I have been working professionally as a writer and comedian for all my adult life, after moving to London in 1989 to see if I could make it.
I had some early successes, writing for On The Hour which launched Alan Partridge on the world and starring in BBC shows Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy.
Since then, I’ve been writing scripts like Time Gentlemen Please for Al Murray, and created 15 stand-up shows like Talking Cock and Hitler Moustache, as well as being a pioneer of podcasting, most notably with RHLSTP where I interview comedians and celebrities in a slightly rude manner.
I’ve had some highs and lows in my career, but have somehow kept consistently working for more than 35 years. Here are five moments that shaped my career.
Meeting Stewart Lee
I met Stewart Lee properly for the first time in a cricket pavilion in December 1986 for the Oxford Revue Comedy Workshop.
I was pogoing on my own to the Sex Pistols and he thought I might thus be worth talking to.
We looked at photos of old cricket teams and improvised names and lives for the players. We realised we had a very similar comic sensibility (and both loved a comedian called Ted Chippington that hardly anyone had heard of) and decided to write sketches together when we got back after Christmas.
We ended up writing comedy together for the next 13 years and did four TV series together.
Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring enjoyed modest success throughout the 1990s and it seemed we were on the verge of maybe going more mainstream. Then a new controller took over BBC2 and she didn’t seem to be a fan, but we waited to see if she’d give us another series.
I was at a party at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999 with Steve Coogan. He bumped into the controller and said to her, “Do you know Richard Herring?” She said nothing, but just turned her back on me. I figured that we probably didn’t have a new series at that point.
Everything had progressed smoothly until then, and it was quite a good thing to have some time in the doldrums to work out what I really wanted to do with my life. Though it felt pretty disastrous at the time.
The audience were often in pain from laughing – and I knew I hadn’t even got to the funniest bit yet.
Christ on a Bike
My first properly solo show was Christ on a Bike in 2001. I had not enjoyed solo stand-up in the early 1990s and didn’t think I could do it.
There was a routine in the show about the genealogy of Christ (Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob etc), where I learned the whole thing, only to realise it goes through Joseph who is no relation to Jesus at all.
It was not only a prodigious feat of memory (I could do it backwards too) but I flew into a fury about my wasted time.
The audience were often in pain from laughing – and I knew I hadn’t even got to the funniest bit yet. I realised I was probably going to be all right on my own.
The Collings and Herrin Podcast
I’d appeared on the 6 Music show of journalist Andrew Collins a few times and we had a good rapport.
In January 2008, he asked me if I fancied having a go at something called “a podcast”. We could talk about anything with no gatekeepers and no censors.
A few episodes in, I took a chance and said something very insulting about his mum and the characters of Collings and Herrin were properly born.
Other comedians couldn’t understand why I’d give away an hour or more of material every week for free, but I loved the freedom of the medium and embraced it.
Ironically, it’s now my main source of income.
I loved the freedom of the medium and embraced it. Ironically, it’s now my main source of income
Lockdown
Lockdown was bad for many reasons – all live performance was cancelled and I got testicular cancer.
But I had set up an HD camera in my attic and was able to carry on podcasting. Plus, the NHS looked after me. I lost a ball, but got lots of material for a book and a stand-up show.
I also took up ventriloquism with a 130-year-old dummy made by my great-grandad. It was a creatively fecund time and made me much more confident about unscripted comedy.
I am planning on making an entirely improvised movie over the next couple of years.
I’ve learned to embrace the positives that come out of negative experiences and it’s great to still be coming up with new ideas in my late 50s.
Richard Herring is currently bringing his critically acclaimed – and extended – stand-up tour, Can I Have My Ball Back?, to venues nationwide, with shows at London’s Leicester Square Theatre on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 March and running until Sunday 1 June at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol. Full info and tickets: richardherring.com
