Editing Stephen Merchant (section)

===Stand-up===
Merchant began performing stand-up comedy in the late 1990s to critical success, though he decided to focus more on his work with writing partner [[Ricky Gervais]] after the success of ''The Office''. He appeared in a revue, called ''Rubbernecker'', at the Café Royal, as part of the [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2001|2001 Edinburgh Fringe]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001-08-03 |title=Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme 2001 by Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society - Issuu |url=https://issuu.com/edinburgh_festival_fringe/docs/2001_fringe_programme |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=issuu.com |language=en}}</ref> alongside Ricky Gervais, [[Jimmy Carr]] and [[Robin Ince]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Logan |first=Brian |date=2009-12-09 |title=Review of the decade: Comedy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/dec/09/review-of-the-decade-comedy |access-date=2024-02-10 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Merchant returned to stand-up with a nationwide tour of the United Kingdom in September 2011, under the title ''Hello Ladies''. The tour, which ended in [[New York City|New York]],<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/arts/television/stephen-merchant-moves-from-gervaiss-shadow-to-stand-up.html Profile], nytimes.com; accessed 8 March 2015.</ref> was later released on [[DVD-Video|DVD]]. In late 2012, it continued in Australia and New Zealand. Merchant performed his first-ever stand-up tour of Scandinavia in October 2014, performing in 11 different cities as part of a European festival circuit.<ref>[http://www.comedyfesteurope.com/tickets Profile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107002954/http://www.comedyfesteurope.com/tickets/ |date=7 November 2014 }}, comedyfesteurope.com; accessed 8 March 2015.</ref> In an interview with [[Marc Maron]], Merchant listed [[Eddie Izzard]], [[Stewart Lee]], [[Ross Noble]] and Jimmy Carr as stand-up comedians he admired and [[John Cleese]] as his main comedic influence.