Richard Herring

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Richard Herring
Richard Herring, As It Occurs To Me, Leicester Square Theatre 20 Jun 2011 crop.jpg
Herring during the final performance of As It Occurs To Me in 2011
Born (1967-07-12) 12 July 1967 (age 56)
Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Medium Stand up, Radio, Television, Podcast
Nationality British
Alma mater St Catherine's College, Oxford
Years active 1987–present
Genres Black comedy, Satire, Irony, Wit, Deadpan
Spouse Catherine Wilkins (2012-present)
Notable works and roles Fist of Fun
This Morning with Richard Not Judy
Time Gentlemen Please
The Collings and Herrin Podcast
Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast

Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is a British comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double-act Lee and Herring. He is described by the British Theatre Guide as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy".[1]

He is celebrated for concept-led one-person live stand-up shows like Talking Cock, Hitler Moustache and Christ on a Bike. Since 2004, Herring has created a new show every year: developing them at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, touring them extensively throughout the year, and recording the final performance for DVD. His 2015 show, Happy Now? is his twelfth consecutive stand-up show in as many years.

He is also recognized as a pioneer of comedy podcasting,[2] [3]initially with broadcaster Andrew Collins on The Collings and Herrin Podcast and more recently with high-profile comedians such as Stephen Merchant, Russell Brand and Stephen Fry on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.

Early life

Richard Herring was born in Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, and grew up in Cheddar, Somerset. He attended The Kings of Wessex School, where his father was the headmaster and maths teacher. This later formed the basis of his 2008 stand-up show, The Headmaster's Son.

He was a student at St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he wrote and performed for a comedy troupe known as the Seven Raymonds as well as the Fringe favourites the Oxford Revue. He attained a 2:1 in History.

Career

Double act

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Between 1992 and 2000, Richard was one half of the standup comedy double act with Stewart Lee. They were probably best known for their television work, most notably Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy but had been collaborating on stage and radio projects since the 1980s.

As with many double acts, Lee and Herring performed as contrasting personalities: one intellectual and rational (Lee) and the other daft and charming (Herring). As with several other double acts, Lee and Herring had a certain irony to their style and constantly checked themselves and made reference to this. The characters of Lee and Herring were parodies and exaggerations of their real world selves.

With Stewart Lee, Herring wrote material for Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci's On the Hour (1991). During this time the duo contributed to the creation of the character Alan Partridge. In 1992 and 1993, they wrote and performed Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World for BBC Radio 4. For Radio 1, they wrote and performed one series of Fist of Fun (1993), which was later remade for television in 1995 and 1996. They also hosted a series on Radio 1 in 1994 and 1995, simply called Lee and Herring. A final television partnership with Lee, This Morning With Richard Not Judy, ran for eighteen episodes over two series but eventually became a victim of BBC management reshuffles.

In 2011, Frank Skinner cited Lee & Herring as one of his favourite comedy double acts, alongside Laurel and Hardy, The Two Ronnies and Reeves and Mortimer.[4]

Lee and Herring went their separate ways at the end of the 1990s though there have been occasional reunions. In 2002 Herring played the role of Renchard in the Doctor Who webcast Real Time, with Stewart Lee as Carey. An account of meeting Doctor Who fans as a result of this is recorded in his blog[5] and reprinted in his book Bye Bye Balham.

Richard Herring performing his show Someone Likes Yoghurt at the Pleasance Theatre, during the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Solo work

Since ending his informal partnership with Stewart Lee, Herring has written and performed in a large body of one-person shows. A noteworthy example of these shows was Talking Cock – also released as a book in 2003 – which The Guardian described as "man's answer to The Vagina Monologues. " The show was translated into several European languages, most successfully in French. The book was also published in Russian.

Herring co-wrote and presented the history based sketch show That Was Then, This Is Now, initially a six-part series produced for Radio 2 in 2004. Two further series were broadcast in 2006 and 2007.

He has also written for television, most notably a large portion of Al Murray's sitcom Time Gentlemen Please, on which Stewart Lee also worked as script editor. Herring has also contributed to the third series of Matt Lucas and David Walliams' TV sketch show Little Britain, as script editor. He has also worked for Russell Howard.

