Gervais launches first ‘world live comedy tour’

British comedian Ricky Gervais is thinking big. On the eve of his appearance next Sunday on US network television, when he will host the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles, he has announced plans to take his stand-up comedy show worldwide. The 'Out of England Tour' will kick off with five dates in north America.
 
"The Office is shown in about 90 countries, so I've been promising myself I'll visit some of them," he said, claiming that it would be "the first world live comedy tour".
 
The Stateside shows, three at New York's Madison Square Gardens and two at Los Angeles's Kodak Theater, will be the latest undertaking in what is already shaping up to be a busy year for Gervais in America. Along with his high-profile appearance as a first-time host of the Globes, Gervais has a new film, Cemetery Junction, coming out in April. He made the film, about two 20-something building society clerks in 1970s Reading, with his collaborator on The Office and Extras, Stephen Marchant.
 
Gervais and Marchant, along with their friend Karl Pilkington, also have a new comedy show launching in America. As reported by The First Post last year, the trio has produced an animated version of the hugely popular podcasts they made for the Guardian. The Ricky Gervais Show features musings on everyday life - voiced by the three comedians - and debuts on HBO on February 19.
 
Meanwhile Gervais has promised a loose "off the road" approach when he hosts the Globes live on NBC on Sunday.

It is the first time that the show, which has lost 5m viewers in the past two years, has employed a host since 1995 and the pressure is on Gervais to deliver. In several recent interviews he has talked about the two "little people" in his head who will determine how far he goes in insulting Hollywood royalty for comedy value.

The 47-year-old is under no illusions that his charmed American career run could be over if his humour fails to hit the right note. "It sort of seems like I've come full circle," he told USA Today on Monday. "I mean, I'm talking like it's the end of my career in America - and that's very possible. I've had a good seven years at the top." ·