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"I use irony, saying the wrong things so that hopefully
people will understand the right things," Gervais told Reuters.
"But now it's too dangerous. I get the wrong round of applause!
I have to be so careful about what I say."
Still, the man best known for the British television "mockumentary"
show "The Office" and acerbic stints as a Golden Globes host
says he feels he has finally found his voice as a stand-up comic
- and the election of Donald Trump as president has helped.
"Trump has made me a better stand-up because everything is much
more poignant now," said Gervais, who is as well known in
Hollywood as he is in his native Britain. "Anything you do about
truth, stupidity, anger, humanity, world issues - it's so much
in the forefront of people's minds about what's happened."
Gervais, 55, embarks next week on his first stand-up tour in
seven years. It starts in Britain after a single date in New
York last week while promoting the Feb. 10 Netflix U.S. release
of "David Brent: Life on the Road," a film sequel to the British
version of "The Office."
Gervais says his stand-up act has never been explicitly
political. He started working on new material before Britain
voted to leave the European Union in June 2016.
Instead, he riffs on "opinions versus facts, social media where
people would rather win than be right, and how sneakily freedoms
are crushed."
"My shtick has always been me saying the wrong things," he said.
"My stand-up has always been a brasher, more arrogant, less
informed bigoted, bore than myself."
Twelve years on, in "Life on the Road," David Brent is now a
cleaning product salesman with a female boss who has not given
up on his dream of being a rock star. He embarks on a
self-financed UK tour, followed by a documentary crew.
"It's the same old David Brent but a bit older and not the
boss," said Gervais, who wrote, directed and stars in the show.
"Now he's almost bullied. I am torn with David Brent. I like his
positivity and the fact that he falls over and gets up again."
Just as Gervais drew from his own experience to create the
mundane life depicted in the original "The Office" in 2001, he
also mined his past for the sequel.
"In a previous life, I was also a failed rock star so I use all
my successes and failures equally," he said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Leela de Kretser and
Bill Trott)
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