yeah and this time I walked out and and I what I was a stand-up yeah and I loved being a stand-up I could I could almost give everything else up and I I know that it never fails either it never fails let's exercise because you don't you do it until it's good then it's good and then you do it right no it's and honestly it's no no no that you know further what's great is again it's sort of people come out to see you and and it's you it's your thing it's a cottage industry yeah it's your ideas you choose the venue you choose the hotel you stay and you lose how you get there you say what you want you do not I mean that's already you've already earned the money before you turn up it there's no that there's no admin there's no anyone in between and I'm joking aside that isn't that I don't it's really not about that but it is about it is about the freedom and the privilege and the fact you can change every night yeah and the fact that it's really important and the fact you can't download going out to seeing someone illegally right that's that's important well two things about that one you've said that you probably not going to release a recorded version of it because of that you can do it for longer you've said that well I'm gonna I'm gonna I like to say I'm going to milk it yeah well that's um that's basically what I was saying it's so funny and my first stand-up was animals first time I ever did 2002 and I did 16 gigs in London and put it on the DVD because DVD was everything yeah and the DVD was the big thing and then I think politics I did maybe twice as many then Fame and science I think I did 100 gigs in arenas and yeah so and that became more and more Porton and live is more and more important now than the DVD market but I have but I still haven't I really haven't done America much you know I've done New York LA Chicago I'm doing Canada for the first time and it's a huge it's a big world and I'm doing Scandinavia and Europe now for the I've done them a little bit before but I think I've do this I think I do more of this one than ever but I still do want to you know put it out on Netflix all right you know what you are so I can't go everywhere but you know I can't be and as much as I love that every place of the five-star hotel as you say that's honestly I put that on the release when I was going to do it I said humanity coming to a town near you if a town near you have an arena and a five-star hotel with a helipad over hell it bad well but you know and I and I have fun I do I do choose you know nice places to go and stay and I make the most of it there's some people is at a place that I can't get to and and in London like I'm doing I'm doing I think three weeks but there how much with Apollo right because I live there run it whereas when I go to Sweden I've got to play an arena where I get everyone there because I can't live there for every week well I could that's lovely but um basically if everyone could come to me I play a fear of this size for a year right because that's better for comedy right is better for comedy I might I can happen that can happen I'm just me here for one you're in residence just make sure it's not in Vegas just make sure oh yeah yeah I don't like that basically I'm loving it more than I ever did well I don't know why I just think I'm good at it now and I really appreciate the audience and the room the reviews have been fantastic and they backed out yeah how that's nice with this more of a relief and it doesn't affect me no they're already sold out at this level right now I know what I mean is there days you do worry about views because it's our kids but now they buy the ticket before they've seen it you know and it's sold out so I don't have to worry about that but you do want to make sure they would they were justified in buying do you not I mean yes they wanted to feel good is it ever could be I mean you want that you want it to be amazing you want to be carried down the street saying that's the best and I've ever you really do yeah you know well oddly you did say this might be your last one is that true now is your servant you said you're so having so much fun doing this is the best thing you've done a long time but you also said maybe this is my last one is that well I thought it would be because again I thought oh my god I'm gonna do all these gigs I'm gonna put everything into it and then I'm just gonna die all right but I love you so much I don't want to die anymore I want to do another one I do want to do another one because some and I'm back the other reason I think it's good I think it's the best I've done one because the audience know me so I can go much further and they get it and it's great um but uh - I think it's because I've reached that age I've got old people's rights I can say what I want you know what is you know like your granddad's would say anything he wanted and they want to hit him could be the old I'm like that now I've never gone for a wee before during us I know I got old be bad right always you know I did said you were very comfortable and in being with us and we I had but no no okay another question from the crowd is if you have the opportunity to live during any period in human history when would it be oh oh wow well I couldn't go I couldn't go back before they had fight under our hotel and 5,000 house or really good novocaine for dentistry so I can't be apart like 1965 really I don't even know where that's coming from but though it's a label just to visit like not to live to live to live during any period in human history when would it be and what can I take back am I just landing like are naked and I've got nothing as I can't act back they laser gun they don't exist it's like I come from the future to here know what's the roles I take these very seriously I know the roles before I commit ruff-ruff y'all didn't put any rules here I'm assuming you're landing and then you're a part of whatever so they don't know I'm from the future I know it's not it's not a time-travel question you were just you know others born there yeah yeah you're