School of Herring

I am often found sat in my high-backed armchair, with my semi-circular toilet mat, ready to catch any resulting man-mess that may result from watching a Richard Herring DVD or listening to one of his many podcasts. Not quite at the Andy McH standings, but I often frequent his shows, follow his daily life on his blog and generally filling a minted cumpkin over everything he does.

I remember watching ‘Fist of Fun’ in the mid-Nineties, though probably remember Kevin Eldon’s Simon Quinlank character and the girl in boxing gloves on the title sequence more than anything its two stars did. But with the second coming of Stewart Lee in recent years, the names Lee and Herring popped back into my consciousness.

Numerous DVDs have since been purchased and shows attended, but with the sheer amount of work that he puts in, it has been Richard Herring that I have been to see do his stand-up routines, more so than his smug, on telly partner.

For the last couple of years I have now found myself having spurts of repeatedly seeing Son of Keith over a two-month period. This time last year, I went to three of his ‘Richard Herring’s Objective’ recording, as well as an AIOTM (AIOTM) recording and his live show ‘Christ on a Bike’, all while reading his latest book: ‘How Not to Grow Up’.

Earlier this year, saw all six (count them) AIOTM (AIOTM) recordings attended; and now once again, I find myself attending 75% of his ‘Richard Herring’s Objective’ recordings, alongside seeing him at the Lyric in Hammersmith with old pal Mr Stew Art Wee, and his new tour ‘What is Love, Anyway?’ And why not read a second hand copy of his beautifully-titled first book, ‘Talking Cock’, while I’m at it?!

The thing that makes Richard Keith different from other comedians is the public nature of his life. With his daily blog, ‘Warming Up’ and regular (or sometimes irregular) podcasts with Andrew Collings (sic.), pretty much everything that goes on throughout his days is captured on some medium. The endless DVD extras he provides are testament to this.

Seeing him live feels like seeing an old friend you have been following on Facebook rather than a famous stand-up. His cast of regular audience members always down in the front, there for support.

Maybe this is at the detriment to his wider career, with his calls to ‘just wanting to be on the telly’ thwarted by a small, but obsessively loyal fan base. His act though, while at times being a little unfriendly for a mainstream audience, is always good, if a little rough around the edges, like TV’s Emma Kennedy’s clackerlackadackdack. His second series of ‘Richard Herring’s Objective’ feels like a good progression from the first, which was more a watering down of his ‘Hitler Moustache’ routine, and his storytelling is reaching its peak.

So, enter the months of October, and later November, and it all starts again, and with the aforementioned shows attended recently this means that I have seen him perform the Ferrero Roche routine around five or six times these last few weeks, two in one day, and it keeps getting better. Oh yes, the ‘Motorcycling Clothes Shop’ sketch has nothing on this! I also now have shit loads (count them…well, two) signed copies of the ‘What is Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurve, Anyway?’ programme. I now also have a signed copy of a ‘Complete Cumpkin’; literally hours of fun.

With the first series of ‘Fist of Fun’ due out on DVD in December, I doubt there will be any waning of my Herring obsession anytime soon. I’m sure he will be in my dreams all Christmas…in a high-backed armchair…with a semi-circular mat you put around the toilet…