Animals (2003 film)
Animals is a stand-up show written and performed by the comedian Ricky Gervais. As the title suggests Gervais uses aspects of the animal kingdom as his central theme. The show toured in 2003 and is now available on DVD.
Animals is one of three stand-up shows that Gervais has performed: the other two being Politics and Fame.
Content
The show can be broken down into several sections.
Introduction
Animals begins with a short film produced by Gervais. It opens with wildlife films of lions copulating, with Gervais providing a comic voiceover. Following this is a vignette in which he wines and dines a woman. Following the meal he takes her back to his house. Gervais goes to the toilet and sees a pornographic magazine on the side. The scene cuts to him leaving the toilet and the woman saying, "make love to me". Gervais replies that he cannot as he just masturbated in the toilet and will be "half hour at least." The live stand-up performance directly succeeds this short film.
Venues
Gervais performed Animals for two weeks in London's Bloomsbury Theatre.
DVD Extras
The Animals DVD includes Audio Commentary with Ricky, and a Behind The Scenes featurette that documents Ricky's preparations before the show as well as the editing of the introductory short with long-suffering editor of The Office and Extras: Nigel Williams. Stephen Merchant is the cameraman for most of this featurette.