Nic Wright

Richard Herring brings his Best to Teesdale

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page

Cult comic Richard Herring is to bring his new “best of” show to Barnard Castle next year.

Herring will perform The Best on Saturday 18 March 2017 at The Witham.

The Best will see Herring, described by GQ as “the best comedian of his generation”, perform popular routines from his last twelve one-man shows; providing a unique opportunity for fans to revisit their favourite bits, as well as offering the uninitiated an uproarious, abridged version of Herring’s lengthy and enviable career.

Making appearances in The Best will be sections from a dozen of Herring’s Edinburgh shows from the past fifteen years, including the critically-acclaimed What is Love Anyway?, We’re All Going to Die, Christ on a Bike and Hitler Moustache.

One of the most consistently lauded and significant comics of his time, Herring has been writing and performing comedy for almost thirty years, having began his career as one half of a double act with Stewart Lee.

The pair were best known for their television work, producing cult-favourite programmes such as Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy.

Since then Herring has become known as “The King of Edinburgh” (The List) for his fifteen year run of shows at the Edinburgh Festival, and “The Podfather” (The Guardian) for his extensive and popular podcasts.

Persistently placing in the Top 10 UK Comedy Podcast chart, Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast sees him interview top comedians in front of a live audience and is then released online both as videos and podcasts for free.

Previous guests include Stephen Fry, Simon Pegg, Armando Ianucci, Russell Brand, Stephen Merchant, Steve Coogan, Tim Minchin, David Mitchell and Stewart Lee.

The show regularly has up to 200,000 listeners per episode, won three Chortle Internet Comedy Awards and is the only non-BBC show to ever win a Sony Best Comedy Award.

Herring also has an outstanding collection of TV credits, having appeared as a guest on shows including Alan Davies’ As Yet Untitled (Dave), Pointless – Celebrities (BBC One), Argumental (Dave), Set List (Sky Atlantic), Have I Got News For You (BBC One) and Never Mind the Buzzcocks (BBC2).

He also wrote and performed two series of Richard Herring’s Objective for BBC Radio 4.

As well as being a weekly columnist for Metro, Richard’s blog Warming Up has gained a fervent following since he started it in November 2002. With an entry written every single day since it began, it is believed to be the second longest consecutive daily blog in the world.

From his deconstruction of the genealogy of Christ to proving that racists are less racist than liberals – all via some of the best genitalia gags in the business – will your favourite routine make the cut?

With decades of work from this provocative, mischievous, “superior comedian” (The Guardian) to cherry-pick from, The Best is guaranteed to be some of the funniest ninety minutes you could wish for.

Peter Dixon, of promoters Funny Way To Be, said: “We have been trying to book a date for Richard to come to Teesdale for several years now, so we are doubly delighted that he will be performing what is likely to be one of the best tour shows of 2017.

“It’s rare for a comedian to revisit his career in this way so for someone as prolific as Richard Herring to be selecting elements of his award-winning shows it’s sure to be a masterclass in comedy.”

The show starts at 8pm. Tickets are priced £15 and are available now from funnywaytobe.com.