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Scotsman Review

Richard Herring - Ménage à Un

***

MATT BRERETON

SMIRNOFF UNDERBELLY (VENUE 61)

RICHARD Herring is a mess. He's recently gone from being in a steady but casual relationship, in which he spent most of his time dreaming about sampling the delights of the ménage à trois, to being a steady and casually dressed singleton, forced to revisit the singular delights of the ménage à un.

It could be something to do with his midlife crisis, being 39 and all that. It seems to be making him angry and intolerant, and has got him thinking about monkey semen, Maxine Carr and the BNP. His determination to satirise the things that he hates has seen him adopting some slightly obsessive behaviour, too, which nearly caused him to come to blows with the staff at the Hand Job Centre (car wash).

Herring was one half of the team that brought us This Morning With Richard Not Judy. His erstwhile partner, Stewart Lee, has gone on to bigger and brighter things, both with his stand-up and his involvement in the phenomenally successful Jerry Springer: The Opera, while Herring's subsequent career trajectory has been rather more sedate.

As his routine unfolds, you could be forgiven for feeling sorry for this portly, ageing schoolboy who would be prepared to waste months of his life waiting outside a classroom just to point out to cocky French children how stupid their word for potato is. But you'd be playing right into his hands: pity is actually a mainstay of his latest pulling technique as he attempts to break free from his onanistic hell. You have been warned.