Someone likes Herring

Last night comedian Richard Herring followed in the footsteps of his former double act partner Stewart Lee by coming to the Chapter House arts centre in Cardiff to record his first live DVD. It was to be the last ever performance of his 2005 Edinborough show Someone Likes Yoghurt. Before writing this show Herring had shied away from standup for thirteen years, he admits in the programme that he didn't feel he was cut out for solo stand up comedy, preferring to have someone to bounce off of.

It's true that Herring lacks the natural charisma of Bill Hicks or indeed Stewart Lee but he has a way with words and an easy charm to his delivery that keeps the audience onside even with potentially risky material. He claims the show is about opening closed lines of thought and making people question everything. Certainly he deals with difficult subjects, with one routine about the Pope's death spiralling into an hilarious expose of the Church's hypocrisies.

That said, Herring is at his best with misdirected anger and the misguided satirical barbs at the trivial or mundane. Such as tearing apart the theme tune from Magpie, "In what some might call, 'far too much detail.'" Or else courting faux-controversy, "I don't care what you think, I think Jesus is better than Hitler".

It's a long set and Herring thrives on taking a slender comic idea and stretching it to breaking point, almost willing his audience to lose patience, but stick with it and there is reward enough along the way. The one low point is an overlong section on monkey-fucking, if only because the subject has inexplicably been done to death these past few years.

Not everyone will warm to Herring's rambling, obsessive style but this was a fine show. Although he wont be performing it live again the DVD will be available at some point through the www.gofasterstripe.com website, where you can still find Stewart Lee's fantastic 90's Comedian DVD. In the mean time, Herring will be touring his Menage a Un show up and down the country so keep an eye out at your local venues or check the gig guide at www.richardherring.com.