Richard Herring

BRIAN DONALDSON

RICHARD HERRING ****

THE STAND, EDINBURGH

I IMAGINE that, were comedians to all agree on a fixed set of rules for doing a stand-up gig, pretty high up on the list would be: "do not antagonise your audience." Clearly, Richard Herring's rulebook has either been scoffed by the dog or flung out of his window for this chunkier, fleshed-out version of the Ménage à Un show which debuted last August. Not that he has added much in the way of new material, aside from the two, naturally very clever jokes he has worked up for his forthcoming Fringe show, Oh F**k, I'm 40.

[Tesco Groceries Campaign 2007]

His "old people chatting in a postmodern fashion on top of a bonfire" skit, which lasted six minutes in August, now goes on for twenty. And you can almost smell the fun he is having in stretching out his Maxine Carr material, just to see how far he can push our tolerance levels. Quite far, as it goes, save for the odd shame-ridden "ooh".

Given the wrong audience, you can imagine a Richard Herring show going very horribly awry; perhaps one filled by the mechanics he mercilessly ribs for working in a garage called The Hand Job Centre (another routine which deliberately stays up way past its bedtime). Thankfully, though, this bunch were soft putty in Herring's artful hands.