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On 25 November 2002 Herring started his blog Warming Up as a way to overcome writer's block. He has written an entry for every single day since then, over 4000 consecutive entries. It is estimated that he has a regular readership of over 3,000. Some of the ideas from Warming Up were used in his 2005 Edinburgh show Someone Likes Yoghurt, his 2006 Edinburgh show Ménage à Un and his 2007 Edinburgh show Oh Fuck, I'm 40!. In December 2008 the first six months of his blog were published in a book called Bye Bye Balham. The blog also proved a source for his 2010 book How Not To Grow Up and his 2011 stand up show "What is Love, Anyway?"[citation needed]

In 2005, he presented a chat show called Heads Up with Richard Herring on the Pokerzone channel, in which he interviewed professional poker players and celebrities about their careers and their love of the game. There were ten episodes in total.[6]

Performing at the Kings Head pub in Crouch End, London.

Herring also made weekly appearances on Andrew Collins's BBC Radio 6 Music radio show on Saturday afternoons, where the two would discuss the week's papers. Occasionally he hosted the show in Collins's absence and joined him for the whole of his final show on 31 March 2007. Herring was also a panellist on BBC Radio 4 gameshow Banter, which was presented by Collins.[7]

In January 2007, Herring's live stand-up show Someone Likes Yoghurt was filmed in Cardiff and released on DVD on 16 May by the independent distributor Go Faster Stripe. A recording of an earlier show, The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace, was released on 5 March 2007. Herring returned to Cardiff in June 2007 to film his third DVD, ménage à un. This DVD was released on 19 December 2007. He recorded Oh Fuck, I'm 40 on 21 March 2008. This DVD was released by Go Faster Stripe on 9 December 2008. He recorded "The Headmaster's Son" on 2 June 2009 at the Bristol Tobacco Factory. This was released by Go Faster Stripe on 11 February 2010. The DVD of "Hitler Moustache" was recorded on 2 April at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and was released through PIAS/Go Faster Stripe on 25 October 2010. He recorded Christ on a Bike at the Leicester Square Theatre in 2011 and What is Love, Anyway? Talking Cock, We're All Going To Die! and Lord of the Dance Settee at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

In February 2007, filming began on Herring's new comedy drama You Can Choose Your Friends. As well as writing the script, Herring also played one of the characters alongside Gordon Kennedy, Claire Skinner, Rebecca Front, Sarah-Jane Potts, Robert Daws, Anton Rodgers and Julia McKenzie. The show was broadcast on ITV on 7 June 2007.[8]

In January 2008 he began producing the Collings and Herrin (sic) podcast with Andrew Collins. They celebrated their two-year anniversary with a live "100th" podcast (it was actually about the 105th one they had done) at the Leicester Square Theatre. On 30 January 2010 the pair started sitting in for Adam and Joe on BBC Radio 6 Music on Saturdays mornings, a slot they continued in for over a year.[9]

His 2008 stand-up set The Headmaster's Son earned four 5 star reviews and several 4 star reviews.[10][11][12] The set covers his experience growing up in The Kings of Wessex School in Somerset where his father worked as headmaster and how this may have encouraged him to make puerile jokes. The show was seen by critics as a thoughtful look at his upbringing,[1] and his relationship with his father, to whom the show is dedicated.

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"The point of all the routines mentioned, when quoted in full, is vehemently anti-racist ... The show as a whole, far from examining my hatred of Pakistanis (another out of context quote from a routine intended to demonstrate the ludicrous nature of racism) is about trying to change the meaning of the toothbrush moustache so that it is no longer associated with Hitler and to make it into an anti-fascist symbol as a way of encouraging people to vote to ensure that the BNP never get elected again."

-Richard Herring, letter to The Guardian[13]

The original idea behind his 2009 show, Hitler Moustache, was to see if he "could reclaim the toothbrush moustache for comedy – it was Chaplin's first, then Hitler ruined it."[14] The show discusses broader issues, such as fascism and the British National Party.[15] Herring and some of his contemporaries, including Dave Gorman, were angered when comments he makes in his show were misrepresented in an opinion column written by critic Brian Logan in The Guardian. In his piece about offensiveness in comedy,[16] Logan failed to communicate that Herring's line "that racists have a point" is accompanied by a critical commentary of democracy.[14][15]

On 12 October 2009, he recorded the first episode of As It Occurs To Me, a weekly stand-up and sketch show made especially for internet download. It also features Emma Kennedy, Dan Tetsell and Christian Reilly and had a first run of 10 episodes. A second series of eight episodes ran from 17 May to 5 July 2010. It was nominated for best internet show at the 2010 Sony Awards, though it failed to place. An Edinburgh special took place during the Fringe on 17 August and there were three autumn specials in October and November 2010. A third series of six episodes started on 16 May 2011.[17]

