Press

Metro review of How Not To Grow Up

Sharon Lougher - 28th April, 2010
Richard Herring's cheeky, self-deprecating and very human existential crisis
How Not To Grow Up (Ebury, £11.99) is a coming-of-age memoir of a single, overweight man-child who spends most of his cash on booze and sweets

Comedian Richard Herring has thrown a lot of his life out into the ether.

He’s been blogging for years, has recently been doing live stand-up gigs updated weekly according to his latest shenanigans and his many full-length shows have always been autobiographical.

One of those shows (from 2007) was about turning 40, so this ‘coming-of-age memoir’, which charts in ever more detail the tumultuous months either side of that dreaded moment, feels a bit like the DVD Extended Edition.

That said, it’s still a thoroughly entertaining confessional, thanks to Herring’s acute eye for teasing out the absurdities in everyday life and his unrelenting ability to take the mickey out of himself as he tries to extricate himself from the rut he’s fallen into: as he arrives at his fourth decade, he’s still a single, overweight man-child who spends most of his cash on booze and sweets.

As existential crises go, this is cheeky, self-deprecating and very human: growing up is hard to do, and it’s always enjoyable to witness Herring, in whatever format, doing it disgracefully.