not you know well I mean it's partly time travel but your job there so I have absolutely no knowledge of now or what's going to exactly that's not us ridiculous right I reckon I reckon Wow third is fashion suits my sauce shape a portly little thirties gentleman with I reckon I recognise of like the 60s I was just born too late I was born 61 so I reckon born 50 would have been great that's not far enough back of it they wanted to say they want to say I'm a caveman what would I like what would I like um this this you can edit this I didn't I come on Victorian times as good as all about science I was a bit of a unit everybody would have liked to made it past 2000 yeah dad died with my I've dieted something yeah pretty badly I wouldn't have been a great poet would I nothing we don't know the class I came from I'd have been hung for stealing a sheep yeah a dark end and for any in any way any way in history I'd end up either with the plague or being hung for stealing a sheep so sixties I'm going to say I want to be I want to be 18 to 28 in the sixties and either died at 28 okay I'm going to be done in a diet sweaty what a great theory okay backs on my diet 28 and then it's like quantum leap by your diet twin today epidemiology sir it's great brilliant oh no you gonna do now great you got a sedative there have you ever had an addition have you ever had two addition for anything I know that partly true if so do you have any addition horror stories uh you know what I and I think I've auditioned twice that I didn't write the first time I was sent to do an advert I was just just starting out and I went to an advert and I was in the waiting room and I was people I sort of vaguely recognized from telly and they were saying I haven't worked since February and I just got me depressed yeah and then I had to go in and I shall pretend to be yoga or summer and okay I just I call my I never want to do this again and then the other time I went a long condition and it was for a part in a Shakespeare play I was a fall in a Shakespeare play and I've never I've never read Shakespeare I did it for Oliver I did you know I didn't get it I didn't understand it I read it and they were like they were cracking up like this was the bet I'll see but I'm just adding a widely to the funny I didn't get it right and I was I was sort of doing in my way and they would the joint that was laughing at oh I don't know what than what the words meant right and um and they said you've got the part and I was sort of a little bit famous I think I've got the power again I call my agent said I just give me the part but I don't want it cuz I don't know why it was funny yeah so two auditions when I gotten turned down well I didn't get and that I think that is the to auditions I've ever gone for to do fire agent after that no no you should okay tonight oh sorry I said that I never took another turn for the worse there he didn't pay we when you're on set filming do you laugh are the crew laughing and - how do you test your jokes when I'm on set do you mean during a well I laugh yes I laugh all the time I laugh all the time I've gotta cut it I'm not I may be mental no but I do I find things funny my tongue and I'm not sixty I can be laughing and then someone can annoyed me but right I'll give you the restaurant laughs and then someone go like oh we're moving Jane can leave so don't wait for it so yeah everything's funny and everything's annoying but I suppose when I'm filming I'm in charge which is which is the pressures off and I like to say I laugh and ruin the take so the other actors go with if the directors were in the tag then we can but really it's just because I find it funny and I ruined the take and I also think it goes on the screen I think a really good happy set where you you've had a laugh all day and it's definite if you're laughing it means something's funny right it is a good time right you know um I probably won't be the same as I was doing Schindler's List but well when you're doing comedy it's meant to be funny so [Music] and I do I do I do laugh all the time and the crew laughing yes but I are laugh but not not when it's near lunchtime and it's the VI in their arms are getting tired then this smile goes off their face when they're holding the boom and we've it's the ninth corpse you know but I think I I think I do when a fun set yeah and I enjoy it and I like luckily everything I've done every day are we doing that scene today if I don't looking forward to a scene watch I change it mm-hmm you know it's I want I want the best of all worlds I want it to be funny you know I want the results to be good and I want about the best time doing it and I think you can't file with that if you've had if you filled your life with fun things in the results the same you're dead yeah but it's better to have been laughing and then die we're not laughing and then dark right and I'm assuming that that will never make it on a smart car no I'm assuming the answer to the had who do you run your chat you drove by that's Jane first first yeah I thought so and then I might call someone if someone else involved like it's an actor I've written apart for but yeah it is it is Jane yeah is there any is there any simpler than any other friend bloke as you say who you might run about that though oh um what with you know your friends are you always working on the thing so if it comes up I like the last thing I was doing when I was writing them it also it depends if you already cast or not you're right that's why the second series of anything is the most fun because you've got the set up you know who you're writing for and you've done all the admin and so that's the most fun when you're you know the the actors you did a great job the first time you hand out the stuff that's real fun the read sort of the read-through of the second series of something is the most fun it gets and then you know and the special so where no I tell people who's around who's interested really but um nothing gives me an adrenaline rush like of coming up with an idea honestly I can't sleep