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Richard Herring getting twitchy in lockdown: 2020

Started by MojoJojo, June 05, 2020, 02:54:47 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

JamesTC

I imagine Herring's idea of what somebody into music is like is skewed by Stewart Lee. He probably just likes music as much as your average person.

frajer

Finally caught up and as others have said, the ep with Tim Key is an absolute ten-beller. Laugh out loud hilarious and interesting, especially the stuff that hadn't already been explored in Key's also excellent appearance on the Adam Buxton pod.

Also thought Rich got a nicely-judged (and clearly amiable) dig in when Key overplayed his pedantic persona a bit towards the end and Herring said "Sometimes you do have to listen to the whole sentence." Lovely stuff.

Sadly I don't find Herring particularly funny these days (despite loving him in his Fist of Fun/ This Morning With... era) and he does churn out the content too much to be of consistent quality, but the fact he puts out stuff like this for free is pretty bloody admirable. And when RHLSTP works, it really works. This Key ep and the recent Parapod one have been fantastic. EDIT: Oh and the great Bob Mortimer ep, of course!

Mobbd

Quote from: Pink Gregory on October 18, 2021, 02:10:39 PM
He hasn't really continued an interest in comedy outside of the comedy he liked when he was growing up, though, has he?

Oh, he has far more time for up-and-coming comics than I do (and I generally think of myself as a comedy fan). Lee accused him of gatekeeping or trying to be down with the kids or something, but I don't agree with that. I get the impression that Herring is genuinely interested in new and emerging comedy.

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: frajer on October 18, 2021, 02:35:41 PM
but the fact he puts out stuff like this for free is pretty bloody admirable.

Not really.  I think you're confusing "putting out for free" with "not getting paid for it", and he's hardly alone in doing free podcasts.

Pink Gregory

Up and coming TV comics maybe; but then he has to sell RHLSTP to a certain extent, so getting unknowns/circuit people on isn't really viable.

Also I assume if Rich is still with Avalon then it makes some connections a little easier?

sutin

Quote from: Mr Trumpet on October 18, 2021, 02:03:33 PM
not something to focus on and build part of your identity around.

Ah see, I would say my entire identity was built around music, from when I was a teenager to now. All the friends I have made were because of music. If I saw someone wearing a t-shirt of a band I liked, we talked and became friends. Almost all socialising I have ever done in my life has been around the live music experience. My partner of almost a decade I met because I was a fan of her band. Music is reason I live on this land mass, music is the reason I know anyone or do anything really. It's my life force and so much more than the music itself, it's what connects us.

frajer

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on October 18, 2021, 03:03:17 PM
Not really.  I think you're confusing "putting out for free" with "not getting paid for it", and he's hardly alone in doing free podcasts.

No, I knew what I meant. He could have kept these episodes as exclusives for people who paid and I'm glad he didn't.

sutin

Quote from: Pink Gregory on October 18, 2021, 03:05:36 PM
Up and coming TV comics maybe; but then he has to sell RHLSTP to a certain extent, so getting unknowns/circuit people on isn't really viable.

Also I assume if Rich is still with Avalon then it makes some connections a little easier?

I don't think that's entirely fair. Particularly during the Twitch-era of RHLSTP, he got on numerous comics who work almost exclusively online. There's been plenty of guests who've never done TV.

Pink Gregory

Admittedly I haven't listened to RHLSTP in ages (and even then only the Nigel Planer one from recent times) so I don't come from a place of expertise

PaulTMA


Mobbd

Quote from: Pink Gregory on October 18, 2021, 03:05:36 PM
Up and coming TV comics maybe; but then he has to sell RHLSTP to a certain extent, so getting unknowns/circuit people on isn't really viable.

Also I assume if Rich is still with Avalon then it makes some connections a little easier?

We aren't just talking about rhlstp. He has a pattern of welcoming, championing, and generally referring to emerging comics and comedy. He has always done it. This is about whether he is interested in comedy beyond what he grew up with; I'd say he does. He is also clearly interested in the nuts and bolts of the craft as well as fandom/admiration of other comics. I really do think comedy was/is his equivalent of music. I've been going off Herring lately but I've been following him for decades and this is one of the things I have observed about him.

sutin

Quote from: Mobbd on October 18, 2021, 05:55:07 PM
We aren't just talking about rhlstp. He has a pattern of welcoming, championing, and generally referring to emerging comics and comedy. He has always done it. This is about whether he is interested in comedy beyond what he grew up with; I'd say he does. He is also clearly interested in the nuts and bolts of the craft as well as fandom/admiration of other comics. I really do think comedy was/is his equivalent of music. I've been going off Herring lately but I've been following him for decades and this is one of the things I have observed about him.

Yeah, agreed. The fact that he gives newbies without a profile a slot alongside the big names is one of the most positive aspects of RHLSTP, even if the interviews themselves aren't always great. As frustrating as he is, he is still generally one of the good guys. If he hadn't been so anti-Corbyn i'd go as far as calling him a hero.

DrGreggles

I remember him saying that he'd only been to see 2 shows during a month in Edinburgh, then moaning about no one bothering to see his play, seemingly with no self-awareness.
He might be willing to give new comedians a shot, but apparently only if they come to him.

Scrapey Fish

Quote from: frajer on October 18, 2021, 02:35:41 PM

Also thought Rich got a nicely-judged (and clearly amiable) dig in when Key overplayed his pedantic persona a bit towards the end and Herring said "Sometimes you do have to listen to the whole sentence." Lovely stuff.

