Hello
Ladies
Astor
Theatre
December
6, 2012
It’s a fair assumption that most
of the audience at Stephen Merchant’s three sold-out Astor shows were hard-core
fans of the vertically unchallenged British comedian and his collaborator Ricky
Gervais.
Gervais has had comedy superstar
status for years – I remember seeing him gigantically reproduced on a whole-side-of-building
billboard on Sunset Boulevard as far back as 2008. Merchant may be Larry David
to Gervais’s Jerry Seinfeld, but he’s steadily emerging in his own right.
On the strength of this
poised, neatly calibrated, and very, very funny solo show, it’s easy to see
why.
