Sometimes, even before something has happened, it’s already good. People watching from the window of the upper floor of Burger King, I spied Richard Herring and the cast of As It Occurs To Me (AIOTM) walking below. He was leading slightly and had the look of a man who had won already. That’s the look that has inspired all of those ‘Think Yourself Successful ‘ type self help books. They don’t work of course. You can’t bottle it, it comes and goes, and when a person has it they invariably aren’t aware of it. Still, I knew it would be a fine performance, and it was. It was the best I’ve ever seen him, and I don’t just mean the view from the front, although his eyes are lovely. To be in the presence of a quick minded and skilled performer surfing the laughter of a confident audience is such joy.
I had booked the front row seats when I thought Nina would be coming. Nick was a last minute substitution, and I had told him we were close to the stage, but also said that he was unlikely to be picked on because AIOTM is scripted. I had forgotten that Richard would be doing stand-up first. Oh dear. Herring’s top form performance can be listened to over and over as he had put it out as a podcast for free. Had he charged, I would have paid money to hear my sweet, shy, husband being told that he was an old, Roy Chubby Brown lookalike. I turned away and could hardly listen at the time, but had the impression that Nick had been coping well. Playing it back, I notice Nick’s terse responses. Just before the interval, Herring says ‘..this guy hates me, I think he may not come back.’ The only other time I took Nick to a Herring gig, he nearly walked out during the ‘wanking off paedophiles’ routine. I don’t think he’ll accompany me again. Not even for the golden opportunity to look at maps at the British Museum.
Nick won’t need to see Herring again though because I’ve got fellow Herring fans as mates. That may be taking it a bit too far, but there is a little community of Herring fanciers on face book that is providing a warm glow of familiarity. By not so strange coincidence, many are featured in the show. Unaccountably, star fan the Reverend Peter Organ is not a member of the I Fancy Richard Herring and Am Only Slightly Ashamed To Admit It face book group. His loss.
AIOTM (aiotm) podcast here: http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/as_it_occurs_to_me/
Richard Herring’s new book that one day I’ll get around to writing my thoughts down about is reduced to £6 (lesson: don’t bother advanced ordering from Amazon, you get the book late and pay more) here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Not-Grow-Up-Memoir/dp/0091932084/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274570601&sr=1-1
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