He stands at a ridiculous height. He is built like a girl's bicycle. He looks, for all intents and purposes, like a circus freak. However, his genius in the realms of comedy knows no bounds. He is Stephen Merchant. For anyone who doesn't know, Steve is the co-creator of The Office (the original of course) and generally less revered half of the old Gervais/Merchant comedy brainbox. While Gervais lauds it around the globe enjoying the fruits of mega-stardom, he will be the first to tell you that he wouldn't be sh*t without his lanky, goggle-eyed friend.
Merchant's career began as a failed stand-up comedian. He was then hired as Ricky Gervais' assistant at indie radio channel XFM because, according to Gervais, "it was the first CV on my desk". From there the two went on to host the saturday afternoon show, which, as I can attest to, was bloody hilarious. Then came The Office - brought about because Stephen had to film something for his directing class and asked Gervais to do his "creepy boss guy". Thus began one of the greatest comedy creations in history.
Despite the odd cameo here and there, Merchant remained relatively unknown until 2005's "Extras" where he played hapless agent Darren Lamb. Finally people noticed how f**king funny the man is. I for one, think his performance in that programme was one of the funniest I've seen, as evidenced by this hilarious video:
Yes there's been a few misguided attempts at film-making since then (The Invention of Lying, Cemetary Junction - both shit) but there's also been the Podcasts, "An Idiot Abroad" and I await their latest sitcom "Life's Too Short" - about the trails and tribulations of a showbiz dwarf - with baited breath.
Maximum respect, sir. Keep up the good work.
John.
No comments:
Post a Comment