“The King of Edinburgh” (The List) RICHARD HERRING makes a triumphant return to the Fringe after a two-year hiatus with a brand new show Oh Frig I’m 50!, performing at the Pleasance One from 2nd – 26th August at 7:30pm. This year will also see the return of Festival favourite Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast, with three live recordings at the New Town Theatre on 4th, 11th, and 18th August at 1:50pm. It’s the 30th anniversary of his first Fringe appearance, with his 40th show and his 50th birthday. This is the twenty-fourth August he has spent in the city which means he has now lived in Edinburgh for two of his fifty years.
“I only regret the people I didn’t sleep with. And about 60% of the people that I did sleep with”
Following on from 2007’s Oh Fuck, I’m 40!, this is the second (and let’s face it, almost certainly penultimate) instalment in Herring’s once-a-decade examination of ageing. He will look at how his life has changed in the last decade, from irresponsible, single kidult, literally fighting his way through a mid-life crisis, to married father who is mid-way to the telegram from the Queen (though given she will be 140 in 2067, she might forget to send it). Is he older and wiser? Or just older…and more stupid? HERRING is in reflective mood as he contemplates the death of his ambition and his libido and the increasing possibility of the death of himself.
Is fidelity impressive if you are no longer getting any offers? And you couldn’t be arsed to act on them even if you did?
RICHARD HERRING is probably best known as the world’s only semi-professional self-playing snookerist, (featuring in the Tempting Failure Festival of Transgressive Art alongside a man who cooked his own excreta and a woman who pulled baby teeth out of her vagina). He is also a seasoned music presenter, having fronted MTV Hot for one week in 1995 alongside STEWART LEE (an appearance which led to Scary Spice asking for his autograph on a post-it note and then sticking it to her bare stomach) as well as two stints fronting Top of the Pops, which seemed exciting at the time, but now has been soiled somewhat by the crimes of the other presenters. You may have seen him on BBC4’s Never Mind the Fullstops, a programme that he hated so much that he ended up telling the bloke who wrote Downton Abbey to “Fuck off!” You may also recognise him from motorcycling around with the world with EWAN MCGREGOR, but unfortunately you have mistaken him for CHARLEY BOORMAN.
Nowadays he asks strangers to give him money to make his own shows on the internet and has won multiple awards for his podcasts Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast and As It Occurs To Me. A new video series of the latter is released in the summer of 2017, having been crowd-funded to the tune of £100,000 by its fans. He has filmed a sit-com pilot for Channel 4 called Everything Happens (For No Reason), which stars NOEL FIELDING and JESSICA KNAPPETT, and has a BBC Radio 4 sitcom called Relativity coming out in September which stars ALISON STEADMAN, PHIL DAVIS and EMILY BERRINGTON.
What the Press Has Said
“A gloriously infantile delight in mischief, provocation and inspired rudeness”
The Guardian
“Laugh-out-loud funny and thought-provoking at the same time”
Bruce Dessau
“At the very top of his game”
Kate Copstick, The Scotsman
“A new Richard Herring show is a never-ending cause for delight”
Brian Donaldson, The List
“You simply aren’t funny, your ‘jokes’ are puerile and your ‘observational’ comedy is Cringy and forced…basically you are a (nearly) 50 year old guy unable to accept his age”
Email from John Clarke of Fareham
