Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English
stand-up comedian
Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...
and writer, whose early work includes the comedy
double act
A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases f ...
Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring were a British standup comedy double act consisting of the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. They were most famous for their work on television, most notably ''Fist of Fun'' and '' This Morning with Richard Not Judy'' ...
(alongside
Stewart Lee
Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian, screenwriter, and television director. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, deadpan delivery, and consistent breaking of the fourth wall.
Lee b ...
). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy".
Towards the end of the double act, Herring also worked as a writer, producing four plays. After Lee and Herring went their separate ways he co-wrote the
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
Time Gentlemen Please
''Time Gentlemen Please'' is a British sitcom primarily written by Richard Herring and Al Murray and broadcast on Sky One from 2000 to 2002.
Premise
The show is set in a forgotten, unwelcoming pub whose opinionated landlord, 'Guv' (short f ...
'', but quickly returned to performance with
concept-driven one-person show
A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show or one-woman show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including auto ...
s like ''
Talking Cock'', ''Hitler Moustache'' and ''Christ on a Bike'' as well as regular circuit stand-up. Herring has created thirteen of these stand-up shows since 2004, performing them for eleven consecutive years at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
, with annual tours and a final performance recorded for DVD. His 2016–17 show was a 'best of' tour, drawing from these shows.
Herring is recognised as a pioneer of comedy
podcasting
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
, initially with broadcaster
Andrew Collins on ''
The Collings and Herrin Podcast
The Collings and Herrin Podcast was a topical podcast produced by broadcaster Andrew Collins and comedian Richard Herring. Its title derives from the recurring Richard Herring trope of misspelling names for comic effect.
Described as a "sidewa ...
'' and subsequently with high-profile comedians and celebrities such as
Dawn French
Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian, presenter and writer. French is known for writing and starring on the BBC comedy sketch show ''French and Saunders'' with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Saunde ...
,
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries.
Palin w ...
and
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
on ''
Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast
''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' (or ''RHLSTP'' ()) and ''Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast'' are two related comedy podcasts, created and hosted by British comedian Richard Herring. Hosted on The British Comedy G ...
''. He has maintained a daily blog called ''Warming Up'' without a break since 25 November 2002. His blog is archived by the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
for purposes of UK documentary heritage.
Early life
Richard Herring was born in
Pocklington
Pocklington is a market town and civil parish situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded its population as 8,337. It is east of York and northwest of Hull.
The town's sk ...
,
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
, and grew up in
Cheddar
Cheddar most often refers to either:
*Cheddar cheese
*Cheddar, Somerset, the village after which Cheddar cheese is named
Cheddar may also refer to:
Places
* Cheddar, Ontario, Canada
* Cheddar Yeo, a river which flows through Cheddar Gorge and t ...
,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
. He is the youngest of three children.
He attended
The Kings of Wessex School, where his father was the headmaster and maths teacher. This later formed the basis of his 2008 stand-up show, ''The Headmaster's Son''. Herring’s mother was also a teacher.
The 2007
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
comedy drama ''You Can Choose Your Friends'', which he wrote and also starred in, was based on his family.
Some of the same characters later featured in the Radio 4 series "Relativity".
Herring was a student at
St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although th ...
, where he wrote and performed for a comedy troupe known as the
Seven Raymonds
The Seven Raymonds were a comic revue troupe founded in 1987 by Oxford University undergraduates.
The Seven Raymonds were Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, Michael Cosgrave, Richard Canning, and Jo Renshaw. They supported The Oxford ...
as well as the
Oxford Revue
The Oxford Revue is a comedy group primarily featuring students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, England. Founded in the early 1950s, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians, actors and satirists. The Revue w ...
. He attained a
2:1 in
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
.
Career
Lee and Herring
Between 1992 and 2000, Richard was half of the stand-up comedy
double act
A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases f ...
with
Stewart Lee
Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian, screenwriter, and television director. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, deadpan delivery, and consistent breaking of the fourth wall.
Lee b ...
. Their television work included ''
Fist of Fun
''Fist of Fun'' was a British comedy show, initially a BBC Radio 1 series in 1993 and then a BBC2 television series in 1995. It was written by and starred Lee and Herring (the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring).
