Ricky Gervais Meets Comedy Writers
After greatly enjoying (years after the fact) the original (BBC) "The Office" I looked around for other projects by the same people and found that the writer and star, Ricky Gervais, had done another show called, "Extras".
It was a more polished show, although more bitter in tone. Both shows seemed to aspire toward making the audience cringe, which seemed like a new kind of storytelling, at least to me.
I looked around for more Ricky Gervais stuff and found three interviews (from 2006) of his "heroes" - the men who inspired him to go into comedy: Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm), Christopher Guest (This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show), and Garry Shandling (It's Garry Shandling's Show, The Larry Sanders Show). All three are about an hour long - chopped up into 6 parts each on YouTube.
From wikipedia:
On 5 January 2006, he interviewed Larry David, in a one off special, Ricky Gervais Meets... Larry David. On 25 December and 26 December of the same year, Channel 4 aired similar specials where he interviewed the actor/comedian Christopher Guest and infamously Garry Shandling. There are no plans for further episodes of "Meets...", although editions with John Cleese and Matt Groening were recorded in 2006, for broadcast in 2007. A source claimed "The Shandling experience put him off for good."[19]
The Larry David interview was interesting. They talked about the craft of making people laugh and it felt more like listening in on a conversation between two interesting people than anything else. Seinfeld was a good show, although I wasn't as rabid a fan as others I knew (friends and co-workers had big Seinfeld parties when the last episode was aired). I've seen a few episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and thought it was okay. Some friends, whose taste I generally agree with, really enjoy the show, but I found it a bit predictable and smug.
The interesting thing to me was that Gervais selected David as one of his influences. I hadn't thought of The Office and Seinfeld being in the same comedic category, although they both do tend to focus on the small, irriating aspects of everyday life.
Larry David
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWgVr545yNA
The Christopher Guest was less good since Gervais was so obsequious. But it was still interesting if you are interested in the craft of comedy. Gervais said a few times how Spinal Tap was essentially the template used for creating The Office.
Christopher Guest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkDuNaE3QqA
But the real kicker is the Shandling interview. Ricky Gervais has done some funny and thought-provoking shows, but he's always seemed like a guy I would hate being stuck in an elevator with. Garry Shandling is one of the characters from my childhood. In 8th grade I thought I was going to be a comedy writer when I grew up, and watched SCTV and whistled along with the theme to It's Garry Shandling's Show. Both men had a style of exploring awkward situations in their shows, and this interview is so awkward that I had to wonder a few times whether the whole thing was a put-on. But I think that the truth is that both men are fascinated by awkward scenes because both men are in fact awkward individuals.
Garry Shandling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUgn86_T6SA
I would have liked to have seen the Matt Groening interview