Hilarious voyage of discovery

Published Date: 14 August 2008

By NEIL MCEWAN

Richard Herring: The Headmaster's Son, *****

Underbelly, Cowgate

WILD-HAIRED, sweating and looking like an Old Testament prophet, Richard Herring bounded onstage and within five minutes had delivered an astoundingly eloquent and richly-detailed piece of blasphemy.

There were two options open to the audience – quiet indignation or uproarious laughter in honour of the wordplay. They chose the latter.

How did a nerdy middle-class headmaster's son from Cheddar transform into the outrageous comedy satyr of the Underbelly? To find out, Herring took the audience back to view his callow teenage self. Reading from his diaries of the time, the worthy, arrogant and sexually terrified younger Herring was horribly familiar to many in the crowd.

Along with some eye-watering, completely unrepeatable passages, Herring delivered an effusively warm and good natured reminiscence on lost youth.