Each episode of ''Fist o ...
'' and ''
This Morning With Richard Not Judy'', and they had been collaborating on stage and radio projects since the 1980s.
Lee and Herring wrote material for
Chris Morris and
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer, performer, and panellist. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of ...
's ''
On the Hour
''On the Hour'' was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992. Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring an ...
'' in 1991 and the duo contributed to the creation of the character that was to be
Alan Partridge
Alan Gordon Partridge is a comedy character portrayed by the English actor Steve Coogan. A parody of British television personalities, Partridge is a tactless and inept broadcaster with an inflated sense of celebrity. Since his debut in 1991, h ...
. In 1992 and 1993, they wrote and performed ''
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
''Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World'' was a BBC Radio 4 comedy series starring Stewart Lee and Richard Herring (the comedy duo Lee and Herring), and narrated by Tom Baker as the title character Lionel Nimrod, an over-the-top parody of Leonard Ni ...
'' for
Radio 4. For
Radio 1 Radio 1 or Radio One most commonly refers to:
*BBC Radio 1, a music radio station from the BBC
** BBC Radio 1Xtra, a digital radio station broadcasting black music
*CBC Radio One, a talk radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio ...
, they wrote and performed one series of ''
Fist of Fun
''Fist of Fun'' was a British comedy show, initially a BBC Radio 1 series in 1993 and then a BBC2 television series in 1995. It was written by and starred Lee and Herring (the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring).
Each episode of ''Fist o ...
'' in 1993, remaking it for television in 1995 and 1996. They hosted a series on Radio 1 in 1994 and 1995, called ''
Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring were a British standup comedy double act consisting of the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. They were most famous for their work on television, most notably ''Fist of Fun'' and '' This Morning with Richard Not Judy'' ...
''. A final television partnership with Lee, ''
This Morning With Richard Not Judy'', ran for 18 episodes over two series was eventually cancelled "as a result of BBC management reshuffles".
Solo work
![Richard Herring](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Richard_Herring.jpg)
Herring has written and performed in thirteen
one-person show
A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show or one-woman show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including auto ...
s, eleven of them consecutively. A Herring show typically starts with a run at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
, continues with an extensive UK tour and ends with a recorded performance for DVD.
For radio, Herring co-wrote and presented the history based sketch show ''
That Was Then, This Is Now''. For television he wrote
Al Murray
Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gr ...
's sitcom ''
Time Gentlemen Please
''Time Gentlemen Please'' is a British sitcom primarily written by Richard Herring and Al Murray and broadcast on Sky One from 2000 to 2002.
Premise
The show is set in a forgotten, unwelcoming pub whose opinionated landlord, 'Guv' (short f ...
''. He also contributed to the third series of ''
Little Britain Little Britain may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Little Britain'' (sketch show), a British radio and then TV show
** ''Little Britain USA'', an American spin-off
* "Little Britain", a song by Dreadzone from the 1995 album '' Second Light''
...
'' as script editor.
In 2005, he presented a
chat show
A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...
called ''
Heads Up with Richard Herring
''Heads Up with Richard Herring'' or ''HUWRH'', is a British celebrity chat show written by and starring Richard Herring, who is best known as one half of comedy duo Lee and Herring, the stars of BBC Two shows ''Fist of Fun'' and '' This Morning ...
'' on the
Pokerzone channel, in which he interviewed professional
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
players and celebrities about their careers and their love of the game. There were 10 episodes in total.
![Richard herring](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Richard_Herring.jpg)
In February 2007, filming began on Herring's
comedy drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...
''You Can Choose Your Friends''. As well as writing the script, he also acted alongside
Gordon Kennedy,
Claire Skinner
Claire Skinner (born 1965) is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom for her television career, particularly playing Sue Brockman from the BBC television series ''Outnumbered (British TV series), Outnumbered''.
Early life
Claire Skin ...
,
Rebecca Front
Rebecca Louise Front (born 16 May 1964) is an English actress, writer and comedian. She won the 2010 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for ''The Thick of It'' (2009–2012).Jennifer Lipma"Bafta for Jewish actress Rebecca Front" ...
