Edinburgh: Show 7

So, a weekend in Edinburgh with Nice Kate, exciting Edinburgh Fringe stuff going on... What could go wrong?

Nothing, in fact. It was a lovely weekend. However, we managed to pack in an awful lot of stuff, so I will be breaking up the reviews over the next few days, working - excitingly - in reverse order.

So, the last thing we saw yesterday evening was Richard Herring's show menage à un. I'd seen this in previews a few weeks back, and was a bit nervous about seeing it again. I was pretty sure I'd enjoy it, but I didn't know for certain if it would be Nice Kate's cup of tea. (Nice Kate's cup of tea, in case you're interested, is slightly weaker than if you lobbed a Tesco Value tea bag into the River Thames.) I was also slightly nervous, because last time I wrote a review of his gig here, Mr Herring himself popped along and commented on it. Which was flattering, but a bit odd.

When I'd seen the show previously, the room had been much smaller and, although the material had been very strong, the audience interaction had felt a bit intense and hostile. This time, however, exactly the right tone was struck; it was playful, fun, and very, very clever. At 7.46 a.m. today on the way to work, the phrase "wasp husbandry" made Nice Kate and I giggle again. That was a very early giggle indeed.

Herring is the master of the comic rejoinder. If he mentions potatoes in one part of his act, you can be sure they'll pop up later, when you're least expecting them (like a root vegetable version of the Spanish Inquisition). This is done exceptionally well. The best thing about rejoinders is they're not actually that difficult to write, but they make the comic seem very clever. I shall be working on some of my own. To give him his due, proper intellectual comedy isn't seen nearly often enough, and I'm really pleased that the show seemed to be getting the recognition it deserved - it looked pretty full on the Sunday we saw it.

(Aside: there was a small Olivio routine - funny in itself - which struck a chord with me for entirely the wrong reasons and a lot of very strange coincidences. Nice Kate said I nearly cried. But I didn't and she's lying.)

And for regular readers of this blog, no, I didn't go and speak to Richard after the show. Most of this was tiredness, rather than shyness on my part. It was the end of a long weekend and the lure of pasta back at Nice Kate's house was too strong. Damn you, you carbohydrate temptress.

Nice Kate would like to do her own interpretation of events. I have asked her to add these as comments. However, she is very busy and important, so don't expect anything soon. And if she writes anything I don't agree with, I will delete it. I am BlogGod.