Richard Herring: What Is Love Anyway?

Avalon Promotions

Goodness, he's loud and fast this year. He's in a vast, cavernous Victorian hall and perhaps he's trying to fill the room – not only with punters – but also with his voice. Last year's show was about the irrationality of religion; this year it's about the irrationality of love. There are, of course, crude sex jokes aplenty, amongst self-deprecating navel-gazing, and shocking anti-romanticism. I was initially disappointed that the show didn't seem to contain any of Herring's trademark sentimental meanderings, but of course he saved it till the end and then delivered a whopper – an extended story about his grandmother recited over Debussy – followed by a soppy philosophical rom-com ending to bring this sweet evening to a fittingly mawkish close.