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Hercules Review in Scotsman

Richard Herring: The Twelve Tasks of Hercules Terrace

Comedy's one-man task force

KATE COPSTICK


POD DECO (Venue 75)

RICHARD HerringÂ’s Talking Cock was a huge success for him last year. Now the cuddly bear of educated stand-up turns his intelligent amiability to replicating the 12 tasks of Hercules, and transforming the experience into a one-hour show.

I say replicate, but given that a boy can only slay the Nemean Lion once and Hercules dispatched it eons ago, along with just about every other self-respecting mythical monster, Herring has turned his endeavours to doing things such as not killing the Loch Ness Monster, beating his nephew at tennis, and running naked through the streets of Pamplona.

Impressively, as Task No 4, and at a personal cost of £4,678, he dated 50 women in 50 nights. Much more impressively, he remembers them all. One task was a game of Consecutive Number Plate Spotting - it is a tribute to the humility and basic honesty of the man that he will even admit to spending 20 months trying to spot registration numbers 1 to 999 in order.

The show is relaxed, gentle and amusing. But Herring seems to have changed. It appears heÂ’s done the "growing up and facing some home truths" thing. Dangerous for a comedy career, which tends to be about avoiding that at all costs. Still good stuff, though, albeit not godlike.