HAVE loads of people that I admire in different areas of comedy and music, but I've always found Ricky Gervais to be an inspiration because of his success in television comedy.

I first came across Gervais on his radio show on the English radio station, XFM, which he did with his comedy writing partner Steve Merchant, who's really funny too. They can basically do what they want on English radio, so they'd do a whole show on a particular topic, like politics or animals or sex, and I thought it was hilarious stuff.

The thing that makes it even funnier is the way Gervais delivers his material in his own matter-of-fact, quirky way.

Ricky Gervais was born in Reading, England, in 1961 and was the youngest of four children. His father was Canadian, and he graduated with a degree in philosophy from University College, London. He dabbled a bit in the music industry, becoming lead singer of the band Seona Dancing, who weren't too successful really, although they had a big hit with one of their singles in the Philippines in 1985, which kind of came as a surprise to them as they had broken up the previous year.

Gervais then went on to work as entertainment manager for a college's students' union for a few years. Through this job, he managed the band Suede before they got a recording contract, and then he went off to work for XFM in 1996, and he has been with the station on and off since then. His mainstream TV debut was as part of Channel 4's Comedy Lab series in 1998, so he came to television later really, at the age of 36. He also had a one-off show, Golden Years, which was about a character called Clive Meadows, who was obsessed with David Bowie. He worked as an actor on The 11 O'Clock Show, after which he had his own talk-comedy show, Meet Ricky Gervais. He lives with his long-term partner Jane Fallon, whom he met in the 1980s . . .she produced the BBC television drama This Life, and he was its music adviser.

I think that Gervais has had amazing success with both his writing and acting careers, and he is best-known, of course, for The Office, which he acted in and also co-wrote and co-directed with Stephen Merchant. He played David Brent in it, the manager of the Wernham Hogg paper company in the industrial suburb of Slough. The Office was unbelievably popular, and it won him all kinds of awards, including the 2004 Golden Globe Award for 'Best Actor in a Comedy TV Series' and 'Best Comedy Series'. The Office also won loads of Bafta awards, and Gervais sold it on to the States as well, and helped to produce it there. Everything that he does seems to turn to gold, as far as I can see, and that's what I admire about him. I also like the fact that he doesn't give in to the hierarchy, because when The Office was being made, the television producers wanted it made all differently, but Gervais stuck to his guns, even though it took about five years to get made in the end.

Although I loved The Office, my favourite show of his is Extras actually, because it's so dodgy and out there, but the thing is that he gets away with it, and doesn't seem to cause offence. Gervais plays Andy Millman in it, a jobbing television and film extra with aspirations, while Stephen Merchant plays Andy's agent. The thing is that while none of us ever stop in this business, Gervais churns out comedy writing so perfectly, and just keeps on going . . . I don't know where he gets the energy from. He has written three kids' books called Iwell for him too, despite his claims that they will "delight, disgust and distress all who read them". And he's currently adapting them for a television series.

One of the highlights of his career was when he wrote and guest-starred in an episode of The Simpsons, called 'Homer Simpson: This Is Your Wife', which went out in March of this year, and was the highest rated episode in Sky One's history.

I actually met him once when we were both doing a charity gig with some other comedians at the Lyceum Theatre in London. I found him to be funny and down to earth . . . he was just one of the lads and we had a mess with him. Most comedians don't go around cracking jokes with one another though, because it would be considered pretty f***in naff! He was a nice guy though, and he'd listen to what you had to say, unlike a lot of other famous people you'd meet. I think that he's an inspiration, but I wouldn't be going there telling him.

He told me that he hates doing stand-up and much prefers doing television, but he's actually brilliant at stand-up. He toured the UK in 2003 with his show Animals, and the Politics tour followed in 2004. He'll be going on the road in 2007 with the third part of the series called Science. When I was on the show with him, he was on before me, but he had to leave straight away as he had to go to something else. He was going out through the front while I was on, and I heard him laughing at what I was saying, because he has a very distinctive laugh, so I was pleased about that.

Jason Byrne plays live at Vicar Street . . . 23 December and 27 and 28 January. Bookings:

0818 719300