Richard Herring

Richard Herring: Someone Likes Yoghurt. Pleasance Courtyard. Until August 29, 20:00, £9.50/£10.50 (£8.00/£9.00)

photo by: Carmel King

“I'm shocking some people. If you'd come six years ago and seen me being vindictive about the Pope and Catholicism it would have been quite surprising,” says Richard Herring, best known for partnering his podgy eternal-student loser with Stewart Lee's arch, sardonic persona in BBC 2's much-missed Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy. Indeed, his entertaining blog (www.richardherring.com) stands testament, reporting tut-tuttings speared his way after a series of gigs over the border.

Religious skewering aside, he still betrays himself as a comedian who want us to laugh at as well as with him. ‘Someone Likes Yoghurt', he explains, is about “me going to a supermarket and buying nine yoghurts and the checkout girl saying “someone likes yoghurt”. The routine's about defending the fact that buying nine yoghurts is not a terrible thing to do. It's all about challenging perceptions. I get cross about being judged and, you know, there's obviously some implication underneath it all that…I do have an interest in yoghurt,” he sheepishly admits, trailing into silence.

“For me it's just the sake of doing Edinburgh. It's always been about trying out new ideas. Doing stand-up again, it's an experiment to see if I can. I remember the nineties everyone was going ‘once you're on telly, you'll never come back up here again', but I knew then that it's such an important thing to do.” Catholics everywhere must be rejoicing.

James Lyon