Ricky Gervais passes exam in Science

Thursday 12th August 2010, 9:42AM BST.

Concert review: Ricky Gervais, Birmingham NIA, August 11

He may now be carving out a career as a film star in Hollywood, but Ricky Gervais showed he was still just as much at home on the stand-up stage as in the movies when he appeared in Birmingham for the fourth time.

The show was called Science and Gervais strode out onto a stage modelled on a mad scientist’s laboratory.

But the subject matter seemed anything but what the title suggested, with the genial funnyman apologising to anyone who had attended so they could swot up for a chemistry exam.

Gervais’ wide-ranging set ranged from near the knuckle gags at the expense of Amanda Holden, Susan Boyle and the obese to an extensive monologue in which he debunked the story of Noah’s Ark with the help of a textbook from his time in Sunday School in the 1960s.

How, he pondered, could the remaining five million species fit in the ark when the giraffes had taken up a third of the boat?

Support came from Mock The Week regular Stewart Francis, whose rapid fire one liners included “my two best friends are called William Hill – what are the odds of that?” and “did I already do the deja vu joke?”.

by Helen Cartwright

View more: Birmingham Nia news, Concert Review news.

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