WTF is Andrew Collins still doing?

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

Just listened to these podcasts for the first time in 6 months or so and came across a particularly bad example of AC being humiliated. I'm just wondering why he still bothers with this shit when it's plain clear that he brings nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to them. I know he might feel that every good fool needs a foil, but there are far too many examples to prove he's not the man to provide the foil.

(if you're bothered)  http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/collingsherrin/show/136/

@40:00 AC comes back with a patently lame "I Know". No joke. No nothing.

@41:25 Herring starts to lose it by ribbing close to the bone: "...doesn't understand comedy at all".

After his little Tom Cruise anecdote RH bareback humps him, but still has to work for it.

I really think the man brings nothing to Herring's wild, vulgar self-indulgence. Not enough anyway.

[wheatgod]

He went through a low period on the p'casts, but the more recent couple have been a "return to form", with AC capably playing the straight man/fall guy/lamo role.

[Dead kate moss]

But he's inadvertently responsible for the thing that has probably made me laugh the most this year, the AIOTM character Tiny Andrew Collins, so I forgive him.

Btw, my ex had a little dog that would always bark furiously whenever either of two people appeared on screen - one was Andrew Collins and the other was Tony Robinson.

[Lfbarfe]

Btw, my ex had a little dog that would always bark furiously whenever either of two people appeared on screen - one was Andrew Collins and the other was Tony Robinson.

No manners, but what...etc.

[Languid]

But he's inadvertently responsible for the thing that has probably made me laugh the most this year, the AIOTM character Tiny Andrew Collins, so I forgive him.

I would say John Shuttleworth's Ken Worthington and Kevin Eldon's Rod Hull have more to do with that character than he does.

[Dead kate moss]

I would say John Shuttleworth's Ken Worthington and Kevin Eldon's Rod Hull have more to do with that character than he does.

Voicewise yes, but for me extra funniness comes from being cruel to such an innocent, well-meaning presenter friend, who clearly wasn't comfortable with it. And his mum.

[thugler]

Just listened to these podcasts for the first time in 6 months or so and came across a particularly bad example of AC being humiliated. I'm just wondering why he still bothers with this shit when it's plain clear that he brings nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to them. I know he might feel that every good fool needs a foil, but there are far too many examples to prove he's not the man to provide the foil.

(if you're bothered)  http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/collingsherrin/show/136/

@40:00 AC comes back with a patently lame "I Know". No joke. No nothing.

@41:25 Herring starts to lose it by ribbing close to the bone: "...doesn't understand comedy at all".

After his little Tom Cruise anecdote RH bareback humps him, but still has to work for it.

I really think the man brings nothing to Herring's wild, vulgar self-indulgence. Not enough anyway.

I think Herring is playing a character when he really lets rip on Collins, I think it wouldn't have gone on as long if he was genuinely being nasty. Collins is obviously capable of taking it too.

[Chris Chopping]

I saw Collins when he filmed his live stand up set about a month ago. It wasn't the best stand up I've seen but to go from never having done it to filming an hour plus show within the space of about a year, it was quite impressive all things considered.

[remedial_gash]

I saw Collins when he filmed his live stand up set about a month ago. It wasn't the best stand up I've seen but to go from never having done it to filming an hour plus show within the space of about a year, it was quite impressive all things considered.

Wasn't "Lloyd Cole knew my Father" essentially standup? The Quantick fronted musical thing with Collins & Maconie. I was going to suggest that it should be considered live comedy, even though only a radio show (in my head) - but having googled it; the fuckers did it in Edinburgh first.

So he is not a novice by any measure, despite his claims.

Gash
x

[Mister Six]

Herring definitely needs Collins for the podcasts. When they did two seperate podcasts (because Richard had a nasty stomach bug), the Herring-only thing was him rambling on and on about what he'd eaten the day before is the most tedious and unfunny way imaginable, but in an odd tone that made him sound like he thought he was actually fascinating. Possibly he'd just bet Collins that he could talk about shit and vomit for half an hour and it would still be the funnier of the two. I don't know. Collins', meanwhile, was actually rather sweet and entertaining.

I haven't listened to the podcasts for months but when I was it increasingly seemed like Herring was stuck in a bit of a rut and couldn't be arsed any more. Nothing like the glory days of the Lion Man era when the riffing felt enthusiastic and entertaining, and they still seemed to care about the news section. The live ones are fantastic, though, for the most part. They have a great energy and (with rare exceptions) it usually feels like they're both excited by the possibilities that a brand new audience affords.

[quadraspazzed]

I used to really enjoy the podcast, but stopped listening after they seemed to keep spending half the show blabbering on about people who had donated to them on Amazon or whatever.

