Rubbernecker was a revue that 4 comics, 1 better known than the others, took to the Edinburgh Fringe. And 3 of them are still huge stars.

• Ricky Gervais
• Jimmy Carr
• Stephen Merchant
• Robin Ince

Recently some articles have been added to the British Newspaper Archives that have contributed more background to what happened that August in 2001.

Part of the reason that I didn’t find them before was that the articles often only said “Ricky Gervais and 3 others”. In a shot reminiscent of a Beatles album cover this image was the one used in press articles.

If you don’t know anything about these shows – you perhaps should read these other posts first, to get a feel for the events that lead them up to Scotland:

• Edinburgh 2001 – details of the Fringe / Rubbernecker with the names of other comedians (that you may have heard of) that had their own Fringe shows that year – here
• Jimmy had contributed to the TV show Meet Ricky Gervais – here
• Jimmy had appeared in the 11 O’Clock Show, which also featured Ricky (in 54 episodes) – here
• Jimmy and Iain Morris had an XFM radio show (here) at the same time as Ricky, Stephen & Karl Pilkington were at XFM
• Jimmy was from Slough and The Office 2011 DVD Box Set had some footage of him driving Ricky & Stephen around, scouting out series locations – here
• There are a couple of reviews of Rubbernecker – here

Ricky Gervais Interviews

Despite The Office having been “created, written and directed” by Ricky AND Stephen it seems like Ricky was the focus of all of the press attention, at this Edinburgh. Which means that, to get an idea of what Jimmy got up to, I’m going to have to use text from Ricky’s interviews.

To give some context to the Rubbernecker press content, The Office had first been broadcast, in the UK, on July 9^th 2001.

Edinburgh News

The July 26 issue of Edinburgh News said (in a terribly long sentence):

Ricky Gervais, fresh from his surprisingly good mockumentary, The Office, makes an appearance for the last week of the Fringe at the Café Royal in Rubbernecker, which is vaguely described as “somewhere between stand-up and a sketch show” – yes, they’re still working on it.

Scotland on Sunday

Scotland on Sunday had an interview on August 19^th that said:

Rubbernecker, Gervais’ Edinburgh show, performed with three others, seems as chequered as his early career patterns.

“It’s sort of evolved and it changes every time we speak to each other. Originally, it was very free form. Now it’s developed into four people doing their own thing and we’ve got to do 18 minutes each. I don’t know what it is really. It’s four separate people doing vaguely stand-up stuff. That’s it. I haven’t sold that very well, have it?”

The Scotsman

August 22^nd saw the Scotsman chatting with Ricky and he said:

“I’m not a good stand-up – that’s why I’m compering.” He says of Rubbernecker, a show which features Stephen Merchant (his writing partner on The Office), Jimmy Carr and Robin Ince.

He went on to mention that, at that point, he’d “done about 5 stand-up gigs”.

Edinburgh News

Edinburgh News on August 23^rd also interviewed him:

Gervais has a show at the Fringe. This will come as a surprise to those of you who don’t have the time to scour the Fringe programme looking for interesting titbits and tend to rely on the Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance or The Stand, for your comedy fix.

Gervais is currently performing in Rubbernecker at the Café Royal with three other comedians, Stephen Merchant (co-writer of The Office), Robin Ince and Jimmy Carr. You won’t have seen a poster or flier for it because he doesn’t want to get involved in the escalating publicity war that is causing overheads to skyrocket and, well, “because it’s just a laugh isn’t it” says Gervais.

I’ve only done about 10 gives so it would be both arrogant and foolish of me to say “Hey, I’m on telly I can an hour show at the Assembly Rooms”, laughs Gervais. “I have maybe 20 minutes of stuff that I’m proud of but I certainly don’t have an hour”.

So, what is Rubbernecker? A bill show? Sketch show? Dog’s breakfast? “It’s just four people winding each other up”, laughs Gervais. “Actually, it’s a bit more honed now but it’s not an Edinburgh show.

The aforementioned “5 stand up gigs” in the 22^nd interview (above) had turned into 10 by this one on the 23^rd.

In a clipping I have (that doesn’t state the publication) this number was back down to “8 stand-up gigs” and he described Rubbernecker as “a collection of idiots”.

The Stage

An August 30^th article in The Stage has Ricky declaring (of the “3 young comics” he has brought with him):

“They are shoddy – they are on my shirt tails and basically are not very good”

The article author (Ben Dowell) says this is a bold gag as, in the case of Robin Ince (the first act) Gervais may well be right. Apparently, he was “killed stone dead” by an elderly female heckler and a “punter who kept saying “arse” under his breath”.

Jimmy was on 3^rd and “silenced the crowd with perhaps the best turn of the lot”. But then the reviewer added “…even his sharp-edged one-liners with clever and initially surprising pay-offs do get a bit wearing after 20 minutes”.

Stephen’s act was described as an “interesting and impressive twist on the lame comic character”.

This article featured the image above and was titled “Going for the jugular – Ricky Gervais (left) and the comics of Rubbernecker at the Café Royal”.