Stephen Merchant: Hello Ladies... Live! (2011)
Stephen Merchant, the Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe award winning co-creator of The Office and Extras in his first ever live stand-up comedy tour and it has been well worth the wait. The Guardian says "his performance is priceless...he can do funny just by being there" and The Times states that "the man is hilarious". Stepping into the lime light, Stephen Merchant is in search of a wife, discussing the problems of being 6ft7 in life, but also when it comes to the ladies, watching porn on VHS and re-enacting the first play he ever wrote! This is one not to be missed!
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Blistering performances.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Most people will have heard of the comedian being one of the key writers of the genius comedy The Office, and later Extras, and then he appeared on screen more often as well, including The Ricky Gervais Show, but I was looking forward to seeing how he would handle doing his own one man show. Stephen Merchant plays to a large theatre audience and brings to the stage his easy humour, combining some observational jokes with little digs at himself and anything else he can think of, but apparently the main point of this particular show is to find a woman, or a wife, hence the title. In the show he obviously talks about the reason for doing the stand up show, and he also talks about why stand-up comedy, his first appearance in a national newspaper appearance after being at the Golden Globes, his height (he 6 foot 7 inches tall), science and maths, an interview, newspapers, giving and receiving opinions, talking to women, the 1980's, pornography, abbreviations and texting, being with a woman, sex, he used a special camera on his face that makes him look stranger, and much more. He is obviously an award winning writer, but he does prove he has a good stage presence and can entertain an audience with his own jokes and show, I admit I have seen slightly funnier things, but I don't see why he can't do another one. Good!
Merchant has likability and physical presence/gawkiness going for him (shades of John Cleese's Ministry of Silly Walks). It's more consistently amusing than laugh out loud funny. Compared to "you know who" he presents with much less ego and seemed comfortable involving the audience in his act. Though he gets a lot of mileage out of being cheap/tight- fisted/stingy, the "man has to pay for everything on a date" schtick is very dated (pun intended).Another reviewer noted that at times this felt like an actor playing the role of a stand-up comedian and there is some truth in that - especially since HBO is putting together a series of "Hello Ladies" featuring Merchant as a hapless Brit searching for love in L.A.. There may be some mileage in this character!