Ricky Gervais Live IV: Science

The fourth in the series of Ricky Gervais's live DVDs is perhaps the weakest yet and it's telling that the extras are actually stronger than the main feature.

Titled Science, but in actuality featuring more about Animals, Fame and Politics than Science itself, the stage set is elaborate in a Frankenstein's lab style and Gervais' opening voiceover suggests the typically self-deprecating humour with which he made his name. However, the opening salvo of The Who's ‘Won't Get Fooled Again’ is perhaps a cautionary warning that lands us safely in the land of comedy as rock concert.

Gervais opens with typically easy targets - Susan Boyle, politically correct terms and Icelandic volcano ash - but there's so much more to his palette than that. Many who found The Office and Extras modern comedy classics eschewed his films and live shows and gravitated more towards his record breaking podcasts, which disappointingly are recycled here with skits on Oxfam goat donations and charities for the elderly at Christmas.

When broken down to brass tacks, there is precious little material here and, whilst his style is ever-engaging, the over indulgence of his life as celebrity (taking helicopters and private jets to avoid traveling with potential suicide bombers) and the superiority complex which he happily revels in can't cover over the sleightness of the jokes.



Extras: The bonus features more than make up for the paucity of the concert. Typically they revolve around Karl Pilkington, but they find Gervais far more amiable and (lacking in the stand-up) bringing his trademark laughter to things that actually tickle him; introducing Karl to Warwick Davis being a particular highlight. With a front cover that makes Gervais look disturbingly like Helena-Bonham Carter, the sales will still better expectation, though the creativity of the man can be found in spades anywhere but here.



Released on DVD on 22nd November 2010 by Universal Pictures UK.

> Buy the DVD on Amazon.

Reviewed by Simon Cole.