In the interest of helping someone out, I want you all to take note of this morning's request from Richard Herring… fast becoming a favourite of mine (I’ll get to that later - I think!)
In gathering material for his upcoming show, Richard Herring is asking people to complete a penis-based questionnaire – links here:
BOYS
GIRLS
It is only a few questions and could *probably* take just a few minutes – however, I spent almost an hour filling mine out – well, once you start thinking about them…
So anyway, take a look and fill out the relevant one for your gender. It’s purely anonymous, so you can be as honest and open as you choose.
It is also worth noting Richard’s further plans for the show:
Should you donate £15 or more to SCOPE through his Justgiving page, your name will be put on the programme and you will get a signed copy.
JUSTGIVING
I do feel I need to explain, since I referenced in my recent review that I didn’t really like him for a long time…
I am sure I’m not the only person to be like this, but when there is a double act I particularly like, I will always harbour a preference for one half of the partnership… not just in comedy, either – George Michael was more good-looking than Andrew Ridgeley, Luke Goss was far more humble and less egotistical than brother Matt, Paul Simon was a little more normal than Art Garfunkel… okay, pushing it now, but you must kind of get my point…
And so it was that during my formative comedy years I was always destined to marry Rob Newman, have Stewart Lee as my ‘bit on the side’ and take civilised afternoon teas with Hugh Laurie… and thus my opinions of their ‘other halves’ became that they were being carried by ‘my boys’ and as such were not worthy of my following in their career with any sort of interest once the partnership disolved.
And so it went that I mostly ignored anything Richard Herring put out for many years. And I am sure he stings a little at the thought of that – I mean, how much more he could have achieved were he only worthy of my interest….
Anyway – I continued happily ignoring his existence, not watching episodes of HIGNFY or anything else if he happened to be on it because if I am being wholly honest, I felt he was too self-righteous, that he suffered some sort of superiority complex… and maybe he did for a time, but to be honest, I never really gave him chance to prove otherwise. Until, that is, I happened to catch a clip of HIGNFY during the Hitler Moustache era. And I listened to what he had to say, decided maybe he wasn’t that bad, but continued to ignore him…
Then there was a furore… and I love a good furore! This was over the Christ on a Bike show, the DVD of which was released last year. I was looking for something else on Youtube, found a really funny heckle clip featuring Herring (which I’ll share here, cos I always hate when someone feels the need to ruin a show, so it’s fabulous when the act wins on such a level as this!) and detoured by some Christ on a Bike clips including some very vociferous activists calling for the show to be banned and Herring to be sent to the tower, or crucified or somesuch…
Now, whilst my beliefs aren’t strictly conformist of the church, I do consider myself to be a Christian at heart. As such, I feel hugely pissed of when people make protests in the name of my God – because quite frankly, my God can speak for himself, and if He feels there is retribution needed He will deal a huge pile of Karma on that person… End of. There is no need for people to take themselves to the street doing ‘the God’s work’ whichever their God happens to be. That’s kind of the point of being a God, isn’t it? [DIGRESSING>>> BACK TO POINT!!]
So I watched the clips from the show to see what exactly they were complaining about – and one thing seemed glaringly obvious to me:
In order to write the show, Herring had clearly read a lot of the bible, had studied it and understood the content and formulated sensible, cohesive arguments, backing up those points with DIRECT quotes… those protesting had not watched his show, nor read transcripts, nor spoken with him about it… they simply responded because *SHOCKER* he didn’t believe the same things they did. Big surprise for you all – not everyone has to agree with you!!
And so began my full turn-around as I actually started to listen to what he had to say – to the point where I now find myself very much a fan of his work, trying my best to consume all I have missed during my phase of bigotry.
And should he look in (AS IF!!) I am sorry, Mr Herring: for all the times I derided anything you were in, anything someone quoted that you had said; for deliberately missing episodes of shows I liked just because you were in them; for denying your very existence (hold on a minute….)
I am truly sorry. And should you find yourselves in a position to attend one of his shows, do. I have watched a billion* Youtube clips and he is utterly brilliant in them all. *actual figures may be significantly lower than a billion
Buy the DVD and see for yourself:
The heckle clip as promised:
And if you haven’t felt tempted after the questionnaire and the Youtubeness and the dvd, then check out Richard’s website here:
http://www.richardherring.com/
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