On 8 April 2010, Herring made his first appearance on the BBC's Have I Got News For You. He returned to the show as a guest on 13 May 2011 for episode five of the 14th series.[18]

On 14 October 2010, his Radio 4 series Richard Herring's Objective was first broadcast. In it Herring attempted to reclaim demonised items, starting with the Hitler moustache. The other episodes revolve around the hoodie, St George's Flag and Dolly the Sheep. An Edinburgh special about the "See You Jimmy" Hat was broadcast in August 2011 and a second series was recorded in October 2011 with episodes about the Golliwog, the wheelchair, the Page 3 girl and the Old School Tie.[19]

On 27 December 2010, Herring finished second on Celebrity Mastermind with a final score of 35 points. His specialist subject was Rasputin.[20]

He was The Pod Delusion "Comedian of the Year 2010" [21]

On 7 February 2011, As It Occurs to Me won the first Chortle Internet award [22] On 20 March 2012 he retained it.[23] He won the award for a third year running in 2013 for his Leicester Square Theatre Podcast [24] His Leicester Square Theatre Podcast again won the award in 2014.[25]

On 18 May 2011 he recorded a live performance of his 2010-11 show, Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming, which was released by Go Faster Stripe on 31 October 2011.[citation needed]

In May 2011 it was announced that Fist of Fun would be released on DVD via Go Faster Stripe. The first series was released on 5 December 2011.[26] Series two was released in November 2012.[27] The series two set won Best DVD at the 2013 Chortle Awards [24]

His 2011 Edinburgh show What Is Love, Anyway premiered at the Cow Barn on 3 August, and was taken on a 74 date tour between October 2011 and May 2012. It was filmed by Go Faster Stripe at the Bloomsbury Theatre on 30 March 2012 and released on 9 August 2012. His other 2012 Edinburgh show, Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast topped the iTunes chart for 3 weeks during August 2011 and guests included Adam Buxton, Sarah Millican, Al Murray and Omid Djalili.[28]

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In 2012 he also recorded 16 episodes of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast with guests including Tim Minchin, Stewart Lee, Adam Buxton, David Mitchell, and Armando Iannucci.[29] It was nominated for a Sony Award for Best Comedy alongside a list of BBC produced comedy shows in 2013.[30] It won the Bronze Award [31] In May and June 2013 he recorded nine podcasts with guests including Stephen Fry, Russell Brand and Mary Beard [32] In the interview with Stephen Fry, Fry revealed that had attempted to commit suicide. The story was reported across various newspapers and international news networks including the BBC and Sky News.[33][34] A fourth series was recorded in September and October 2013 with guests including Stephen Merchant, Simon Pegg and Ross Noble.[35] A fifth series was recorded in February and March 2014 with guests including Alexei Sayle, Greg Davies, Harry Shearer and Adam Buxton [36] A sixth series was recorded between September and November 2014 with guests including Sarah Millican, Steve Coogan and Milton Jones. Series 7 was recorded in June and July of 2015 and guests included Bob Mortimer and Louis Theroux.

His 2013 Edinburgh Fringe stand up show We're All Going To Die! was performed at the Pleasance Beyond and was critically acclaimed, with three 5 star and several 4 star reviews.[37] It was followed up by a 2013-2014 UK tour[38] and a podcast[39] of the same name.

On 17 November 2013 he recorded the first episode of his six-part internet stand-up/sketch/interview show Richard Herring's Meaning of Life. Show one is about Creation, show two recorded on 26 January 2014 tackled the Paranormal. Show 3 recorded on 16 February 2014 tackled love. Show 4 about Death was recorded on 16 March 2014. Show 5 about Good and Evil was recorded on 13 April 2014. Show 6 about The Shape of Things To Come was recorded on 18 May 2014[40][41][42] Episode one went online for free on 28 February 2014, episode 2 went live on 22 April 2014,[43] episode 3 became available on 23 June 2014. Episode 4 went online on 1 October 2014. The last two episodes were released in early 2015.

On 20 February 2014, the first Richard Herring show went out on internet radio station, Fubar Radio.[44] Herring presented this with comedian Lou Sanders on a weekly basis. Herring and Sanders quit the show and their final episode was broadcast on 24 May 2014. His 2014 Fringe shows "Lord of the Dance Settee" and his play "I Killed Rasputin" premiered at the George Square Theatre in August.

