Comedian Richard Herring is going through a mid-life crisis. Depressed and disorientated after having split up with his girlfriend, moved house and been stricken with writer's block, he resolves to take inspiration from the bust of Hercules that graces the front of his new home and perform twelve impossible or arduous labours in the hope of giving his 37 years on this planet some kind of meaning. Will the small, fat man from Somerset prove that he is a match for the bronzed and toned Roman demi-god? Or, more likely, will he not?
In his excellent Someone Likes Yoghurt, Herring shares with us his world of gonorrhoea-transmiting magpies, his attempts to become successor to Pope John Paul II, and his local supermarket's utterly humiliating new checkout service: the grocery interrogation.
ménage à un sees Herring consolidate his position as one of the UK’s most uncompromising and innovative stand-ups in a show which deals with loneliness, only-ness and Onanism, and attempts to determine whether three-in-a-bed sex romps are really better than one-in-a-bed sex romps. Along the way he reveals why Olivio is the most dangerous spread for the confirmed bachelor, claims that we can save humanity by having sex with sea creatures and discusses the existential angst of being a comedy character who exists solely to deliver a disappointing punch-line. He also provides the correct solution to the Riddle of the Sphinx, proposes that the English should rename apples ‘sky potatoes’ in order to demonstrate the ultimate folly of the French, and controversially calls for the disenfranchisement of the stupid.
Rich is single, never been married, has got no kids. Has he wasted his life? Is it time to finally grow up and get out the pipe and slippers and await the blessed release of death? Or does life really begin at 40, giving him the excuse to go around in nappies and make jokes about poo and wee for a good three years to come?
Richard Herring considers what could possibly be worse than being a podgy, swotty, virginal schoolboy. What if your dad's the headmaster too?