Picture from Richard Herring's website
After covering such topics as racism, death, love, religion, and yoghurt during the course of his stand up career, the latest show doesn't have a theme.
I'll start again - I only said it doesn't have a theme because Richard Herring got several mentions in last night of the fact that reviewers keep writing that there isn't a theme. Lord of the Dance Settee is the name of this season's show (a Herring season starts at the Edinburgh Festival and ends in this instance at the beginning of June), and perhaps the last time he'll commit to such an undertaking now that he is a father. The theme this time is celebrating your own daftness, your own lack of cool, and basically enjoy life. Although true fans have heard the 'settee' joke before on This Morning With Richard Not Judy <TMWRNJ>, and true nerds will remember it as Richard's sub-heading on his MySpace profile, the title comes from a childhood misunderstanding over the words to the well known hymn. Now I come to think of it, Herring resembled the Fist of Fun/TMWRNJ 'character' of Richard Herring on stage tonight in terms of delivery and faux-pomposity - "we're laughing and learning tonight".
As a departure from the lecture feel of past shows, Herring threads separate anecdotes from his childhood through to being a grown up, (but not grown up) with his trademark flair for call backs to old routines giving it a far looser feel than previous shows. In all honesty, he looked like he was having far more fun with this freedom to ad-lib and go off at tangents without causing too big a gear change. This no doubt came in handy just at the start of the second half when as usual there was a quick plug for the various treats available afterwards from the merchandise stall and a woman in the front row (who possibly hadn't been to a comedy club before) put up her hand to ask, in the middle of a joke, if he accepts debit cards.
There is something of a 'greatest hits' feeling to this show, with many of the subjects touched on in newspaper columns and the daily blog Warming Up; Dave the Manager, a kiss covering generations, International Mens' Day, and how he and his mates tried to sabotage Ted Rogers. The pay off about the age of Ted Rogers (no spoilers) delivered with skilled self depreciation.
For an influential comedian like Richard Herring to still be at club level is seen as a bit of a shame by some, but his style of comedy would be lost at too big a show with screens magnifying him to the back row. Besides, if in a Sliding Doors world Lee & Herring had achieved the Baddiel & Newman level of adulation then Richard wouldn't have been able to invent Internet comedy. The time flew by and Richard Herring showed once again why he is not only one of this country's best stand up comedians, but also that he is right on top of his game right now.