He had a few zingers in this. "Is that the same 'we' that wrote your book?"

Icehaven

Thoroughly enjoyed the Tim Key one and thought they played off each other quite well so Herring was less annoying than usual.

Key repeatedly saying how boring the whole thing of how he got into Footlights by lying about being a student is wrong though, because it isn't boring at all. I don't know how much he's talked about it before but I didn't know anything other than the basic fact that he'd done it so it was interesting to hear more details and how it actually played out etc.

Cuellar

Yeah I was always curious about that. I knew he'd lied about it, but didn't realise it had gone on for quite a long time, to the point of agreeing to meet a 'fellow student' at 'his' college so he could show her where the room was that the rehearsal was in (and obviously not actually knowing where it was), and that the directors or whoever outed him at some group dinner.

Icehaven

I wonder how they found out too. One dastardly jealous lesser talent being suspicious, asking him about a non existent tutor or something then ratting him out to the director expecting him to be sent away in disgrace, but no! Maybe they're right, there is a film in it.

privatefriend

Quote from: icehaven on October 19, 2021, 04:09:57 PM
I wonder how they found out too. One dastardly jealous lesser talent being suspicious, asking him about a non existent tutor or something then ratting him out to the director expecting him to be sent away in disgrace, but no! Maybe they're right, there is a film in it.

I think he talks a bit more in depth about it on Stuart Goldsmith's podcast from what I remember anyway.

sutin

Rich's guest this week is Louise Wener from Sleeper. He likes music okay.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: icehaven on October 18, 2021, 12:25:10 PM
I have a similar thing, I wouldn't say I've got no mind's eye at all but it's very, very poor and I have great difficulty conjuring up images from scratch so when reading a description of something I'm unfamiliar with it invariably ends up strongly resembling something I am familiar with.

When I read fiction I have to mentally cast all the characters so I can keep track off who's who.

Old Nehamkin

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on October 20, 2021, 07:29:12 PM
When I read fiction I have to mentally cast all the characters so I can keep track off who's who.

Yes, I do this sometimes as it's quite an effort for me to maintain a consistent mental image of a character (I'm also quite bad at remembering faces in real life, probably related) so it can be quite handy to just mentally assign some familiar, roughly appropriate character actor from TV or film. Funnily enough, when I was reading Stephen King's novel 11.22.63 I decided to imagine one of the supporting characters as the actor Deke Simmons, only for Deke Simmons to then actually get cast as that character in the TV adaptation.

Magnum Valentino

Wonder how often that happens? I know there's a couple of cases of characters being written with someone in mind and subsequently being cast, but it happens more with film and TV scripts (The Escapist being written for Brian Cox for example) and in comics (Samuel L Jackson being 'cast' in The Ultimates as Nick Fury and eventually playing him in films, as well as Simon Pegg's likeness being used in The Boys).

I imagine it's less common in novels but it's still a possibility, not least of all with King who's a big fan of all media and I can see basing a character on a performance he's seen elsewhere.

EggsLikeABird

Stewart Lee had a dig at Herring's podcast on Alexei Sayle's podcast earlier in the year.

"I didnt know what a podcast was, as I'd only been on Richard Herring's and I thought it meant you come on, the interviewer talks about himself and does no research on you."

Icehaven

Quote from: EggsLikeABird on October 21, 2021, 11:09:13 PM
Stewart Lee had a dig at Herring's podcast on Alexei Sayle's podcast earlier in the year.

"I didnt know what a podcast was, as I'd only been on Richard Herring's and I thought it meant you come on, the interviewer talks about himself and does no research on you."

I know it's not what he meant but the idea that Herring would need to research Lee, and Lee getting offended that he hadn't, is funny in itself.

EggsLikeABird

From when Herring started, his peers Peter Baynham, Stewart Lee, Patrick Marber, Armando Iannucci, Chris Morris and Steve Coogan have all be very successful in various forms. Its sad to see Herring doing the "Skelington" bit and remain very hacky.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on October 20, 2021, 07:29:12 PM
When I read fiction I have to mentally cast all the characters so I can keep track off who's who.

Funny how differ, when I read fiction I'm really just absorbing the plot, the characters are really just cyphers to help convey the story. I don't ever imagine them visually.

olliebean

Sometimes when I'm watching a film that's a bit dull, I liven it up for myself by imagining a more entertaining cast. (Ken Campbell often seems to feature.) I don't tend to do it with books, though.

EggsLikeABird

I was on the audio section on Stewart Lee's website and he did an interview with Sue Perkins, where he talked about how he was offered a part in a movie where he played a business man who kepts shafted up the arse and continues on the meeting regardless. He turned it down, though, and said "Richard Herring will probably get it, because he's always the next one down."

Apparently Stew was offered a "boat race with Toby Young" show, and Herring got it.

her?

Haven't listened to a Herring podcast in over two years but gave the Tim Key one a go last week and it was brilliant. He seemed to revel in being awkward and making Rich uncomfortable. Proper hilarious stuff. Will listen to some more on the strength of that one and no doubt regret it!

sutin

Quote from: her? on October 27, 2021, 01:02:33 PM
Haven't listened to a Herring podcast in over two years but gave the Tim Key one a go last week and it was brilliant. He seemed to revel in being awkward and making Rich uncomfortable. Proper hilarious stuff. Will listen to some more on the strength of that one and no doubt regret it!

TBF that was one of the all time best episodes. There's been a few good ones recently (Bob Mortimer, The Parapod...) but that was an especially great one for the reasons you stated.

Adam & Joe today!