Stephen Merchant: on the way to comedy hegemony?

Stephen Merchant started a short run of solo stand up shows in London this week, the culmination of three years refreshing skills he first honed the years BG (Before Gervais).

From what he told his audience on Monday night there was a definite sense that the gangly, bespectacled co-creator of The Office and Extras wants to conquer the stand-up arena properly and not just dabble. This is partly, he tells us, because his comedy heroes, such as Richard Pryor, were stand-ups, but his effort is also another reminder that stand-up has become a rite of passage for anyone from precocious pre-teens to ex-politicians, as well as comedy performers who are already successful in other fields.

Despite his Bafta-winning status Merchant was incredibly nervous. Gabbling from the off, he fell at the first hurdle: liberating the microphone from the stand. The top half of the stand fell down and cut the hand of the comedian, who duly asked if there was a doctor, or at least a plaster, in the house.

It was at this point, where “the comedy of embarrassment” was going to work against him rather than for him, that I felt some sympathy with Merchant. I recalled my first open spot, among a handful of gigs I did some years ago, and how I initially had no awareness of the mic stand and kept backing into it. The mic stand threatened to upstage me, just as it did with Merchant.

I survived the ordeal; Merchant, with a much longer set ahead of him, used the experience to indulge in a bit of audience banter and start to build confidence, while also stemming the blood flow with the aforementioned plaster. Having found his feet by cutting his hand, his act proceeded and was pleasing if unremarkable. His theme of thirtysomething singledom allowed for some forays beyond this reliable thread, with nods to his wider fame and a lot of material about his height and the awkwardness it entails.

Despite this inauspicious start, could Merchant ever be a towering figure of comedy? Ricky Gervais was another relative latecomer to stand-up and, notwithstanding the poor quality of his last tour, Science, he could be considered as a successful convert if not a total natural. Merchant is perhaps even less of a natural—and he faces an uphill slog in the shadow of Gervais.

Should he succeed, the duo could claim some kind of comedy hegemony ranging from live work through to TV and film. This will no doubt give them both some more material for ironic routines about their own fame, and eventually Merchant’s struggle with a microphone will become a distant, if painful, memory.

Stephen Merchant's Work in Progress is at Jackson’s Lane until Sat 19th June. 020 8341 4421