Is This the Best Ricky Gervais Impersonator You've Ever Seen?

Real Fix

Credit: SWNS  Is This the Best Ricky Gervais Impersonator You've Ever Seen? the man who has travelled the world as a Ricky Gervais lookalike.  Tim Oliver, 59, has been as far away as Australia to do gigs.  He mostly plays Brent, the hapless middle-manager from the Office, but has also morphed into other Gervais characters.

Transcript

00:00 People look at me, yeah, and they see the suit,

00:04 and they go, "He's not fooling anyone."

00:06 Yeah, they know I'm rock and roll through and through.

00:09 My name's Tim Oliver.

00:10 This is weird talking as me.

00:12 I've been a David Brent and Ricky Gervais impersonator

00:16 for 20 years.

00:19 Yeah, I'm the only one in the world.

00:21 I travel the world on a global scale.

00:25 I'm being David Brent, but I can't help it.

00:28 I've turned into David Brent.

00:30 When people say to me, "Would you rather be thought of

00:32 "as a funny man, yeah, or a great boss?"

00:36 My answer's always the same, yeah.

00:38 To me, they're not mutually exclusive, okay?

00:43 If you were to ask me to name three geniuses,

00:46 I wouldn't go Einstein, Newton,

00:49 I'd go Milligan, Cleese, Everett, Sessions, yeah?

00:58 Used to run an events company,

01:00 and at the time, I had a PA who said to me,

01:05 "Have you seen that TV show, 'The Office'?"

01:08 And she said, "Well, you sound exactly like the fella

01:11 "that's on it, the manager, the cringe-worthy manager."

01:15 And I was like, "Oh, okay."

01:17 So I watched it that night and went in the next day

01:19 and said, "Get out, you're fired."

01:21 She wasn't.

01:22 And I started doing it from then.

01:24 Had loads of photographs taken,

01:26 sent them off to look-alike agencies

01:28 who aren't around anymore, unfortunately.

01:30 But yeah, my first ever gig was at Vodafone call center

01:35 up in Newcastle.

01:37 I really enjoyed that, and I was driving back thinking,

01:39 "Yeah, this is me, this is what I wanna do."

01:42 - What are people's reactions to you

01:43 when they see you out in public?

01:44 - Oh, too many questions.

01:46 No, people, that's from "The Office," by the way.

01:50 People don't tend to approach me.

01:53 You can see them whispering and nudging each other.

01:55 Ones that have had a few lagers, they do.

02:00 They shout, "Hi, Brent," or "Ricky," or whatever.

02:04 I just carry on walking.

02:05 People have always asked me, "Oh, it must get on your nerves."

02:08 It doesn't, because it's my job.

02:11 People say, "You're better looking than Ricky."

02:13 Even he said that.

02:15 So it's a fact.

02:17 - Have you ever actually met Ricky?

02:19 - Yeah, I was summoned to meet him

02:22 by a journalist from an old magazine.

02:25 I said, "Yeah, how much?"

02:27 And they told me, and I said, "Yeah, fine,

02:29 "but have you told him that you're doing this?"

02:32 And they said, "Well, he's asked us to ask you."

02:35 So he wanted to meet me.

02:37 - As an impersonator, what sort of gigs do you get to do?

02:39 - All sorts.

02:40 Weddings, parties, 40th parties,

02:44 spoof "Office" videos, exhibitions, adverts.

02:50 So I was just body doubling the Muppets, yeah.

02:52 Pinewood Studios, that was hard work, but a lot of fun.

02:57 One day, yeah, you could be in the hot seat, like me.

03:02 So keep your head down.

03:04 Have you heard that old saying, "Live fast, die young"?

03:09 Not in my way.

03:09 Live fast, sure, live too bloody fast sometimes.

03:11 Die young, die old.

03:13 (upbeat music)

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