-Congratulations, first of all, on the,
I will say on the stand-up special, in general.
I think it was the fastest-selling
or highest-grossing special in the U.K.,
and then it was one of the biggest purchases
on Netflix, ever. -Yeah.
-Honestly, I've had a great time.
I loved the tour. It was my favorite tour ever.
-It's your favorite tour? -Yeah.
-Why? -So many reasons.
I think -- I hadn't done one for seven years.
And that wasn't on purpose. It's just getting pushed back.
You know, I did, like, "Derek," a couple of movies,
and it just -- 'Cause I always considered
stand-up to be the second or third thing I did,
whereas this has changed my mind.
Now it's my favorite thing I do.
Now I could lose everything else and just do stand-up
for the rest of my -- Well, I won't be standing up
for long, but sit-down. Just me in --
Even if I have to be wheeled out in a bucket,
I'll just be saying -- No, actually,
I remembered the privilege of it and, you know --
Even if I get final edit on a movie or a TV show,
there's still 60 people involved.
With stand-up, it's just me. I can say what I want.
-Yeah. -It's amazing.
And, also, I think the audience have known me
for long enough now, they get me.
I don't have to explain it so much.
I can go further, and I can hit the ground running,
and they get what I'm doing.
-Doesn't it make harder because they do know who you are?
-No. Well, only when you sort of warm up, maybe.
Like, I do a warm-up show,
and people on YouTube will get in the press.
So I book theaters, and I sort of do
a little theater show just for me
to just rehearse.
And I approached it differently, as well.
My first four shows, I sort of wrote them.
You know, I planned them and went out --
-Set up punch lines. -Exactly.
And this one, I just wandered out
and just did it really organically.
And that's the great thing about stand-up --
the audience chooses your best bits for you.
And I felt freer, as well.
Like, I felt I didn't --
I think I've got old-people's rights now.
I mean, I can say what I want, 'cause I'm gonna die soon.
How can anyone hurt me? They go, "I'm offended."
I go, "I'm gonna [bleep] die soon."
[ Laughter ]
-That's true. -Yeah.
-But every time you come on, you always tell a great story.
About your uncle getting the toupee.
Do you remember that one? -Oh, yeah.
That's a true story. That's in there.
-I know, I saw it in the special, as well.
-Yeah, my Uncle -- my Uncle Reginald.
I won't give it away, but my Uncle Reginald,
he went bald in his 20s.
And he was bald for 10 years, so they called him Bald Reg.
So he was bald to his 30s, right?
Turned up at our house one day, ding dong, Elvis.
[ Laughter ]
Just... And I said to my Aunt Edna,
"What happened to Uncle Reg?" She went, "It was a miracle."
[ Laughter ] So, yeah.
I loved -- It's much more personal.
I talk about my family for the first time.
-I love that, too -- "Don't show me photos of your kid."
-Oh, God, yeah.
-"Don't show me photos of your kid."
-That's a true -- Even though I don't have kids,
people still show me photographs of theirs.
And it's very sweet, right?
-I haven't done it to you, have I?
-No, you haven't, but I don't mind it, really.
But you could be really busy, and someone would go,
"Oh, I was just out, taking my youngest.
She's 7." I go, "Oh, yeah, yeah."
Even strangers go, "I've got a picture of her."
I want to say, "Do you know what?
Show me if she goes missing," right?
[ Laughter ] It's like -- No -- I --
[ Audience groans, laughter ] -What?
-I just -- I don't need --
Why do I need to see it?
I know what a kid looks like. -Yes.
-"Oh, yeah, 7 years old, it's a kid.
I know what it looks like."
Unless they say, "No, no, this one."
If she's just a head with tentacles, I'll have a look.
Do you know what I mean? -Yeah.
-Wow, that's amazing. Thanks for showing me that."
Yeah. But if it's just a kid, yeah, I know.
-Yeah, I know. -They all look alike.
-But you also talk about the length of time
you look at the photos. -Yeah.
You got to go through the whole polite rigmarole.
You've got to go, "Oh. Oh, she's beautiful."
It's got to be that long.
'Cause too short, and it's like, "Yeah," they know.
Do you know what I mean? [ Laughter ]
And too long, it's like, "Oh."
[ Laughter ]
-No, it's not like that, no.
-Too long, see? -Too long, yeah.
-I need to go, "Oh, she's [bleep] beautiful."
-No, I don't think it's that. -It's just...
It's too much. That's what I'm saying.
You've got to do it just right.
It's a minefield. [ Laughter ]
-Looking at a photo is a minefield, yeah.
Also, a runner through the thing is you saying,
"I should've just left it." -Well, that's about me --
Yeah, I talk about arguments on Twitter.
The worst people -- Twitter is amazing.
-Why do you get in arguments on Twitter?
-Well, because it's fun. It's like research for me.
I love it, you know?
I actually go looking for trolls,
because I don't really get them.
The good thing about Twitter is, it's like looking
at every toilet wall in the world at once.
So you can really find proper crazies.
-Yeah, yeah. -And I wind them up.
Everything from just -- It's just mad fundamentalists
to just people who live in a bin.
You know what I mean? [ Laughter ]
-And you do it. -I just -- I wind them up.
-And you should've just left it.
-Yeah, and I get into arguments with them.
The running thing is, I should've left it.
-Someone with 24 followers. -Yeah, exactly.
-You're getting into a major fight with them.
-Well, I got into a fight after doing this show.
'Cause I didn't think about being on the plane,
and they're saying, "We're not handing out nuts
on this flight because this lady is so allergic to nuts
that even someone else eating nuts in the vicinity
would cause her to have a fatal reaction."
And I talked about this on this show that I was furious.
Right? Like I was going -- "Oh, God.
Just 'cause someone's gonna die, I'm not allowed to eat nuts?"
[ Laughter ] And I do this --
I did the whole routine.
I was going, "I wish I'd brought my own nuts on."
And I say it as a joke. I said, "And now when I fly,
in case that happens again, I have a shower,
and I just rub myself all over in nuts," right?
[ Laughter ] And it went out,
and someone on Twitter was going, "How dare you.
My daughter's got a nut allergy."
And she was -- and you and me and causing trouble.
She was going, "How disgusting," you know?
And someone else got involved. Ohio moms are going nuts.
One of you filmed a little girl and put it on YouTube
and sent me the link, and it was just like --
A sweet little girl, about 7.
She went, "Dear Mr. Gervais, I have a fatal nut --"
Delete, you know? No. [ Laughter ]
-Ricky, I want to show a clip from "Humanity."
This is Ricky Gervais' new stand-up special,
streaming now on Netflix. Check this out.
-A lovely welcome.
Just for that, I'm gonna try my hardest tonight.
[ Laughter ] I know what you're thinking.
You're thinking, "Rick, relax.
We've already had our money's worth just seeing you."
[ Laughter ]
What? "You're a legend, shut up."
Why is he -- I'm not a god.
[ Laughter ]
I'm just an ordinary guy, you know,
going round talking to people.
So, sort of like Jesus. [ Laughter ]
In a way, but better.
Well, I've actually turned up, so...
[ Laughter ]
-Our thanks to Ricky Gervais!
His new special, "Ricky Gervais: Humanity"
is on Netflix now.