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The trio responsible for the hilarious "Ricky Gervais Show" saw their podcasts downloaded nearly four and a half million times in January. They're currently rolling out their fifth series, "The Ricky Gervais Guide To ...," dealing with subjects from "Natural History" to "Medicine," so we asked Ricky to explain to us the secrets of the podcast's success. The star of the U.K. version of "The Office" and "Extras" mostly credited the strange and wonderful being that is Karl Pilkington, but he also had some other choice pieces of advice.
Click here to learn why Ricky thinks you should find a half-man. half-ape for your podcast, after the jump.
Why podcast?
"Podcasting is perfect for me, because I'm always trying to aim at those things that only have self-censorship. I'm trying cut out all interference artistically. That's also why stand-up is so exciting. What you say is what is heard. I think Woody Allen said,'The best an idea gets is when it's in your head.' So I've always been conscious of control. The more control you have, the more it can be what you would want to see or hear."
Find a Karl
"People ask, 'What's your secret?' I say, 'I've got Karl Pilkington.' That's it. People have never heard the likes of him before. Stephen and I feel like we're a couple of surfer dudes who accidentally unearthed a Neanderthal man in one of those awful American movies. We've dressed him up and taught him to skateboard ... He's so easily confused. I call him three times a day, because I can't get enough of him. He's like an experiment – half-chimp, half-idiot, and he was sent to me to revolutionize the world of podcasting."
Why Karl works"Karl is a man with no education, but there's such an engaging innocence about him. He says some pretty horrendous things, but you give him child rights. When he says things like 'I thought Anne Frank was just avoiding rent,' you know it's not malicious. He's just ludicrous. He's a buffoon. He sees the world differently. He says awful things like 'The Chinese don't age well' and 'Gays should have their own toilets,' but he says them without malice."
Your character should be mostly you
"I suppose me and Steve try to be slightly more professorial with this series than we are in real life. I guess I try to be an excitable pseudo-intellect, and Steve's more of an adult who wants to calm me down and Karl's an idiot savant. But as much as everyone performs slightly, it's 95 percent honest and 5 percent a way you wouldn't necessarily act in the pub. People always ask me, 'Is that the real Karl Pilkington or is it an act?' And I say, 'Well, if he's putting on an act, he's keeps it up 24/7.' He's a phenomenon."
How well should you know your topic?
"The reason it works with me and Steve is because we're not intellectuals. We don't know definitively the right answers. If we had Stephen Hawking or Richard Dawkins, they'd kill it dead, because they could answer Karl's 'Why, why, why.' Me and Steve can't. We get frustrated and that's what's funny. Obviously, we know more than him on every subject, but he can still frustrate us."
Keeping it fresh
"The reason we changed the format with this series is we've had five series, and I don't want to ever hang around and repeat myself and overstay my welcome. This new format gave us a jolt in the arm. Two reasons: I like the pomposity of it being a definitive study, and then deconstructing it with Karl's lunacy, and two -- it actually made me and Steve look into stuff a little bit more. We actually did some research on things like medicine and natural history just so we knew more to argue and present."
Don't try to manipulate it too much
"There's no manipulation. We just cut out chunks. We get rid of chunks that don't go anywhere or Steve saying, 'It's hot in here,' or an ambulance going past. The editing is basically tidying up and getting rid of silences. It's not manipulated like TV or film."
Know your audience
"You need to remember that it's usually listened to by one person who is by themselves on subways and in cars. You get into people's heads. Nothing gets into someone's head like a character they'd like to meet or talk to. I think we provide a natural narrative to eavesdrop on. Then it comes down to Karl Pilkington. I think people can understand my and Stephen's genuine excitement to be in a room with Karl. I take credit for the show like a jockey takes credit for winning a race with the best horse in the world ... and I sometimes jump on Karl to take that metaphor literally. My favorite thing for him to say is, 'Get off. I can't breathe.' I'm an animal trainer -- a wrangler."
Check out more with Ricky Gervais on Asylum U.K.
