On Saturday at Madison Square Garden, my wife and I took in Ricky Gervais' first full-length U.S. performance, as part of the High Line Festival.

David Bowie opened the show with "Little Fat Man," from his legendary Extras cameo ("Chubby little loser, national joke.") We sang along. As crowd-participation exercises go, this ranks atop my admittedly short list, one spot above doing the Tomahawk Chop at Fulton County Stadium in 1991 (I was eleven) and four-hundred places higher than any "Who's Your Daddy, Battier?" chants in Cameron Indoor Stadium ten years later.

Ricky came through with an assortment of his greatest hits – praising Nelson Mandela ("Seventeen years without re-offending. That's proof: prison does work"), looking for the moral in famous fairy tales, and reading from a 1994 pamphlet designed to curb the spread of AIDS in gay men by providing alternatives to anal sex.

There was virtually no mention of the High Line, except a passing reference to the preservation of the rail being "good." I was hoping he'd give 'Friends of the High Line' a good-natured ribbing during his rant against unworthy causes (mainly obesity). And in some bits, the level of raunchiness eclipsed the humor. But the highs were high and hilarious, so I'd be foolish to complain.

Here's a more thorough recap, from The Independent.

Thanks to britishhooligan0 for posting a clip of Bowie's introduction on YouTube, after the jump.