Review: Someone Likes Yoghurt

Richard Herring, 'Someone Likes Yoghurt'

Midland Arts Centre, Thu 30th March

Last night I went to see Richard Herring's touring version of

this Edinburgh Fringe show. As a similarly disenchanted 20-something

I identified with and appreciated the knowing in-joke style of his

previous ventures (Lionel Nimrod, Fist of Fun, This Morning With

Richard Not Judy), and as a still fairly disenchanted mid 30-something

I was pleased to find that I still related to his material, even if his live

technique was a little rabid at times. Glad I wasn't in the front row:

one member of the audience in particular was on the receiving end

of a routine which culminated in her being called a 'trout whore'...

(it was probably his mum anyway)

The material was not solely yoghurt-based: in fact, in the first half

of the show there was scarcely any reference to the product at all

(though he was to make up for this later). His chosen topics included

Rudyard Kipling, monkey f***ing (not going to explain, you had to

be there), Pope John Paul II (and Catholicism generally), and sperm

the size of a fully-grown trout. Hopefully this may give some idea of

the tangential nature of the show.

Anyway, the yoghurt... this consisted of an anecdote where the purchase

of 9 yoghurts at a supermarket led to the comment from a shop assistant

which forms the title of the show, and which led in turn to an extensive

denial to the audience that Herring was anything other than a perfectly

ordinary yoghurt eater - not someone who would, say, buy 999

yoghurts, fill a bath with them, then bathe in them until they set before

going to bed in his yoghurt pyjamas. A succession of excessive ideas

tried (and failed, of course) to set up the notion of Herring as something

other than a thoroughly yoghurt-obsessed freak.

Still, at least he's stopped going on about cress!

One idea I liked was the suggestion that the yoghurt routine would

continue until everyone was laughing, and that there were 2 people

at the back he could see who were keeping it going for themselves

and everyone else.

Last night it lasted for about 35 minutes - is that good?

Overall, a very enjoyable evening out - not, as the Telegraph

suggested while the show was on in Edinburgh, "the worst show

of 2005".