By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: (work in progress)

WHEN?: Monday 3 June 2024, running through 26 June 2024 RUNTIME: 70 minutes without interval

Released in 2023 Gervais’ comedy special Armageddon was the global number 1 most-watched show on Netflix but, as he explains here, it takes a great deal of nights like these to hone new material and see whether it lands before taking it out on tour proper.

• Read on for reasons including what it’s like to see 1 of the world’s biggest stars at such an intimate work in progress gig

Last year 1 of the most popular reviews we wrote was of a similar work in progress Micky Flanagan gig at this very venue – and so here we are again.

We’re in row 16 of this 400-seater venue but it’s a world away from the size of the international venues of the 85 arena dates that Reading’s finest played before Armageddon with his show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-grossing comedy gig ever. 

We loved both The Office, Extras and the recent specials but 1 of our party is a particular fan of Gervais’ more controversial views and they have plenty to laugh long and hard at but also to mull over tonight.

Gervais shuffles on with little fanfare armed with prompt cards and it would be wrong to go into too much detail of the content of these shows because some skits land well while the audience recoils in horror at some of the more outlandish lines crossed.

It would be fair to say though that if Gervais is looking for an idea to link up his current thinking and sketches the idea of the importance of free speech, which he explains humourously but also seriously here, is worthy of further exploration at gigs like these that you can see at venues including this 1.

More than once he stresses his ‘Liberal’ viewpoint but new material about how he might have owned slaves years ago and the anti-women views of some religions are not going to be to everyone’s tastes.

He’s on far safer and more familiar ground as he concludes the show with a story about the legal rigour with which his acclaimed Golden Globes hosting was subjected to with debate over whether he should refer to Judi Dench licking her ‘minge’ in film Cats or whether it should be replaced with ‘flange’ or ‘vagina’.

He’s also hilarious when worrying about his own reference to Elton John rather than Madonna as the ‘Queen Of Pop’ and then reflecting that Watford’s favourite son undoubtedly heard far worse from the stands in the 80s when he visited the football club with his then wife.

Tonight’s 70 minutes is punctuated by short sets from 2 up and coming comics and at just £20, as Gervais himself points out, we’re extremely lucky to be here.

Armageddon 2? Not quite yet but potentially incoming in the near future.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Ricky Gervais and Leicester Square Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen Ricky Gervais before and what did you think of it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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