Comic Richard Herring on Wolverhampton date

Frank Skinner described Richard Herring and his erstwhile comedy partner, Stewart Lee, as being in the same bracket as Laurel and Hardy, The Two Ronnies and Reeves and Mortimer.

And former Oxford University student Richard Herring also became an internet sensation when he mercilessly dispatched a heckler at London’s Wam Ban Club 10 years ago.

The funny man is back on the road with Richard Herring – The Best. His show will reach Wolverhampton’s Slade Rooms tomorrow.

Fans can listen to the King of the Edinburgh Fringe, Metro columnist and UK Podfather (RHLSTP, AIOTM) as he picks his favourite routines from his 12 one-man shows and crams them into 90 minutes.

From his deconstruction of the genealogy of Christ to him proving that racists are less racist than liberals, via some of the best rude jokes in the business, the show will cover all bases.

Richard writes a blog each day, called Warming Up, which is his way of overcoming writer’s block.

He muses on the topics of the day, like whether it’s OK for Ricky Gervais to joke about infant mortality, whether Simon & Garfunkel were any good and sandpits.

He says: “It has been questioned whether it is appropriate to joke about a dead baby (if so, then I am screwed), but this jaunty and surreal lyric about a mother’s death in childbirth is as intriguing as it is darkly amusing.

“As I discuss in my show people tend to not mind when a subject is discussed ‘seriously’ or more artistically. But comedy must also confront dark subjects. Happy Now? was all about the fear of losing my baby, which is not something I find funny in itself, but there is humour in the lengths my brain will go to to make me imagine this horror.

“It sounds like Gervais’ joke is about his fear that he’d be a terrible parent. I can understand why someone who had actually lost a child might not enjoy either of our shows, but if a comedian stopped himself making jokes for fear that someone in the audience might have had personal experience of them then he or she would be unable to joke about anything.

“I think it’s worth every comedian asking themselves whether their edgy joke is worth the potential upset it might cause, but if you have a comedian who confronts the nasty things in life you can’t sit through the jokes about the stuff that doesn’t touch on your experience and then only get upset when one does. On this one I side with Gervais and also with Paul Simon, because this discombobulating start to an upbeat, but deeply sad song is what makes it so striking and haunting and beautiful. It makes you feel, even if you’re not quite sure what you’re feeling and that’s what art is about. And pop music and comedy are art (in the right hands at least).”

Richard’s been enjoying his tour and comparing audiences on his blog.

“The Maidstone audience seemed cautious for the first few minutes, but quickly became one of the loveliest and most giving audiences of the tour so far. Two women in the third row seemed to be having a terrible time in the second half and I am not sure why they came back in after the interval. I almost gave them permission to go.

“But everyone else seemed into it. Not the sad-eyed, sullen-faced ladies who may have wandered in by mistake. Were they even there in the first half? However well things are going the comedian’s eye is always drawn to those who are not enjoying it.”