,
Sarah-Jane Potts
Sarah-Jane Potts (born 30 August 1976) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Saint (Sarah) in '' Sugar Rush'', Ellie, Abs' on/off girlfriend in '' Casualty'' and Jo Lipsett in '' Waterloo Road''. Potts is the sister of actor Andre ...
,
Robert Daws
Robert Daws (born 4 May 1959) is an English actor, and crime fiction author. He is best known for his television roles, including Tuppy Glossop in ''Jeeves and Wooster'' (1990-93), gruff cricketer Roger Dervish in the comedy ''Outside Edge'' ( ...
,
Anton Rodgers
Anthony "Anton" Rodgers (10 January 1933 – 1 December 2007) was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film, in television dramas and sitcoms. He starred in several sitcoms, including ''Fresh Fields'' (ITV, ...
and
Julia McKenzie
Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie (born 17 February 1941) is an English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She has premièred leading roles written by both Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she is known for her BAFT ...
. The show was broadcast on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
on 7 June 2007.
In January 2008 he began the ''
Collings and Herrin'' (sic) podcast with
Andrew Collins. They celebrated their two-year anniversary with a live "100th" podcast (it was actually the 105th recording) at the
Leicester Square Theatre
The Leicester Square Theatre is a 400-seat theatre in Leicester Place, immediately north of Leicester Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It was previously known as Notre Dame Hall, Cavern in the Town and The Venue. The theatre hosts st ...
. On 30 January 2010 the pair began a tenure of sitting in for
Adam and Joe
Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish are British comedy performers known together as Adam and Joe. They are best known for presenting ''Adam and Joe (radio show), Adam and Joe'' on BBC Radio 6 Music (2007–2009, 2011) and ''The Adam and Joe Show'' on C ...
on BBC Radio 6 Music on Saturdays mornings, a slot they occupied for more than a year.
Herring's 2008 stand-up set ''The Headmaster's Son'' earned four 5-star reviews and several 4-star reviews. The set covers his experience growing up in
The Kings of Wessex School in Somerset where his father worked as headmaster and how this may have been the origin of his fondness for telling puerile jokes. The show was seen by critics as a thoughtful look at his upbringing,
and his relationship with his father, to whom the show is dedicated.
Herring launched his show, ''Hitler Moustache'' in 2009 to see if he "could reclaim the
toothbrush moustache
The toothbrush moustache is a style of moustache in which the sides are vertical (or nearly vertical) rather than tapered, giving the hairs the appearance of the bristles on a toothbrush that are attached to the nose. It was made famous by such ...
for comedy – it was
Chaplin Chaplin may refer to:
People
* Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director
* Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin
Films
* '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983)
* ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992)
* ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...
's first, then Hitler ruined it."
The show discusses broader issues, such as fascism and the
British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...
.
Herring and some of his contemporaries, including
Dave Gorman
David James Gorman (born 2 March 1971) is an English comedian, presenter, and writer.
Gorman began his career writing for comedy series such as ''The Mrs Merton Show'' (1993–1998) and ''The Fast Show'' (1994–1997), and later garnered ac ...
, were angered when material from his show was misrepresented in a ''
Guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
'' column by critic Brian Logan.
On 14 October 2010, his Radio 4 series ''Richard Herring's Objective'' was first broadcast. Here Herring attempts to reclaim controversial items, starting with the toothbrush moustache and moving onto the
hoodie
A hoodie (in some cases spelled hoody and alternatively known as a hooded sweatshirt) is a sweatshirt with a hood. Hoodies with zippers usually include two pockets on the lower front, one on either side of the zipper, while "pullover" hoodies ...
,
Flag of England
The flag of England is the national flag of England, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It is derived from Saint George's Cross (heraldic blazon: ''Argent, a cross gules''). The association of the red cross as an emblem of England ...
and
Dolly the Sheep
Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finnish Dorset sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a ...
. An Edinburgh special about the
See-you-Jimmy hat was broadcast in August 2011 and a second series was recorded in October 2011 with episodes about the
golliwog
The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character – created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton – that appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag ...
, the
wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...
,
Page 3
Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishing ...
and
the old school tie.
On 27 December 2010, Herring finished second on ''
Celebrity Mastermind
''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. It began in 2002 as a one-off special, expanding to the current arrangement of 10 episodes, broadcast during December a ...
