Richard Herring became half of a decade-defining comedy act with Stewart Lee – thanks to a chance meeting in an Oxford cricket pavilion which was the genesis of a 13-year creative partnership which included the cult classic Fist of Fun and the legendary Edinburgh Fringe show ‘This Morning with Richard not Judy’
Another important pairing came along in 2008 when he teamed up with the NME journalist and then 6Music presenter Andrew Collins for a new show – but not on the radio or the television – to the dismay of many of their peers they would chat for an hour or so giving away material for free on a ‘podcast’.
It’s a genre that Richard had helped define. From his decision to host his shows in front of paying audiences (long before podcasts were profitable!) Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast – of RHLSTP to those in the know recently put out its 600th episode, that’s in addition to the multiple spin-offs which help contribute to over a million downloads per month.
As a comedian he’s been described as “One of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy” – that’s despite deciding in the early 90s that he wasn’t very good at solo stand-up. In fact he describes his first attempts as “largely humiliating and unsatisfying.” A decade on from his early set-backs he toured shows like Talking Cock, Hitler Moustache, Someone Likes Yoghurt and Talking Cock: The Second Coming. In his show The Headmaster’s Son he focussed on life as the son of the Headmaster – dedicated to his Dad – very much his origin story as a comedian.
Like many in comedy lockdown forced all of his content online – but Richard suffered a second setback when in 2021 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
He wrote about it in his typically dark-humoured book ‘Can I Have My Ball Back?’, where he explored how his diagnosis and subsequent treatment forced him to reflect on his own mortality and masculinity.
With almost 500 episodes of White Wine Question Time, and 600 episode of Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast I wonder if this might be the most ‘capped’ interview on the internet?
Cheers!
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