Stand-up: Richard Herring, “What is Love Anyway?”

Richard Herring played a very snowy York Grand Opera House last Friday, performing his new show ‘What is Love, Anyway?’ The comedian, best known for his partnership with Stewart Lee in comedy duo Lee and Herring seems more interested today in podcasts than stand-up. However, he has created a substantial number of themed shows over the last few years, whose reflect his irreverent style and line of questioning – ‘Hitler Moustache’, for example, or ‘Christ on a Bike’.

Sometimes reviewing a stand-up act is a case of evaluation and summation; with Richard Herring it’s simple diagnostics. A clearly talented performer giving a good show with good material, plagued by one single problem: energy level. I spent the first half of the show wondering why he had to shout at me the whole time, and the high level of energy (hardly ever varying) also meant that he worked through a lot of material very quickly. It completely unsettles comedy’s fine balance of shifting energy and emphasis in a flurry of spittle.
Luckily, he calmed down a bit in the second half, and his ever-present comedic skills became more accessible. There is, as others have pointed out, a certain rigidity to the act, but I see that as no bad thing. This was good material, and although the delivery usually wasn’t ideal, it still made Herring a fun comedian to watch. His punchlines were usually strong, especially his quip about the poem inside a 1950s Valentine’s day card (“Come on over/Do your stuff/I likes men wot treats me rough”).

Herring doesn’t have a particular persona as such on-stage, which is a bit of an oddity in a very experienced performer. It gave the whole act a more basic feel, as if it would have been more at home in a club than an opera house. It was actually quite refreshing once you got used to it, and for the most part it played out quite well.

The problem came when you realised just how natural he often was. Herring paused mid show to advertise the DVDs he had on sale outside- not just of recent releases, but of his entire oeuvre. As the plug went on, it became apparent that this was not in any way ironic or self-referential, and it did go on for a good few minutes. The comedian also referred very often to his erstwhile partner Stewart Lee; he seemed preoccupied by the thought that Lee was more funny or successful than himself, an idea which would never have crossed my mind had it not been suggested.

Similarly off-putting was the show’s ending, which featured a story about Herring’s grandmother, who suffers from memory loss associated with Alzheimers. There were a couple of good gags in the story, but as Herring himself points out, ‘you’d be hard pressed to make comedy out of that’. The huge tension built up by the introduction of such a notable and harrowing disease was never fully released. There was no ultimate punchline, so the tension just stuck with you as the act came to a conclusion. It was almost very funny, but it didn’t quite pay off.

The overall impression that I came away with was one of a good comedian with a very promising show but one which was, ultimately, unfinished. I know that this reads like a very negative review, but the fact is that it’s very difficult to watch a comedian who is idling on the verge of being very good; all you can think of is how they could have pushed their act over the line. I had fun watching Richard Herring, and I would happily watch his next show. Whether he’d get any more chances beyond that, though, is another question.