'' with a final score of 34 points. His specialist subject was
Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...
. He was ''The Pod Delusion'' "Comedian of the Year 2010."
In May 2011 it was announced that ''
Fist of Fun
''Fist of Fun'' was a British comedy show, initially a BBC Radio 1 series in 1993 and then a BBC2 television series in 1995. It was written by and starred Lee and Herring (the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring).
Each episode of ''Fist o ...
'' would be released on DVD by Go Faster Stripe. The first series was released in December 2011 and the second in November 2012, winning 'Best DVD' at the 2013
Chortle Awards
The Chortle Awards were set up in 2002 by the comedy website Chortle to honour the best of established stand-up comics currently working in the UK. A panel of reviewers draw up a shortlist, which is presented for public vote at the Chortle websit ...
In August and September 2015, he performed all 11 of his previous one man shows, plus a new one, ''Happy Now?'', at the Leicester Square Theatre over the course of six weekends in a season called "The Twelve Shows of Herring". ''Happy Now?'' was taken on a 50-plus date UK tour between October 2015 and June 2016. His 2017 tour show was called ''Richard Herring — The Best''. His 2017 Edinburgh Fringe show is called "Oh Frig, I'm 50!" This was taken on a UK tour in the Spring of 2018.
In 2020, Herring was a contestant on the tenth series of ''
Taskmaster''. He was the series' eventual winner. Herring later returned to compete against fellow winners
Ed Gamble
Edward Stephenson Jamison Gamble (born 11 March 1986) is an English comedian, known for co-presenting ''The Peacock and Gamble Podcast'' and his regular appearances on ''Mock the Week''. He studied at Durham University, where he began his come ...
,
Kerry Godliman
Kerry Anna Godliman (born November 1973) is an English actor and comedian best known for her roles in ''Derek'', '' Bad Move'' and '' After Life''.
Early life
Godliman was born in Perivale, West London, and trained at Rose Bruford College in ...
,
Liza Tarbuck
Liza Tarbuck ( ; born 21 November 1964) is an English actress, comedian, and television and radio presenter.
Early life
Liza Tarbuck was born in Liverpool. She is the daughter of comedian Jimmy Tarbuck and his wife Pauline, with an older siste ...
and
Lou Sanders
Lou Sanders is a British stand-up comedian, writer and actress from Broadstairs, Kent.
Early life
Sanders grew up in Broadstairs, Kent with her mother and her stepfather, a history teacher. Her father was periodically present. Sanders moved ou ...
for the second "Champion of Champions" special, which he also won.
Blogs, podcasts and internet
On 25 November 2002 Herring started his blog, ''Warming Up'', as a way to overcome
writer's block
Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...
. He has written an entry for every day, and has over 7,000 consecutive entries. His regular readership is estimated to be around 3,000. Some ideas recorded in ''Warming Up'' have been used in his live shows. The first year of his blog is collected in two books, ''Bye Bye Balham'' and ''The Box Lady and Other Pesticles''.
On 12 October 2009, he recorded the first episode of ''As It Occurs To Me'', a weekly radio-style stand-up and sketch show made for the Internet. It stars him,
Emma Kennedy
Emma Kennedy (born Elizabeth Emma Williams on 28 May 1967) is an English actress, lawyer, comedian, and travel writer, comedian, television presenter and author.
Early life and education
The daughter of teachers, ,
Dan Tetsell
Dan Tetsell (born 2 July 1974) is a British actor, comedian and writer for radio, television and stage. He has worked on a number of projects, including '' The Museum of Everything'', ''That Was Then, This Is Now'', ''Newsjack'' and ''Parsons and ...
and
Christian Reilly and currently stands at 18 episodes and 5 bonus mini-episodes. It was nominated for best internet show at the 2010
Sony Awards
The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...
, though it failed to place. On 7 February 2011, ''As It Occurs to Me'' won the first Chortle Internet award On 20 March 2012 he retained it. In 2017, ''As It Occurs To Me'' returned as a six-episode
web series
A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...
.