[gmoney]

You might be interested to know that they've stopped doing that, then. I still listen and I still find it quite amiable. They went through a weird period when both of them were pretty busy with other stuff and there seemed to be a bit of tension, but I think it's back to normal now.

The last episode is worth it for digs at the Stephen K Amos TV show.

[quadraspazzed]

Thanks gmoney, I'll give the last few a go then.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

I think Herring is playing a character when he really lets rip on Collins, I think it wouldn't have gone on as long if he was genuinely being nasty. Collins is obviously capable of taking it too.

Definitely playing a character, I agree. That's not to say that out of over 5 days of podcasting work they would have never got on each other's nerves a little. Of course they would - they don't even get paid for it (barring coffee tokens)! The problem is that Collins, a self-professed non-comic, at times bores the pants off both Herring and the listener. At this point when Herring really lets rip, as in the example above, I feel AC comes out of it feeling like he's not being appreciated for his input. If you listen to the podcasts after the live example RH mentions that AC went a bit mental and went off on one about RH for publicly humiliating him about the Tom Cruise bit.

As I say I'm just genuinely wondering why he's still doing it when it's perhaps not quite where his talent lies. Also I'm fascinated with what some people will do to climb the media ladder and this seems like a fairly transparent demonstration. At least Herring goes on with the "let me back on the telly" semi-tongue-in-cheek routine, which ultimately is funny.

Don't get me wrong, I have listened to the first 120 and feel the first 60-80 were great.

[SimonJT]

I always sense that Herring is genuinely irritated (albeit in a friendly way) by the way that Collins always conforms to the dumbest of left-wing stereotypes ("I am sexist... but sexist against men" and his love of homeopathy), and I do enjoy that, because it is righteous, but mostly it's just mucking about, isn't it.

[Depressed Beyond Tables]

I always sense that Herring is genuinely irritated (albeit in a friendly way) by the way that Collins always conforms to the dumbest of left-wing stereotypes ("I am sexist... but sexist against men" and his love of homeopathy), and I do enjoy that, because it is righteous, but mostly it's just mucking about, isn't it.

Surely that's fine in a room containing just the two men themselves, but when you take it to a live performance and people have paid for something then I think the goalposts move slightly. Structure and quality are, like it or not for the performers themselves, expected to a degree. I mean if there's a cute hot blonde in the front row and someone is picking you up on every non sequitur or plain dumbass comment you make then I'm thinking, just thinking, that it may become embarrassing after time.


Also Herring, naturally in character, can almost not help himself for saying these things as people have paid to hear him be "himself", they way he has always been. It's Collins where the ? lays.

[Some Herbert]

I haven't listened to the podcasts for months but when I was it increasingly seemed like Herring was stuck in a bit of a rut and couldn't be arsed any more.

Likewise. I stopped listening to them when a great chunk of the podcast consisted of them mulling over a cryptic crossword. When I pointed out on Collings' blog that this was a "new low" and that Herring sounded bored in the podcasts, they got very defensive and RH retreated to the "I'm in character you tosspot" defence (not exact words, but the gist of it). Now, I'm perfectly willing to accept that RH plays a character, which may or may not be a slightly more extreme version of the real RH. But why would you play a character that doesn't give a toss and only feebly contributes to the podcast? Pointless. Half the time he seemed to be barely listening and twatting about on his mobile or obsessing over his book sales on Amazon. The other defence they always bring up is the "we're doing it for free, no-one's forcing you to listen". Which is true, so I stopped listening. Does doing something for free mean that criticism is off-limits though? I don't think so.

[Mister Six]

Likewise. I stopped listening to them when a great chunk of the podcast consisted of them mulling over a cryptic crossword.

I actually really liked the crossword one, though I'm clearly A Mental. I stopped listening around that point, but mostly because I no longer had a reliable web connection for downloading podcasts. I'll probably go back to them anyway because it's a bit like comfort food now. But I do kind of wish they'd take a holiday from the podcasts themselves and come back as fresh and funny as they once were (actually Collins is far funnier and more witty than he used to be, so he can stay the same).

[Beagle 2]

I think Herring's a million times funnier when he isn't allowed to resort to his brilliantly observed "I'm unpleasant, witless, shouty and repetitive" character. Andrew Collins seems to be a nice chap and a decent broadcaster. He's not particularly funny though, and when both are on uninspired form it can be one of the most depressing experiences ever. I sporadically download these because they're free, and I have some loyalty to Herring, but I almost always regret it. When they're together on the radio, with a bit of structure and the swears taken away, it's enjoyable and works. This mostly doesn't, and I really don't think it's Collins's fault.

[Steve Lampkins]

Collins mentioned SOTCAA in a recent podcast, but said he'd not heard of the site before. I think there was an old Select article of his on there.