but if I think of it before I go to bed I've got a worker over so I don't forget it when I I wake up and that's a that's a lovely thing to wake up to that idea right you know and it doesn't get any better than when it's in your head really it and then you just got a real in it as little as possible honestly when I first started it I thought I was a writer no and I probably only directed because I realized that I could protect the writing and then I produced to protect the directing right so it's it's all to protect the idea everything that and I play that guy because I know how to do that guy in my head right and you can't play everyone or Peter Sellers good but I can't but you know I mean yeah so it's it's it's and I'm a trying it's trying to realize the vision with with sixty other people right that's the that's the challenge and that answer probably sums of why you do most of your own stuff it's you it's your material yeah and even collaborations I try and get you try and get your own way you try and do it you know and and and you know when you say you've done it yourself you mean you did it yourself with 60 people right helping you do the thing you want to do yeah it's amazing so you know a stand-up is yourself yeah you know you know that that's that there's nothing quite like stand up outside writing a novel that is the last bastion of self-censorship and then your ideas is what they hear and that's incredible yeah I mean that's there's nothing like that as I say apart from apart from the novel maybe well this I just want to I want you to think about because I think it's a good question in a in a deep thoughtful answer would be great so why is it nobody know it is actually the top part I can't vouch for with the question actually it says from gervase swamps on Twitter Oh No yes okay yeah okay yeah the question is that part I don't know the question is when the humanity tour ends what do you plan on doing next and instead of just taking that as like oh my next job is I mean if you maybe you can take that answer and say I want to just add on to that question and say are the things that you might be thinking of that scare you a little bit so tell us you're gonna do and I apply that Wow I've uh I said I put this year aside and not do anything and I've kept to that and I've caught I booked everything in right at the end of October so I couldn't do anything else crap but once the gigs up and running within three days and the gigs going great you see I feel guilty about having the whole day to myself and like I was saying you're doing a world tour I'm going here but that's only an hour a night no and I think it's because I was so lazy and ambitious and I didn't get a job till I was 28 but I felt that I had my retirement for the first third of my life all right and and now I just want to fill the days with ideas and and I I had about five projects and I think I've narrowed it down I think I've narrowed it down to one thing that is probably a sitcom okay and I've written five pages on tour you know that's it you know so I don't even know if that a win but this and I almost immediately want to start another tour after you Manny and I run that dry and it's on Netflix or wherever right I want to start doing warm-ups again and do another tour and I want to make it even better than our cuz I obviously I'm obsessed with stand-up now well and I'm also I'm also making a little behind the scenes documentary about about manatee I was in the same movie but that's way too highfalutin I don't you know you know but I mean yeah he took the five in down to the 1 which is the sick-out is it what can you tell us about that if anything or is a lot going to change ah yeah well the only the only thing I probably shouldn't but yes you should i what i play well the idea is I get separated from my wife and I have to move in with the sort of like of and absolutely was a relative and I've sort of lost everything she's you've got a house I've got a job because she was sort of she kept me a bit of a kept man and I've got to start dating again so it's horrendous it's 55 I've got to start from scratch but all I want is her back and it's called attached and so it's about me trying to cope without you know without this this no life long sort of partner and how the real world is harsh right how the real world is a lot you know I mean it's it's it's gonna be it's gonna be harsh and it was there a fear in that because you're so successful now and you've got a certain things that you're really really good at and certainly new brand you've branched out enough where no one could say oh he did the same thing all the time you've branched out enough where you can do it but is there anything left where you think I would be afraid to do that maybe she had her since you don't know yeah oh yeah that's not the question right I'm but their base yeah me taking myself seriously me me being cool or or anything at up I could do something you know I couldn't I couldn't play I couldn't play the Maverick cop whose daughters hid napped and I mean I couldn't play it I couldn't row I'd want to change the lyrics keeper she's annoying you know I I don't think I just I take a look at myself in the mirror trying to be go now right you need you need bad fit for this really though I've been off of things and turned them down because I said well it's serious things I go with people laugh as soon as I walk on okay laughs I know so even acting taking myself seriously where I'm not a flawed character in some way would would would scare me yeah I have to be I have to somehow at the root of it be a putz I think since I'm good at yeah well I think you've proved tonight that you're good at it you have a tour that's a two reports tonight anything is that well axes so ladies and gentlemen Ricky Gervais you

Channel: 92nd Street Y

Views: 52,579

Rating: 4.7378917 out of 5

Keywords: 92Y, 92nd Street Y, Hollywood Reporter, Ricky Gervais, Tim Goodman, David Brent, Comedy, Comedian, Funny

Id: v9TaXasURj8

Length: 68min 41sec (4121 seconds)

Published: Mon May 22 2017