In 2011 Herring began playing himself at snooker for an audio podcast called "
Me1 vs Me2 Snooker". On 28 July 2016 he performed at the Tempting Failure extreme art festival In 2020 he started playing this with 32 personas on Twitch and appeared on Comedians: Home Alone on BBC2 in July with an edited frame of Me1 vs Me2.
In 2013, Herring won the Chortle Award for his ''
Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'', which again won the award in 2014.
In 2012 he had recorded the first 16 episodes of the long-running ''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' with guests including
Tim Minchin, Stewart Lee,
Adam Buxton
Adam Offord Buxton (born 7 June 1969) is an English actor, comedian, podcaster and writer. With the filmmaker Joe Cornish, he is part of the comedy duo Adam and Joe. They presented the Channel 4 television series ''The Adam and Joe Show'' (1996 ...
,
David Mitchell and Armando Iannucci. It was nominated for a Sony Award for Best Comedy alongside a list of BBC produced comedy shows in 2013. The show won the Bronze Award. In May and June 2013 he recorded nine podcasts with guests including Stephen Fry, Russell Brand and
Mary Beard. His interview with
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
, was covered by national and international news media including the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
when Fry revealed a recent suicide attempt. The series continued with
.
On 17 November 2013, he recorded the first episode of a six-part internet stand-up, sketch and interview show ''Richard Herring's Meaning of Life,'' structured around the philosophical concepts of 'Creation', 'the Paranormal', 'Love', 'Death', 'Good & Evil' and 'the Shape of Things To Come', the episode being broadcast online between February 2014 and early 2015.
In February 2014, the first ''Richard Herring Show'' was broadcast on
. Herring presented this with comedian
weekly, before quitting the show together; their final episode was broadcast on 24 May 2014.
On 8 March 2018, in aid of
was (it is 19 November). He did the same on 8 March 2019, raising almost £130,000. He repeated the exercise on 8 March 2020 and streamed himself responding to tweets live on Twitch. He raised a further £70,000. In 2020 he wrote a book about his experiences and toxic masculinity called ''The Problem With Men'' which was published on 5 November.
In March 2020 Herring started streaming regularly on Twitch as the world went into lockdown. He produced weekly remote episodes of his podcast, Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, did a live feed of Stone Clearing most weekday mornings and played himself at Snooker (with 32 personas) in the evening. He also did occasional non-director's commentaries for films, as well as a newspaper review with his 128-year-old ventriloquist dummy called ''Ally and Herring's Twitch of Fun''.
*''Warming Up'' blog (2002–present)
*''Guardian How To Write'' (contributor) edited by Philip Oltermann The Guardian (2009)
*''The Atheist Guide to Christmas'' Contributor (Editor Ariane Sherine) The Friday Project (2009)
*''Shouting at the Telly'' (Contributor) (Editor John Grindrod) Faber and Faber (2009)
*''Roger's Profanisaurus – Das Krapital'' Introduction Dennis Publishing (2010)
*''Metro newspaper'' weekly column (2012–2016)
*''Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who'' (contributor) edited by Steve Berry Matador (2012)
*''Dead Funny'' (Contributor) (Editors Robin Ince and Johnny Mains) Salt Publishing (2014)
*''Goodbye Europe: Writers and Artists Say Farewell'' (contributor) W&N 2017
*''Slaughterhouse 5: 50th Anniversary Edition'' (contributor) Vintage 2019
*''Zippy and Me'' by Ronnie Le Drew (foreword) Unbound 2019
, some years after joking on ''Fist of Fun'' that "My ideal woman has the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha." He also dated
. They had their first child, a daughter, in February 2015, followed by a son in October 2017.
Herring has raised money for
in aid of the charity in 2004 as well as the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon in 2011, 2013 and 2014. In January 2011 he was nominated for a Just Giving Life Time Achievement Award for his extensive work in helping to raise money, awareness and support for Scope. In 2012 he was made a Patron of Scope.
In 2010 he was made a patron of
(formerly The British Humanist Association) and said:
In February 2021 he had an
to remove a cancerous testicle, undergoing one shot of chemotherapy a month later. In November 2021 he ran the Hertfordshire Half Marathon and raised £30,000 for the hospitals that treated his condition. His book about the experience "Can I Have My Ball Back?" was published in October 2022. In April 2022 it was announced that Herring had become an Ambassador for
.