The first time that I saw Richard Herring live was in the mid-90s, with Stewart Lee, touring their TV programme Fist of Fun. The first 10-15 minutes of the show was dedicated to The Tales of Robin Hood. They joked that when they left Nottingham, they’d have to show a video at the start of the rest of their shows so that other people would understand what The Tales of Robin Hood was.
Nearly 20 years later, Richard Herring is back in Nottingham, at The Glee Club. His first comment is still about The Tales of Robin Hood though. These days, he’s just disappointed that it’s closed down.
Unlike previous tours that have had big themes such as death, love, religion and “spam javelins”, Lord of the Dance Settee has no such over-arching focus. At one point Herring tells us that reviewers of the show will have to work out what the theme is. All that we are told is that apparently dance is a metaphor. For dance.
Herring begins with a story about the fact that he’s been kissed by someone from the 19th century. Seeing as there are now only 5 people left in the world who were born before 1901, if you want to join the club, you need to get a move on.
Then we hear about childhood summers spent in Dorset eating at a fried chicken establishment whose initials were KFC but the K didn’t stand for Kentucky. Working there was a man with the words “Dave” and “Manager” written on his name badge. This led to questions about whether he was Dave the manager or was his name Dave Manager? If he was Dave Manager and he became the manager would his badge say, “Dave Manager Manager”? Or would that mean that he’s Dave the manager manager, the man who manages the managers.
Rounding off the first half of the show, Herring talks about a Twitter campaign that he ran on International Women’s Day. Basically, he searched for any men asking when International Men’s Day is and told them. From this we learned two things. Firstly, International Men’s Day is on the 19th of November and secondly, there are an awful lot of idiots on Twitter.
The second act begins with a tale of ironically going to see Ted Rogers. There are clearly a few youngsters in the audience who have never heard of Ted Rogers, Dusty Bin or the confused nonsense that was 3-2-1.
The biggest laugh of the evening probably comes from Herring describing some famous slapstick routines such as “two men carrying a ladder”. This then leads us onto the crux of the night’s show – Richard Herring’s best ever joke was essentially a pratfall that he performed in his first ever show. He’s not too old to be throwing himself around and he wonders if he’ll ever manage to hit those giddy heights again.
I think he might be selling himself a little short – Richard Herring is a consummate stand-up, his routines are well thought out and his timing is excellent. At times, his delivery reminds you a little of Stewart Lee but there’s sufficient variety there to see why they dovetailed together so well for so many years (and they’re clearly still friends despite a couple of sly digs throughout the show towards his former partner) With regular columns, podcasts and a big Twitter presence, he’s one of the hardest working comics out there and I’d highly recommend that you catch him if he comes this way with his next tour.
Review by Gav Squires
