Herring In A Barrel

[The Mumbler]

He wants it both ways, though.  He does.  It's ok for him to chuckle at the paucity of his own material, which he does ALL THE TIME, but if anyone else does it, and he's had plenty of people point out shortcomings, not always as stridently as Philip did, then it's public sniggering time.

See also: the astonishing awfulness of Time Gentlemen Please, which apparently was *supposed* to be repetitive and caricatured.  Does Herring still regard it as the best thing with his name on it (which he seriously did in 2000)?  The best-*paid* thing, perhaps....

If you've never heard the 6Music Collins/Herring summit on a Sunday, you haven't died.  Honestly, it makes Steve Wright's posse sound like The Marx Brothers.

[Paul Twist]

I liked Time Gentlemen Please, Talking Cock and Someone Likes Yoghurt, but I saw a preview of Menage a Un and found it to be a shambling mess of a show. To be fair I enjoyed it more than Phillip and his wife seemed to, but it's the first time I've been disappointed by Richard Herring's output. Do you think he knows that the new show isn't up to scratch so is being over-defensive?

[4 arses]

The problem for me with Menage a un seemed to be he didn't know if he wanted it to be a straight stand up show or a themed show. Talking cock was good because there was a definate beginning middle and end and a unifiying theme that held it together regardless of the tangents. This latest show just seems to be a series of bits beginning and ending with some stuff about being lonely and getting older. The Steve Martin bit, although technically a good bit in my opinion, felt crowbarred in mid routine. It's hard to figure out what Herring wants to do with the show and the momentum and internal narrative hangs together all wrong. Perhaps it's indicative of where Herring feels he is now, not really a famous enough comedian to get things off the ground on his name alone and instead having to accept TV about poker and Best men. I can see why he might have lost his way a little.

Contrarily, I can imagine him and Stewart Lee working together on something for TV being the best thing on if they did something right now. Being that neither have really worked on a project that is really "theirs" for quite awhile, the comfort zone Iannucci seems to have found himself in recently wouldn't really apply.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

and sure, to just go, "Actually, you two are right and the rest of the audience are idiots" would be ludicrous

Ludicrous, but probably true.

[Purple Tentacle]

He's got a half-page advert in Viz boasting positive reviews from Chortle, no less.


I quite liked Warming Up a few years ago (the origin of his use of the phrase 'quite good' and the saga of his box-coveting neighbour were genuinely great), but conciously stopped when it became clear it was just being used as an excercise to boast to people on his messageboard (which I've steered clear of, thank fuck), and all the talkbollocks about making Warming Up into a tv series, ferchristsakes.

I saw Hercules Terrace, which I thought was 'quite good' (heh) in an "in-between projects" kind of way, but when I realised that he percieved it as the main thrust of his career, I went right off.

I'm wondering if he's come down with the same showbiz-appetites as Vic and Bob

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I saw Hercules Terrace, which I thought was 'quite good' (heh) in an "in-between projects" kind of way, but when I realised that he percieved it as the main thrust of his career, I went right off.

Reminds me of my thoughts about Chris Morris doing Blue Jam. 'What, he actually thinks it's a serious and high-quality project? Shit...'

[Mildly Diverting]

Didn't he register here at one point? If you're reading Rich, you've probably realised that a) you're not coming out of this very well and that b) SOTCAA will neither forgive nor forget TGP.

[niat]

Herring's take on this year's Edinburgh festival, from The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1850918,00.html

Sound's like he's about to conquer the world with his magnificence.

[Mildly Diverting]

He's got a half-page advert in Viz boasting positive reviews from Chortle, no less.

He's recommended as a show to see by Les Dennis in the Telegraph today. Got to be better than a Chortle review.

[K]

Herring's take on this year's Edinburgh festival, from The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1850918,00.html

Sound's like he's about to conquer the world with his magnificence.

I'd like to think he was a bit more self-depracating before the Guardian's subs got hold of his piece. Stress 'like'.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I hope that's a deliberate caption.

[thepuffpastryhangman]

Having downloaded his recent gig linked from the Edinburgh thread, I'm very very very very very afraid. Self proclaimed comedy genius Richard 'I used to be on the tele' Herring is probably out to get me, for I too committed the unforgivable sin of failing to laugh at his material.
I don't know why not, he opened weakly enough, with a pun on 'To be, or not to be?' He implied 'be' could mean 'bee' and was a reference to bee keeping! He further enlightened me with the revelation "Act your age not your size means something different on the continent!!". Quaint use of archaic geographic vernacular I must admit.
Now came the greatest example of his genius "the best I've ever written" he sincerely announced. In an act of unparralled fusion he leaps the chasm between between three legs (a old man walking with a stick) and Paul McCartney and Heather Mills. Heather is an amputee!!! I'd always believed DMT had to be smoked, but no, my mind was racing over crystallized psychedelic landscapes, all data and experience compounded in firework crescendo. If proof were ever needed of the tenth dimension, I dwelt simultaneously in pre history and Christmas future, matter and anti matter, beam and wave, touched by Herring's wit all things are not merely possible or probable, they're inevitable.
He takes the us out of genius.

...The rest of it was just as good. Laugh? I wouldn't dare not to...