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Andrew Collings reviews SLY

Tonight we had tickets to see Richard Herring's Edinburgh show Someone Likes Yoghurt at the Wimbledon Studio (a bijou venue round the back of the theatre). It's part of a series of preview double bills. Richard was advertised as coming on at 8pm, with fellow Avalon comic Paul Chowdhry at 9.30. Loyally, we booked the world's greatest Thai restaurant for 9.30. A perfect evening: comedy by someone I know followed by Asian food. Tragically, without warning, Paul Chowdhry came on first. This meant we were left with a dilemma at the interval: go for the meal and miss Richard, or cancel the table, see Richard and go hungry. We chose the latter. (With no mobile between us, I was forced to use a phonebox to call the restaurant, as a courtesy. I can't remember the last time I used one. Aren't they expensive? It cost me £2.50 to call directory enquiries, get the number and say two sentences to the restaurant. What a rip-off. And because it was a BT phonebox I was disallowed from dialling any other directory service but their own. Another scandal. The mobile phone networks have won.) In terms of laughs, Richard was a triumph. I had the requisite tears running down my face. The audience was fairly light, about 40 people, and it seems that Richard thought they were a little off-side (his material is designed to be controversial, not least the bits about the idiocy of Catholics, a sperm as big as a trout, and the whole monkey-rape section). I thought they were into it. But then I'd just sat with them while Paul Chowdhry died on his arse. He just didn't connect, and his music cues all went wrong, which is obviously not his fault. It was a painful hour, I'm sad to say. I hope it goes better for him in Edinburgh. We needed Richard to restore our faith in the buzz, the theatre and the connection of stand-up comedy and he did.