Interview: Stephen Merchant, comedian

‘IT’S absurd to think a Golden Globe means any more than a Jim’ll Fix It badge,” says Stephen Merchant. “If people who turn up and pretend to be someone else for a day can’t take a bit of gentle ribbing, what’s wrong with them?”

Merchant can’t disguise his irritation at this year’s awards ceremony, hosted by his long-time collaborator Ricky Gervais, during which the script they wrote provoked outrage in some parts of Hollywood.

“Ricky was far braver than me,” recalls the lanky Bristolian. “He was the one up there doing it, I was just sneaking around in the shadows. We certainly didn’t anticipate that reaction. I remember thinking some of the jokes were a bit safe actually, too gentle.

“For us, it was in the tradition of dry, cynical British wit. And certainly, the media over-exaggerated the reaction in the room because many people really appreciated the honesty.”

With typical cheek, the duo have since turned this notoriety to their advantage, persuading Johnny Depp to appear in their new sitcom Life’s Too Short, taking umbrage at their rubbishing of his film The Tourist.

“That proves a lot of the so-called outrage was hot air,” says Merchant. “We’ve never set out to shock. But any time anything gets a bit too pompous, overly sincere or up its own arse, we have this natural urge to snigger at it like schoolboys.”

Life’s Too Short begins next month on BBC2, and stars Warwick Davis in a heightened portrayal of himself as a “showbiz dwarf” with a Napoleonic complex. Merchant says it has “some of the funniest sequences we’ve ever done. Warwick really shines.” As with Gervais and Merchant’s last TV series, Extras, it also features a string of cameo appearances by other famous names, including Depp, Liam Neeson, Sting, Helena Bonham Carter, and Steve Carrell. It is, Merchant says, “a fun gig” for all.

“Unlike epic movies, it’s in and out in a day for the actors, nothing but silliness, playing about, improvising and messing with the public’s perception of them,” he says. Gervais is bolder at approaching guest stars, apparently. “He’ll just call people out of the blue and they seem to respond to his chutzpah”.

But it was Merchant who landed Neeson, “pouncing on him” after a chat show and persuading him to spoof his reputation for gravitas by expressing a desire to become a stand-up comedian.

That metamorphosis is one Merchant can relate to. Despite describing his relationship with Gervais as a “marriage”, and stand-ups as “psychopaths and sociopaths”, for years he’s been sneaking around as surreptitiously as any millionaire, 6ft 7in half of the UK’s most bankable double act can, in preparation for his first solo stand-up tour. He has performed low-key, ten minute spots at intimate pub and club gigs, honing the skills that saw him reach the 1998 Open Mic Awards final and appear at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe in Rubbernecker alongside Gervais, Jimmy Carr and Robin Ince. Before, as he puts it, “TV took over and overnight I thought, ‘I can’t be bothered with this any more’”.

Now he thinks he has “unfinished business” with stand-up, “like some sort of ex-girlfriend you’ve ended it with but maybe some of the old magic’s still there. Or you never gave it a proper go, so you’ve met up again to see where it takes you.”

Naming his tour Hello Ladies and characterising it as a search for a wife has extended this amorous theme, but he’s bemused at how seriously this has been interpreted. “That was just a flippant comment” he says. “It’s more about me being honest about my romantic misfortunes. The truth is, however sweet they are, if someone left me their number at the stage door, I couldn’t confidently phone it. They would certainly be a mental case.”

He’s enjoying the challenge of “not hiding behind Ricky or the mechanics of TV, where you get lots of takes and can make changes in the edit, where you’re insulated by a team” – and has won conspicuously better reviews than his friend’s last tour. Perhaps having played to smaller crowds, he’s more adept at reconciling their TV shows’ balance of bluff egotism and vulnerability in a live arena.

“When I was unknown, my persona was an arrogant comic from the West Country who thought he was a big shot,” he recalls. “But actually, nobody knew who I was and the act revolved me never quite getting to it as I was constantly frustrated by the audience’s indifference. It was based on observations of other comedians. But when I came back, that didn’t make any sense because people knew me. They’d wonder, ‘Why are you being so mean?’

“So now my persona draws on elements of me through the ages. There’s a bit of post-success swagger but also the teenage, early twenties me that was insecure and neurotic. I set myself up as inferior to the audience because I absolutely don’t feel as if I’ve got everything together. People see you on television and imagine that your life’s perfect, when that’s obviously not the case.”

As a movie and comedy fanatic growing up in Bristol, Merchant idolised Billy Wilder, Woody Allen and Laurel and Hardy, and drew comic strips with established characters, imagining “wouldn’t it be great if James Bond had adventures like this?”

With The Office, he fulfilled his dream of writing a classic sitcom by the time he was in his mid-twenties. Now 36, he has no grand career plan beyond plugging the gaps on his shelves with things he’d like to see – a mix of personal projects like the Hello Ladies DVD and enjoyable diversions, such as voicing the computer game Portal 2.

He and Gervais made their directorial feature debuts last year with the coming-of-age saga Cemetery Junction and he’s also followed Gervais into Hollywood comedies, appearing in undemanding fare like the Farrelly Brothers’ Hall Pass and the animation Gnomeo and Juliet, for which he sang Elton John’s Your Song. He “won’t rule out” helming a big American movie in the future, perhaps even a non-comedy, but is wary of “endless studio executives with something to contribute”.

Meanwhile, An Idiot Abroad 2, his and Gervais’ latest persecution of their put-upon sidekick Karl Pilkington, is showing on Sky One, while China is about to follow Afghanistan, Chile, France, Germany, Canada and the US in remaking The Office. Having negotiated unprecedented creative control for their breakthrough, they’ve guarded it carefully and continue to oversee every foreign adaptation.

Like the nostalgic head of a successful multinational company, Merchant wistfully recalls life on the factory floor when he and Gervais “used to idly meet up, nothing would distract us, we’d sit around writing, maybe go for a spot of lunch.

“Whereas now it’s a lot more disciplined. Half the time it’s like we’re managing The Office’s estate, there’s so much admin. But when we get in a room, the door is closed and the phones are off, the actual writing process hasn’t changed. It’s still trying to get each other giggling. That wonderful giddiness, that excitement you get when you’re riffing on an idea, when it goes somewhere you hadn’t imagined and you can’t wait for people to see it.”

• Stephen Merchant: Hello Ladies is at the Playhouse, Edinburgh, 13 October. Life’s Too Short begins on the BBC next month.