For more information contact: Nathan Dean, Florrie Sheehan or Victoria Wedderburn at Avalon on 0207 598 7222 or nathand@avalonuk.com / florries@avalonuk.com / victoriaw@avalonuk.com
Those 40 shows in full:
1) Old King Cole (1987) by KEN CAMPBELL, played Faz – Oxford Theatre Group, Abbey Laird Theatre
2) The Seven Raymonds KMnO4 (1987) – Oxford Theatre Group, St Mary’s Hall
3) The Oxford Revue – Waving at the Pigeons (1988) – Oxford Theatre Group, St Mary’s Hall
4) the dum show (1992) with STEWART LEE, STEVE COOGAN, PATRICK MARBER and SIMON MUNNERY – Pleasance Two
5) Lionel Nimrod’s Inexplicable World Live (1993) with STEWART LEE, RONNIE ANCONA and ALISTAIR MCGOWAN, TOM BAKER on video – Pleasance Two
6) Ra Ra Rasputin (1993) with BEN MOOR, SALLY PHILLIPS, ANDREW MACKAY and CLAIRE DE VRIES – Pleasance Upstairs
7) This Morning With Richard Not Judy (1994) with STEWART LEE and SALLY PHILLIPS – Pleasance Attic
8) Richard Herring is Fat (1994) with KEVIN ELDON and SALLY PHILLIPS – Pleasance Upstairs
9) Richard Herring is All Man (1995) with SALLY PHILLIPS and TOM BINNS – Pleasance Upstairs
10) Lee and Herring Live off of TV’s Fist of Fun (1995) with PETER BAYNHAM – Pleasance One
11) Lee and Herring Live (1996) – Pleasance One
12) Punk’s Not Dead (1996) with PAUL PUTNER, EWAN BAILEY, JASON FREEMAN and PAUL REYNOLDS. Directed by JEREMY HERRIN – Pleasance Upstairs
13) This Morning With Richard Not Judy II (1997) with STEWART LEE, RICHARD THOMAS, TREVOR LOCK and NATALIE BRANDON – Pleasance Cabaret Bar
14) Excavating Rita (1997) with PAUL PUTNER, CATHERINE HOOD, JASON FREEMAN, TREVOR LOCK and NATALIE BRANDON – Pleasance Above
15) Playing Hide and Seek With Jesus (1998) with PAUL PUTNER, EMMA KENNEDY, SELINA BOYACK, MATTHEW PIDGEON, AMELIA CURTIS and MATT WILKINSON. Directed by JEREMY HERRIN – Pleasance Above
16) Lee and Herring (1998) George Square Theatre
17) It’s Not The End of the World (1999) with PAUL BOWN, REBECCA LACEY and RUTH GREY. Directed by JEREMY HERRIN – Pleasance One
18) Christ on a Bike (2001) Directed by JEREMY HERRIN – Pleasance Dome
19) Talking Cock (2002) Directed by JEREMY HERRIN – Pleasance Above
20) The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace (2004) Directed by JEREMY HERRIN – Pod Deco
21) Someone Likes Yoghurt (2005) – Pleasance Above
22) Ménage à un (2006) – White Belly, Underbelly
23) Oh Fuck, I’m 40! (2007) – White Belly, Underbelly
24) The Headmaster’s Son (2008) – White Belly, Underbelly
25) Collings and Herrin Podcast Live (2008) – White Belly, Underbelly
26) Hitler Moustache[68] (2009) – White Belly, Underbelly
27) Collings and Herrin Podcast Live (2009) – Belly Laugh, Underbelly
28) Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming (2010) – The Ball Room Assembly Rooms
29) Collings and Herrin Podcast Live (2010) – GRV Five Pound Fringe
30) As It Occurs To Me Live (2010) – Ball Room Assembly Rooms
31) What Is Love, Anyway? (2011) – Cow Barn, Underbelly
32) Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (2011) – The Stand One
33) Talking Cock: The Second Coming (2012) – Udderbelly
34) Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (2012) – The Stand One
35) We’re All Going To Die! (2013) – Pleasance Beyond
36) Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (2013) – Stand One
37) Me1 Vs Me2 Snooker (2013) – Assembly 3
38) Lord of the Dance Settee (2014) – George Square Theatre
39) I Killed Rasputin (2014) with NICHOLA MCAULIFFE, JOSEPH CHANCE, JUSTIN EDWARDS, JOANNA GRIFFIN, STEPHEN LEASK and EILEEN NICHOLAS. Directed by Hannah Banister – George Square Theatre
40) Oh Frig I’m 50! (2017) – Pleasance One
