Inter:Mission review of Bristol gig

Richard Herring ★★★★ 

As I was waiting for my guest I bumped into a friend I had not seen in sometime and he told me that he is a Herring groupie and this is his fourth performance in a month. While I would not describe myself as a groupie this is the third time I have seen Herring in the last two months.

You could tell that the majority of the audience were there to see Herring and I can guarantee that none of them would have been disappointed.  The title of the show had made my guest slightly nervous. It may be a delicate subject but he handled it with aplomb and only the most over sensitive were likely to be offended. I did get the sense that Herring is looking for some outrage but last night’s audience were not taking the bait.

One of the strongest points from my point of view (and I fear that this may upset Herring) was the section on Herring based puns in the event of his death.  His visceral loathing of a certain comedy critics website provided some of the biggest laughs of the night.

His deconstruction of “There was an old woman who swallowed a fly” was cleverly done, and highly enjoyable. The section on ants invading his kitchen came across as slightly confused but it was a preview show so there is time to work out the kinks.

Likewise Herring’s referencing of notes did at times break the flow of the gig but there just seemed to be so many ideas for him to get across so it was perfectly understandable.

The show may contain some disturbing imagery that Freud would have a field day with, and it may have over ran, but I was not disappointed and cannot wait to see the polished article.

Andy Jack