Richard Herring: Imagine you’re dead

Richard Herring is one of the best British comedians. Fact.

He is a comedian of the people, and I hate myself a bit for writing that. He performs for the love of it, always donating proceeds to Scope and putting the rest of the money into more projects. His podcasts are all released for free with an honour system asking for donations so he can carry on making them. He actually bought the rights to one of his early TV shows (Fist of Fun) along with Stewart Lee for £50,000 so that it could be released as a DVD.

At his live shows you get a free programme packed with articles and bits he has written as well as a free DVD with some of his favourite work on it. Whilst seeing some names like Michael McIntyre can cost upwards of £50 for the ticket alone, it is amazing to see someone who actually seems to like his audience. I recently saw him perform his “We’re all going to die!” show (more of that later) at the Bloomsbury Theatre and he stuck around afterwards with a Scope donation bucket happy to wait and meet every single person that turned up.

His podcasts are his most impressive accomplishment. Listing them would would be longer than a Leonard Cohen song, but I can recommend a few. His award winning Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP!) has just finished its fifth series. In it he interviews prominent comedians and writers and asks them all such pressing questions as “Would you rather have a hand made of ham, or an armpit that dispenses suncream?” and “Have you ever seen a Bigfoot?”

Challenging Stewart Lee’s ability to keep a joke going way past the punchline, is his Me1 vs Me2 Snooker podcast. In it he recreates his lonely childhood by being alone in a room, playing himself at snooker whilst “Commentator 1”, Commentator 2” and “Richard Herring the Comedian” narrate the action. It sounds crap, and at times it can be, but in its 45th frame and counting, it is essentially chronicling a man, on his own, slowly losing his mind as his various personalities play snooker and argue with each other. He claims he will only stop when he gets exactly zero downloads.

His stand-up gigs have always tackled big topics – Love, Politics, Religion and Cock to name a few, and his latest tackles Death. It was inspired by the death of his grandmother, and is at times heartwarming but consistently funny. His brutal destruction of the authors of the magazine Railways and the Holocaust, and his breakdown of the suicidal intentions in “The old woman who swallowed a fly” could easily seem glib, but aren’t.

Although surreal it is also very intelligent and quick witted, and also a real proclamation of living your life to the full. There are callbacks for the more dedicated fans and, as ever with Herring, wanking jokes, but it was the touching sense of purpose that really tied it together. His closing impassioned speech on why suicide isn’t worth it, was really quite touching.

He is never going to get on panel shows, perform for the Queen or tackle stadiums, but he is all the better for it. Seeing him live at times feels like he is personally doing you a favour as he goes out of his way to make sure you feel valued. So skip going to the cinema with all their Action Films and Shreks, and become acquainted with this British hero.