The actor Liam Neeson is perhaps most known for playing dangerous and serious characters on the big screen. However, he showed that he’s up for trying just about anything when he went on the British mockumentary called “Life’s Too Short.” The show was created by Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, and it was an idea by Warwick Davis. The show is about the life of a showbiz dwarf, apparently, and Davis plays a version of himself that is fictionalized. Both Merchant and Gervais star as supporting roles as themselves, and the show began airing on BBC in 2011 with production support from HBO.
They got the idea for the show when Davis worked with Merchant and Gervais in an episode of another show. In the episode of “Life’s Too Short” where Neeson appeared, the group is sitting together at the beginning of the sketch when Neeson rings the doorbell. When they let him in, Neeson strides confidently up to the table and radiates a sense of huge importance. Naturally, because it’s Liam Neeson, the group becomes gravely nervous. Neeson explains that he’s there because he’s thinking of doing some comedy. At first, the guys didn’t know what to think, but when they realized he was serious, they got serious, too.
Liam said, “I’m a funny guy, right,” and it seemed that the others didn’t quite know how to respond. An awkward silence permeated the room before Ricky said, “Yeah, definitely.” Then, Neeson pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and starts reciting it like they’re a terms of surrender of some sort. It’s completely hilarious.
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In the clip below, legendary actor Liam Neeson joins the crew to try to learn how to perform the fine art of improvisational comedy. However, he keeps getting tripped up on the topics of famines and AIDS.