Where's the show? - Matt reviews Ricky Gervais' first night of his SCIENCE tour in Edinburgh!

By Matt Holmes /

Last night I attended the hottest ticket in Edinburgh, the completely sold-out, one night only performance of the new Ricky Gervais Science show, his fourth nationwide live touring of the U.K. and only his second performance of this particular show after Glasgow the night before. I say show, but really, as much as it pains me to say it... I don't think he's really got one here. Science, which by his own admission shouldn't have been advertised or gimmicked around that title, at least not in it's current form ("I sort of lied", he apologies during the encore) is a sickeningly short one hour of so of Gervais (at £30 odd tickets per person, couldn't he have gone on for at least another 30 mins?) rambling on with weak anecdotes, cringe worthy tiresome observations and worst of all, an almost 85% re-tooling of material from his radio show, podcast, t.v. appearances and even previous stand-up routines. I mean at this point I'm wondering if I'm being punished for being such a big fan of the guy because I've seen him do all this before. Was anyone else who attended last night in the same boat as me? It seemed to me that for whatever reason Gervais did his best to do almost anything but Science. Topics for him once again revolve around gays, fame, fat people and racism. It's no wonder it seems like he is repeating himself - it's because he's got no new subjects he seemingly wants to talk about. Even the 20 minute grandiose ripping apart of a Noah's Ark children's picture book that he was given as a child, by and away the funniest part of the show, is really a re-working of not only the bible raping of his 2003 Animals tour but also I'm nearly certain was a segment on his XFM radio show or podcast, during a conversation with the immortal Karl Pilkington. Listen around the 2.33 mark and that's Gervais' main thrust of his show in a nutshell...

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Still, even though relegion is an easy and common comedy target, when someone like Gervais is behind-the-helm, it's absolutely hilarious. Here's that Bible segment from Animals...

The funniest part of Science is Gervais' response to the angry comments of God who threatened to wipe out all of mankind and every species of the world because of their wicked ways by flooding the world, leaving Noah in charge to save all the animals. Which as we all know is the most ridiculous of all the Christian faith stories and is a logistical nightmare that you'll never be able to prove was actually possible. But that should only be 1/3rd of a show called Science - where is the other two large segments? All we got instead was lots of side order fillers.

I mean forgive me for being a little pedantic but I expected a show called Science, featuring a guy who is really smart, knowledgeable and an interesting speaker on the subject to really probe into some deep and relevant thought. Debates on the big topics in life was what I expected but there's barely any of that. He gives a definition of Science from Wikipedia and that's about it. No more research than that. It's done. Wrapped. Let's talk instead about fat people and Amanda Holden sucking off Neil Morrisey for an hour and see how I totally just stole your money, with big smile in doing so. "Recession... what recession" says Gervais during the opening, unaffected by job cuts and bad economy. This is such a missed opportunity for Gervais but more importantly for his many legion of loyal fans, of which I am very much one of them. He is probably one of my biggest idols, but even I can't stick up for him on this one. He hasn't got a show, and I'm sure he knows that but if he doesn't then he has seriously started to believe his own hype and is dangerously enterting the stale territory most comedians reach where they think they can get away with anything. Maybe he has just simply taken on to much what with all the movie roles, writing/directing feature films now and he simply hasn't had the time to really sit down and craft a whole show to go with it's great concept. I mean if only as much time had gone into his act as had gone into his great Frankenstein esque Universal studios horror 30's film set that surrounded him. How he could have something as cool looking and easily interactable as that and NOT use it, well it's criminal. After a 20 minute opening by a midly funny but one-note and a little stiff Canadian comedian by the name of Stewart Francis (which then follows a 20 minute break, already I'm starting to worry whether he has done half the work for Ricky and his show is going to be short) and then two funny sketches made for the show, we were granted with THREE fucking trailers for things he was plugging. The Office retrospective on BBC 2 next week, his two movies The Invention of Lying and Cemetery Junction. Jeez, now it comes clear why this show was even put together in the first place. I know Ricky's people read his reviews (all of which I could find have panned the show today, including The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent) and he has mentioned Obsessed With Film a few times in the past because we are such huge supporters of his work (you can check the archives for proof alone of that) but I have to simply tell it like it is. Science is a major disappointment that offers maybe two original jokes and one great 20 minute segment which simply isn't enough to worth bothering with when it hits your part of the U.K. later this year. Ricky, I really hope you take the time to respond to some of these reviews on your excellent blog because I think the show could still be fantastic, it just needs ALOT of work. His only mention of last night so far reads...
Back from Scotland. The Edinburgh gig was better than Glasgow, which I think is due to the fact that it was the second one. And the theatre was nicer too which makes a surprising difference believe it or not. They both went pretty well for the beginning of a tour though. No more now till October.