[Papercut]

Didn't he actually say it was an important comedy site that he didn't know was still around?

[Pranet]

He had heard of it before, there is a quote from him about it here:
(removed direct link - Neil)

[Steve Lampkins]

Oh, you're right, he said 'that I didn't know existed, any more', but he swallowed the 'any more' part a bit.


I hope the SOTCAA crew don't hunt me down for this slight...

[Pranet]

Sorry about the linking thing, I didn't know it isn't allowed.

[Andrew_Collins]

Just listened to these podcasts for the first time in 6 months or so and came across a particularly bad example of AC being humiliated. I'm just wondering why he still bothers with this shit when it's plain clear that he brings nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to them. I know he might feel that every good fool needs a foil, but there are far too many examples to prove he's not the man to provide the foil.

(if you're bothered)  http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/collingsherrin/show/136/

@40:00 AC comes back with a patently lame "I Know". No joke. No nothing.

@41:25 Herring starts to lose it by ribbing close to the bone: "...doesn't understand comedy at all".

After his little Tom Cruise anecdote RH bareback humps him, but still has to work for it.

I really think the man brings nothing to Herring's wild, vulgar self-indulgence. Not enough anyway.

I have never made any grand claims about my role in the podcast double act. It grew out of our relationship on my old 6 Music show, where Rich came on to review the papers and we found what we felt was a natural rapport. I was in charge, he was the naughty schoolboy. We revived that a year after my show ending, because we missed mucking about together, and I'd discovered that my Mac had podcasting software built in. Three years later, we've been doing on pretty much every week since February 2008. We never plan it, or write it, or edit it, or decide to take it any particular direction. People seem to want us to carry on doing it. We enjoy doing it. That's kind of it.

Because it's free and it is what it is, that doesn't mean it's beyond criticism. But frankly, if you don't like it, don't listen to it. We'll stop when we don't enjoy doing it any more, or literally everybody has stopped listening to it.

If I "bring" anything to the podcast, it's simply that Richard wouldn't do it without me. No more than I would do it without him. He does AIOTM, for those that prefer him without me. I'm not absolutely sure why I'm here defending myself, but my name is in the title of the thread, so it caught my attention.

Yes, I had a go at doing a solo stand-up show at Edinburgh this year: 16 dates, part of the Free Fringe, so hardly fleecing money off people, or stealing money from other professional comics. It was good fun, but I don't exactly see a new career for myself there, not at my age. I prefer being at home in the evenings. And I don't think I claimed, falsely, to be a "novice", as is hinted at elsewhere on this thread. It's common knowledge that I was part of a three-man show in 2001, and that I was part of a student theatre group in 1989. I just wanted to have a crack at it this year, see if I could do it, writer and remember an hour's worth of show. I did. Some people came. That's probably it for me. As I say, I have a pretty realistic view of myself, and my place in the wonderful world of comedy.

[Andrew_Collins]

I used to really enjoy the podcast, but stopped listening after they seemed to keep spending half the show blabbering on about people who had donated to them on Amazon or whatever.

We put a stop to that. It was boring the shit out of us too. The podcast had turned into a radio show, which wasn't the idea. But, as I say, there was no masterplan. Themes and stuff come and go.

[Andrew_Collins]

Also I'm fascinated with what some people will do to climb the media ladder and this seems like a fairly transparent demonstration. At least Herring goes on with the "let me back on the telly" semi-tongue-in-cheek routine, which ultimately is funny.

I'm as far up the media ladder as I want to be. Before the podcast, I had written sitcoms and had my own radio show. If you actually think I planned the podcast as a way of climbing ladders, you are sadly mistaken. That he and I ended up filling in for Adam and Joe on 6 Music - a station I already worked for - was not us achieving any kind of aim. If it had been, we'd have stopped podcasting and laughed up our sleeves.

[Tiny Poster]

What an oddly defensive man.

Bring back Jonathan King!

[Eis Nein]

You may think you've shown the OP in a sharp relief, Collins...

oh, you did do that.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Because it's free and it is what it is, that doesn't mean it's beyond criticism. But frankly, if you don't like it, don't listen to it. We'll stop when we don't enjoy doing it any more, or literally everybody has stopped listening to it.

That is the ultimate answer to any criticism, that's true. But I know that after I grew tired with the podcast I carried on listening in the hope that it would pick back up. I would then check-in over the space of a few months, and carried on finding it problematic. For me it actually became a problem of Herring being unnecessarily cruel and 'in character', when I really wanted to hear from the considered man who writes his very fine blog. So it's not beyond criticism, but it is worthwhile bearing in mind that those listening to the show and criticising it are the very people who very much want it to be somewhat better. Plenty of other people just don't give a fuck.