Ricky Gervais has been accused of bullying fellow comedian and former friend Robin Ince when they toured together with the alleged actions resulting in ‘trauma’
After Life creator Ricky Gervais has been accused of making a former support act’s life “hellish” in bullying claims.
Comedian Robin Ince has claimed that Ricky’s behaviour backstage had an impact on his health when he toured with him as he accused him of bullying. Robin said: “I look back now, and I think it is bullying, really it is. I’m very good at sometimes just acclimatising to things, in which you go, ’Actually, this is really weird ‘.”
He went on to recall: “But people who knew me did not like the way that relationship worked. I am not saying it is a traumatic experience, but after two weeks I came out in red lumps that my doctor said were a stress rash. I think my hair was coming out in clumps.”
Speaking on The Starting Line podcast Robin also said he was being “bullied” so badly that The Office star Mackenzie Crook stepped in and confronted Ricky about it. After announcing his retirement in 2015 when he said he was “starting to go mad” experiencing insomnia, self-doubt. and regret over not spending time with his family Robin remained friends with Ricky until 2022.
However, at that point he drew a line under their friendship when he wrote a blog post slamming Ricky for mocking transgender people in his Netflix comedy special SuperNature. He wrote: “It is easy to forget the collateral damage of jokes. Anti-trans punchlines seem to have become highly profitable and it ignores the dehumanising effect on a swathe of already marginalised people. I think Ricky believes it is just him being a ‘naughty boy’. I believe it makes him a pin-up and role model for the alt-Right.”
Now a resurfaced YouTube video from 2016 shows Robin confessing that he was “tortured” as he recalls his time on tour with Ricky. The 26-minute long post is titled Living with Ricky Gervais 2, and sees Robin claim that he was at Ricky’s “beck and call” and that life for him was “hellish.”
Content in the video shows Ricky telling Robin to carry out a range of bizarre tasks, and if he declined Ricky would remind him that his food and hotels were free and he would then ask again. Ricky is shown sat beside Robin screeching in his ear as the interview opens. Robin then says of the tour: “It was possibly one of the biggest mistakes and one of the worst decisions I’ve made in not only my professional career but my whole life.” The pair had been friends for 15 years before the Fame tour with Robin admitting he had forgotten how bored Ricky gets when on the road.
He said: “When he is bored, he is either angry or wants to be entertained. And his entertainment is to make his closest friends have a life that is hellish and torturous. Genuinely, when I say tortures, I mean that it feels like torture. One moment you are in these luxury hotels but luxury hotels where you are at the beck and call of this man.” As he reflects on the tour in the interview an array of clips of some of the “tasks” he had to undertake are shown.
This includes being strapped to a hanging pole like a pig on a spit roast, being stripped to his underwear in public, and being told to eat foods he was intolerant to. In one incident he was told to strip to his underwear on a beach where Ricky made him sit in a ditch in the sand while he piled rocks and sand on top leaving him with cuts and bruises.
Another incident saw Ricky laughing as Robin told him his body was “spasming out” after he pressured him to eat a coffee-soaked croissant despite him being lactose intolerant. The Mirror has approached Ricky Gervais for comment on this story.
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