Richard Herring

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Richard Herring
Born July 12, 1967 (1967-07-12) (age 41)
England
Medium Stand-up comedy, Radio, television
Years active 1987-present
Genres Black humour

Richard Keith Herring (born July 12, 1967) is a British comedian and writer. He has been described, by the British Theatre Guide, as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy"[1] and by The Guardian as "a reliable Fringe pleasure". GQ said of him, "In years to come, (he) will be remembered as the best comic of his generation mastering every comedic art form".

Herring's comedy has included standup, comedy plays, radio comedy and several TV shows. Herring has worked with a number of other comedians, including Ben Moor as part of the double act Herring and Spaz, and with Stewart Lee, as part of Lee and Herring. Other notable works include the radio series, That Was Then, This Is Now and various live shows including the acclaimed Talking Cock and the resulting book of the same name. He has also had a successful collaboration with Andrew Collins who worked with him on the radio comedy series Banter; and hosted Herring on Collins's 6Music show; and a well reviewed podcast.

His 2008 stand up set 'The Headmaster's Son' earned critical respect with four 5 star reviews and several 4 star reviews.[2][3][4][5]

Contents

Career

Herring was born in Pocklington, Yorkshire, but grew up in Cheddar, Somerset, and was educated 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.

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

With Stewart Lee, Herring wrote material for Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci's On the Hour (1991). It was during this time that 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 Radio 4. For Radio 1, they wrote and performed one series of Fist of Fun (1993), which was later remade for television. 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, was a victim of BBC management reshuffles.

In 2002 Herring played the role of Renchard in the Doctor Who Webcast Real Time, together with Stewart Lee as Carey and Colin Baker as the Doctor.

Since cordially ending his informal partnership with Stewart Lee, Herring has written and performed thought-provoking one-man shows to critical acclaim. Most noteworthy of these shows were Talking Cock – released as a book in 2003 – which The Guardian described as "man's answer to The Vagina Monologues. " Like Patrick Marber (a long-standing rival who was described as "curmudgeonly" or "a Cornish curmudgeon" in Fist of Fun), he has also written and produced several plays.

Herring co-wrote and presented the history based sketch show That Was Then, This Is Now (Or TWTTIN), a 6 part series produced for Radio 2. A second series was commissioned and aired in September and October 2006. On the broadcast of 2 September, he urged listeners to edit Wikipedia's Mother Teresa entry to suggest that she grew up with the middle name "Gonk". It took a whole 3 months before someone carried out his plan, although his own page had been edited in the same manner within days of the broadcast. A third series of the show began broadcast on 29 November 2007.

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

On 25 November 2002 Herring started his blog Warming Up as a way to overcome writer's block. He has kept the blog updated regularly ever since and as of 28 March 2009 has not missed a single day. It is estimated that he has a regular readership of over 3000. 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 this blog was published in a book called Bye Bye Balham.

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

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

Herring also made weekly appearances on Andrew Collins' BBC 6 Music radio show on Saturday afternoons, where the two would discuss the weeks 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 is also a panellist on BBC Radio 4 gameshow Banter, which is presented by Collins.

In January 2007, Herring's live stand-up show Someone Likes Yoghurt was filmed in Cardiff and released on DVD on May 16 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 March 21 2008. This DVD was released by Go Faster Stripe on 9 December 2008.

In February 2007, filming began on Herring's new comedy drama You Can Choose Your Friends. As well as writing the script, Herring also plays one of the characters alongside Gordon Kennedy, Claire Skinner, Rebecca Front, Sarah-Jane Potts, Robert Daws, Anton Rodgers and Julia McKenzie.[6][7] The show was broadcast on ITV1 on 7 June 2007.

In January 2008 he began producing the Collings and Herrin (sic) podcast with Andrew Collins.

His new show for 2008, 'The Headmaster's Son' earned critical respect with his four 5 star reviews and several 4 star reviews. The set covers his experience growing up in a school in Somerset where his father works as headmaster and how this may have encouraged him to make puerile jokes. The show was seen by critics as a thoughtful[citation needed] look at his upbringing, and his relationship with his father, to whom the show is dedicated. It follows a similar vein to Andrew Collins' work where he often looks back at his past and in particular his childhood.

Amateur video of a stand-up routine interrupted by a heckler was mounted on YouTube and has been viewed by more than 500,000 people. In Warming Up, Herring noted ruefully that this was more than had ever seen him perform his prepared material.

He has also written for the new Andrew Collins Talking Heads-style programme Batteries Not Included, shown on the Dave channel in the UK. He is the main contributing writer for Phill Jupitus's voiceovers.

Personal life

Beyond saying he is often taken by actresses, Herring generally keeps quiet about his love life, although he stated recently in his blog that he has a girlfriend. He was formerly in a relationship with the actress Julia Sawalha, according to The Daily Telegraph:

So taken was he that the Oxford-educated stand-up comedian even set up a shrine to her on Fist of Fun, the television programme he wrote and acted in with Stewart Lee. "My ideal woman has the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha," went the running gag.[8]

When Stewart Lee pointed out that it would be easier just to say that his ideal woman was Julia Sawalha, Richard added "No, Stew, you're not listening. I said the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha. I said nothing about them being attached."

