I have
just recorded the 100th episode of my award winning “Richard
Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast”. It’s an incredible milestone for a
self-produced piece of entertainment, but one of the advantages of making
content for the internet is there are no executives informing me that they’re
taking me off the air. I can keep going until everyone stops listening (and
even after that if I wish). There’s no censorship, no time limit and no charge.
That’s
right. There’s around about 9000 minutes of chat with this country’s finest
comedians available to download for FREE. Lord Sugar might fire me if I tried
to become his Apprentice with such a ridiculous business plan. But I don’t want
people to miss out on this just because they don’t have cash and I hope that
those who can afford to pay might buy one of my DVDs or come and see me on tour
or buy a badge for a pound (is this show worth 1p an episode? Only you can
decide). I don’t quite know how it works, but somehow I am keeping my head
above water.
If
you head to YouTube or iTunes today you can catch my interview with the amazing
Eddie Izzard. Although the show is available in audio and video I think it’s
worth watching this one, if only to see Eddie’s incredible stylish outfit. It’s
a testament to him that the fact that he sometimes wears skirts and make-up is
one of the less remarkable things about him. He is politically engaged,
performs his comedy in languages that he has to learn especially and also ran
43 marathons in 51 days after only a month of training.
He
has a drive that borders on insanity and I tried my best to get to the heart of
what makes him tick. I don’t know if I unlocked any secrets, but it was a
delight to listen to his fizzing brain for 75 minutes and to riff with one of
my comedy heroes.
Young
and hungry comedians who yearn for instant fame and success might be surprised
to learn that it took Eddie about a decade and a half to get his big break (and
he tells me some funny stories about his years as a street performer). The best
comics make it look effortless, but they are like swans. Because only the Queen
is allowed to eat them.
Previous
guests include Stephen Fry, Stephen Merchant and Louis Theroux (who turns the
tables on me and attempts to “Louis Theroux” me to find out about my personal
life) and still to come in this series are Jack Whitehall, David Mitchell and a
very candid and funny Richard Bacon. Plus interviews with newer comedians who
you might not yet have heard of yet. But
who I confidently predict will be big stars.
It’s
so much fun to be a part of and I am proud to have created something like this
off my own bat. Until I start comparing myself with Eddie Izzard and realise what a lazy
monolingual waster I really am.
Last
week I hosted the Mother
and Baby Magazine Awards. It’s still the only awards ceremony in the UK with
three distinct awards for breast pumps. Clearly that is not enough breast pump
awards, but it’s a start. And it’s three more than BAFTA give.
There
is a certain comedy to giving awards to the best double breast pump (you never
know when you will need to milk two women at once) or reusable nappy or wet
wipe. But of course none of this is funny to the people who make these things.
It’s big business.
But
if actors can have awards for pretending to be other people and saying stuff
someone else has written for them, then by God, the designers of the best wet
wipe deserve recognition as well.
At
least they have created something that has a genuine purpose. Physics and peace
are all well and good but surely the team that invented the most effective
nappy rash cream in the world are more deserving of a Nobel prize.
