The Emmy-award winning actor and writer is currently touring the country with his latest one-man show Fame, but he insists he would never let his own celebrity go to his head.

"I’m always the one getting the raw deal and being outwitted. I’m not going out there as a winner," he says of the show. "I’ve got to be the butt of all the jokes. Any comedy has got to come back to the performer’s own inadequacies.

"I’ve never understood why a comedian would come on and say ’Aren’t I clever?’ That feeling that you’re better than an audience is ridiculous in a comedian."

The 45-year-old also confirmed that after two acclaimed series, Extras may have run its course now.

"I think it’s the end. I feel we’ve done everything we can with it. I won’t definitively say never again, like we did with The Office. But I can’t see another series at the moment."

Gervais defends himself after joke - Jan 17 2007
Comedian Ricky Gervais has defended himself after making a joke about the killing of prostitutes just weeks after five were found dead in Suffolk.

The award-winning comic, who is on tour with his live show Fame, recounted a story at his first venue in Glasgow about a time he was asked for his advice on becoming famous.

"Go out and kill a prostitute," was his advice, he told the audience, before adding: "I won’t do this bit in Ipswich."

Jim Duell, the father of 19-year-old Tania Nicol, who was one of the five victims of the Ipswich red-light killings, criticised the comedian’s remarks.

"These days they want to make a joke out of everything," he told the Ipswich Evening Star.

"If this comedian is saying things like this he is trampling on a lot of emotions. I feel he’s just being uncaring, quite honestly."

Gervais, who brings his show to Ipswich in March, stressed that the conversation he referred to in the show happened five years ago, and he was talking about people who will do anything to become famous.

"I do want people to know that that happened five years ago and is not related to anything now," he said.

Steve Wright, 48, of Ipswich, has been charged with the murders of Miss Nicol, Gemma Adams, 25, Paula Clennell, 24, Anneli Alderton, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.

He is next due to appear before Ipswich Crown Court on May 1.

Ricky knocked off top US spot - Jan 16 2007
Ricky Gervais and Ben Stiller’s Night At The Museum has been knocked off the top of the US box office with dance competition film Stomp The Yard.

According to estimated sales during the weekend the comedy managed to hold on to second place after taking an estimated 17.1 million dollars compared to Stomp The Yard’s 22 million dollars. Night At The Museum has made an estimated 185.8 million dollars since its release.

Will Smith also has cause to celebrate, with his acclaimed rags-to-riches flick, The Pursuit Of Happyness, coming in third taking 9.1 million dollars this week.

The Beyonce and Jamie Foxx musical Dreamgirls came in fourth with 8.1 million dollars, Freedom Writers came fifth with 7.1 million, Sci-fi thriller Children Of Men came sixth with 6.4 million and Justin Timberlake’s new film Alpha Dog, which took 6.1 million dollars, in seventh place.

Disney’s Primeval in eigth place with 6 million, Arthur And The Invisibles in ninth with 4.3 million and The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro, earning 3.9 million.