Richard is a supporter of York City Football Club.[9]

Selected works

Radio

Television

DVD and video

  • Lee and Herring Live BBC Video (1996)
  • Time Gentlemen Please (episodes 1-6) (2006)
  • The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace (2007)
  • Someone Likes Yoghurt (2007)
  • ménage à un (2007)
  • Oh Fuck, I'm 40![11] (2008)
  • Time Gentlemen Please (both series box set) (2008)

Stand up

  • Richard Herring is Fat (1994)
  • Richard Herring is All Man (1995)
  • Christ on a Bike (2001)
  • Talking Cock (2002)
  • The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace (2004)
  • Someone Likes Yoghurt (2005)
  • ménage à un (2006)
  • Oh Fuck, I'm 40! (2007)
  • The Headmaster's Son (2008)

Plays

  • Ra Ra Rasputin (1993)
  • Punk's Not Dead (1996)
  • Excavating Rita (1997)
  • Playing Hide and Seek With Jesus (1998)
  • It's Not The End of the World (1999)

Edinburgh shows

  • Old King Cole (1987) by Ken Campbell, played Faz. Oxford Theatre Group. Abbey Laird Theatre
  • The Seven Raymonds KMnO4 (1987) OTG. St Mary's Hall
  • The Oxford Revue - Waving at the Pigeons (1988) OTG St Mary's Hall
  • the dum show (1992) with Stewart Lee, Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber and Simon Munnery. Pleasance 2
  • Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World Live (1993) with Stewart Lee, Ronnie Ancona and Alistair Macgowan.Tom Baker on video. Pleasance 2
  • Ra Ra Rasputin (1993)with Ben Moor, Sally Phillips, Andrew Mackay and Claire De Vries. Pleasance Upstairs.
  • This Morning With Richard Not Judy (1994) with Stewart Lee and Sally Phillips. Pleasance Attic.
  • Richard Herring is Fat (1994) with Kevin Eldon and Sally Phillips. Pleasance Upstairs.
  • Richard Herring is All Man (1995)with Sally Phillips and Tom Binns. Pleasance Upstairs
  • Lee and Herring Live off of TV's Fist of Fun (1995) with Peter Bayhnham. Pleasance One?
  • Lee and Herring Live (1996) Pleasance One?
  • Punk's Not Dead (1996)with Paul Putner, Ewan Bailey, Jason Freeman and Paul Reynolds. Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Upstairs.
  • This Morning With Richard Not Judy II (1997) with Stewart Lee, Richard Thomas, Trevor Lock and Natalie Brandon. Pleasance Cabaret Bar
  • Excavating Rita (1997) with Paul Putner, Catherine Hood, Jason Freeman, Trevor Lock and Natalie Brandon. Pleasance Above.
  • Playing Hide and Seek With Jesus (1998) with Paul Putner, Emma Kennedy, Selina Boyack, Matthew Pidgeon, Amelia Curtis and Matt Wilkinson. Dir. Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Above.
  • Lee and Herring (1998) George Square Theatre.
  • It's Not The End of the World (1999) with Paul Bown, Rebecca Lacey and Ruth Grey. Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance One.
  • Christ on a Bike (2001) Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Dome
  • Talking Cock (2002) Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Above
  • The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace (2004) Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pod Deco
  • Someone Likes Yoghurt (2005) Pleasance Above
  • ménage à un (2006)White Belly, Underbelly
  • Oh Fuck, I'm 40! (2007)White Belly, Underbelly
  • The Headmaster's Son (2008) White Belly, Underbelly
  • Hitler Moustache (2009) White Belly, Underbelly
  • Collings and Herrin Podcast Live (2009) Belly Laugh, Underbelly

Writing

References

  1. ^ http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/otherresources/fringe/fringe08-83.htm
  2. ^ metro.co.uk
  3. ^ chortle.co.uk
  4. ^ festmag.co.uk
  5. ^ richardherring.com
  6. ^ Warming Up 29 January 2007
  7. ^ Warming Up [hat_Was_Then,_This_Is_Now_(Radio_Series) richardherring.com
  8. ^ 'They told my parents I was dead', The Telegraph, September 2000.
  9. ^ Herring, Richard (9 May 2009). "Warming Up". Richard Herring.com. http://www.richardherring.com/warmingup/warmingup.php?id=2381. Retrieved on 2009-05-28. 
  10. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/onthehour/
  11. ^ "Richard Herring - Oh Fuck, I`m 40". http://www.gofasterstripe.com/cgi-bin/website.cgi?page=videofull&id=5130. 

External links

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Stewart Lee · Richard Herring
Lee and Herring
Stewart Lee
Richard Herring
See also
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