Hello all
A happy September to you all. Thanks to those of you who came to see the play and/or stand-up show in Edinburgh. I was very pleased with both, but ticket sales were not as high as I hoped (or needed to get anywhere near breaking even), so it was disappointing financially. I am not sure the Fringe is any longer the right place to try out new ideas for me. It's still a great place to come as a newcomer or to learn the craft (especially if you can find a good Free Fringe venue) or if you are a TV star, but understandably perhaps with so much competition punters are paying money to see the big names, whilst taking a chance on newer free acts, leading to a bit of a squeezed middle.
In the long run I think this is probably quite a good thing for the Fringe - it becomes about experimentation and will hopefully lead to acts no longer being (as) ripped off by landlords and venues or there being any point in spending huge amounts of money on PR and posters, but personally speaking it was a bit of a shame that my big artistic gamble has led to me losing lots of cash and that it's not feasible to do more ambitious projects at a Festival that I love. I am very happy to plough much of the money I make into creating new projects and am still pleased that I took the chance, but it will slightly affect my ability to do quite as much free stuff in the short term. We will see.
I think it's almost certain that I will take a break from the Fringe as it makes more sense for me to premiere my work in London at a time when I am not in competition with a thousand other shows and won't end up losing tens of thousands of pounds and can live in my own house.
As you'll see below "Lord of the Dance Settee" is about to tour. I am not sure what will happen with "I Killed Rasputin". I am hopeful we might get to stage it again in London at least, but it won't be possible or feasible to film it and it's unlikely to tour as things stand.
Here's what's coming up in the autumn
RHLSTP
A new series of the Leicester Square Theatre Podcast begins on September 29th. I am in the process of booking the guests now and there are already some amazing line-ups. And the ones I can't announce yet are great too. You can buy tickets here -
https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873492663/
The shows (with possible exception of the last one) will go out as free podcasts as usual. This series we are also going to put out the video versions for free as well (again maybe not the last one). We are hoping that this will encourage more people to subscribe via the monthly badge donations
http://www.gofasterstripe.com/badges, but also it's just nicer that people get to see them.
Here are the confirmed guests:
29th September Katherine Ryan + TBA
6th October TBA
13th October Steve Coogan + TBA
20th October Sarah Millican + Rebecca Front
27th October Josh Widdecombe + TBA
3rd November TBA
10th November TBA
17th November TBA
24th November Stewart Lee, Emma Kennedy, Paul Putner and hopefully some other guests connected to TMWRNJ. This show is sold out, but you can add your name to returns list if you contact the theatre. This is being filmed for a DVD extra for forthcoming release of TMWRNJ (first series out next year) and so may not be released via free channels (we haven't decided yet). It will just be the usual chat show format and not include any new written material or sketches obviously.
And from now on when we book a big name guest who is likely to sell out in hours then we will be letting the monthly subscribers know first so that they have a chance to buy tickets before they're all gone. Sorry we didn't think of that before the TMWRNJ one. As a subscriber you also get access to a secret channel of extras (including backstage chats with all RHLSTP guests, a badge, occasional ticket offers, entry into a monthly prize draw for cool giveaways (recently given away my rehearsal script of "I Killed Rasputin", my Edinburgh set list and the terrifying Morph I made at Aardman) and all your money will go towards funding future internet projects like a monthly video version of AIOTM.
LORD OF THE DANCE SETTEE TOUR
I am touring quite extensively with the stand-up show, so likely coming near to you at some point (and if not then it's because either your local theatre doesn't want to book me or we didn't find a mutually acceptable date, but contact them to get me on next time). Some of these will sell out in advance (I am only doing one gig in Bristol at the moment when I usually do 3 or 4), whilst others will definitely not. Don't take the gamble. Book now.
You can see gig listings, info and reviews of the show here -
http://www.richardherring.com/lotds/
Or if you just want a quick look at the list of gigs go here -
http://www.richardherring.com/lotds/tour
WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE DVD
We're in the process of putting this together now. It should be out in the next couple of months
MEANING OF LIFE
Episode 4 of this ground-breaking/bank-breaking series should be released soonish too. It takes a lot of work from the team to get these into shape, so please be patient. Short versions of the shows are available to view on vimeo or youtube or listen to on iTunes or the British Comedy Guide. To buy all long versions of the episodes please visit -
http://www.gofasterstripe.com/cgi-bin/website.cgi?page=rhmol
We're still some way off breaking even on this series, so any small contributions via the badge page
http://www.gofasterstripe.com/badges would help us move onwards and make more stuff like this.
OTHER PODCASTS AND STUFF
Due to overwork the Warming Up and Me1 Vs Me2 podcasts have gone a bit quiet of late, but they will be back next week, when I am home from holiday. I am only a few days away from having blogged a quarter of my life (which is utterly terrifying). Check out itunes, the british comedy guide and
http://www.richardherring.com/warmingup for all this free stuff. And at the current rate of badge subscription I would say we're about a year away from having enough money to start making the video version of AIOTM (though haven't done a proper budget so it might be a bit longer). Only donate money if you can afford to do so. I am keen to keep as much of my stuff free as possible. If you just tell as many friends about this stuff as you can then that is also a great way to pay us back.
Did I mention the badge subscription thing?
Have a great autumn
Rich
