Talking Funny

I could listen to comedians talking about their craft all day, so I was looking forward to HBO's Talking Funny last night.  I must say, Ricky Gervais was clearly out of place among the others.  The best example was when he went on and on insisting that he never cares if an audience thinks what he says is funny, or if they're even judging him at all, giving him an air of cool, above-it-allness, to which the other three looked at him like he was crazy.  I wondered if they were thinking the same thing I was, that not caring what your audience thinks of your stand-up is easy when you've only really started doing it once you'd already become a famous gazillionaire, and people paid $100 a pop for the privilege of being in the same room as you, unlike the other three who started out as teenagers, honing their jokes and desperately reading disinterested audiences to find out how to make them laugh. 

Also, his over-the-top laughing felt disingenuous.  I don't wanna hate on Gervais, I like him.  I love Extras, and  it's because of him we have The Office, but, as I've said before, his stand-up isn't good at all, and he doesn't belong in a discussion about the craft of stand-up comedy.  Seeing his name as producer at the end only left me with a feeling of "rich and famous guy paid a buncha money to have  people who are way more talent come over and hang out."  Which is, ironically, a twist on an old Seinfeld riff:

It reminds me of like this pathetic friend that everybody had when they were a little kid who would let you borrow any of his stuff if you would just be his friend. That's what the library is. A government funded pathetic friend.