In August and September 2015, taking a year off from the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time since 2003, he performed all 11 of his previous one man shows, plus a new one Happy Now? at the Leicester Square Theatre over the course of six weekends in a season called "The Twelve Shows of Herring". [45]

Body of Work

Stand up shows

Year Show Cycle
Edinburgh Tour DVD
1994 Richard Herring is Fat[46] Yes
1995 Richard Herring is All Man[47][48] Yes
2001 Christ on a Bike Yes Yes
2002 Talking Cock[49] Yes Yes
2004 The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace[50] Yes Yes Yes
2005 Someone Likes Yoghurt[51] Yes Yes Yes
2006 Ménage à un[52] Yes Yes Yes
2007 Oh Fuck, I'm 40![53] Yes Yes Yes
2008 The Headmaster's Son[54] Yes Yes Yes
2009 Hitler Moustache[55] Yes Yes Yes
2010 Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming[56] Yes Yes Yes
2011 What Is Love, Anyway?[57] Yes Yes Yes
2012 Talking Cock: The Second Coming[58] Yes Yes Yes
2013 We're All Going To Die![59] Yes Yes Yes
2014 Lord of the Dance Settee [60] Yes Yes
2015 Happy Now?[61] No[62] Yes

Miscellaneous home media

Title Format Year
Lee and Herring's Fist of Fun CD/Tape 1995
Lee and Herring Live VHS 1996
Michel Leeb - Qu'est-ce que Sexe? (Talking Cock performed in French) DVD 2004
On The Hour CD 2008
Collings and Herrin: The Best of Earth Wind and Fire * *(and water) CD 2010
As It Occurs To Me: Secret Stand Up CD 2010
Collings and Herrin: War and Peace, Crime and Punishment CD 2010
As It Occurs To Me: The Complete Cumpkin CD 2011
10 DVD 2013

Other writing

Awards

Personal life

Herring was formerly in a relationship with the actress Julia Sawalha,[91] some years after joking on Fist of Fun that "My ideal woman has the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha." In April 2012, Herring married author and comedian Catherine Wilkins.[92] They had their first child, Phoebe Herring, in February, 2015.

Herring has raised money for the Scope charity since 2003, and ran the London marathon in aid of the charity in 2004[93][94] as well as the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon in 2011, 2013 and 2014.[95] In January 2011 he was nominated for a Just Giving Life Time Achievement Award for his extensive work in helping to raise money, awareness and support for Scope.[96] In 2012 he was made a Patron of Scope.[97]

In 2010 he was made a Distinguished Supporter of The British Humanist Association.[98]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Reviews from the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe (83). Britishtheatreguide.info. Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
  2. [1]. Beyond The Joke.
  3. [2] Mustard Magazine.
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  10. Richard Herring: The Headmaster’s Son. Metro.co.uk (5 August 2008). Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
  11. Richard Herring: The Headmaster's Son' review : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide. Chortle. Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
  12. The Six Wives of Timothy Leary | The Skinny. Festmag.co.uk (10 August 2008). Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
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  20. One Programmes – Celebrity Mastermind, 2010/2011, Episode 1, Richard Herring extended chat. BBC (21 December 2010). Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
  21. Episode 65 – 27 December 2010 – New Years Special! » The Pod Delusion – A Podcast about Interesting Things. The Pod Delusion (28 December 2010). Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
  22. Victoria Wood honoured at Chortle Awards : News 2011 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide. Chortle. Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
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  25. [3] Chortle. Retrieved on 29 March 2014.
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  36. [4] British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 29 March 2014
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  48. Herring’s appearance at Edinburgh in 1995 was the backdrop for a short film by Martin Pickles. ‘Fisted: the hunt for Richard Herring’, 1996. This comedy is not really about Herring but his recent stardom with Stewart Lee forms the comic device. Pickles was at Oxford with Herring. G.M. Film The soundtrack by Evangelista is produced by band member and fellow comedian Al Murray.
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  93. Richard Herring. JustGiving. Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
  94. Flora London Marathon – Richard Herring Runs The Marathon. Original.justgiving.com. Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
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  96. JustGiving Awards 2011 – donate to charity and raise funds online – Raise money for charity online. Justgivingawards.com (10 February 2011). Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
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External links