Skinnyfest 3 - Richard Herring - Ménage Á Un

There's something reassuring about Richard Herring. That cosy teddy bear image he so desperately tries to avoid endears us to his plight as a frustrated single man. This year, he's abandoned the high concept show in favour of straight-forward stand up. Ironically, in this performance, his half full/half empty glass scenario is offset by seeing him accidentally spill most of its contents. As Herring himself explains, stand-up is a masturbatory art form, and accordingly much of his set is based around onanism. Looking outwards, Herring would like to be controversial, but his Maxine Carr and Jean Charles de Menezes references don't leave many mouths in the audience ajar. There's a lot of self-referential criticising of his material, scoring high on the old post-modern irony scale. The recurring gag about a margarine misunderstanding is a nice touch, while he is well aware of the tendency of critics to misquote him in an attempt to turn him into a Bernard Manning-like figure. Herring delivers the goods (and a large helping of monkey semen) but there's an overwhelming sense of disappointment afterwards.