That's not a personal question, but the name of both a song by Howard Jones and also a comedy show by UK stand up comedian and writer Richard Herring.
It was the day before my friend Christina's birthday (3rd Feb) and as a present I bought her a ticket to the show. Myself and her brother were also in attendance. This may well become a tradition considering I did the same last year when Mark Steel was in town (those that have heard Mark Steel on Radio 4 will get the reference).
I think its fair to say that all three of us have been fans of Mr Herring since the days of Lee & Herring's Fist of Fun, but for one reason or another it isn't until now that we have managed to catch one of his shows. This year was going to be different; I decided after the last few years of listening to his AIOTM and Edinburgh 2011 podcasts (both available to listen to at www.comedy.co.uk, and to buy from www.gofasterstripe.com), as well as buying DVDs of his past shows, I decided it was time to actually see him in the flesh (as it were).
So, what is love? That's not for me to answer, after all everyone has their own definition of love, and there are lots of ways to express love. In this case i have expressed my platonic love for my friend by giving her the opportunity to see a live show that tries to break down the mystery that is love.
The show itself ran for almost two hours with a 20 minute interval after the first hour. Not long to crack the science or philosophy or whatever of love but in some ways Richard Herring succeeds. The show was done in a kind of chronological order, from birth, and the love for your parents and vice versa, through to the teenage years where all of us at some point will have told our parents "I hate you", to finding love for ourselves in adulthood, and eventually to the last years spent amongst loved ones.
The illusion of domestic bliss with his girlfriend was somewhat shattered by making fun of her. By her own admission she is a little kooky and Richard managed to make light of this in a very flattering way; I’m sure she didn’t mind a little ribbing for the purposes of the show.
The deconstruction of the poem he'd written as an 18 year old, recounting the year a school friend spent sleeping with as many girls as he could, was funnier than you could imagine.
For me, the highlight would have to have been the 3 or so minutes' rant where he informs us that on the first Valentines day spent with his girlfriend he decided he would buy a single Ferrero Rocher (the gold wrapped chocolate/nut combination) and continue to do so on every subsequent Valentines Day. This was an amazing recall of the amount of these things needed to make up a pyramid as seen on the television adverts, in which a waiter serves a tray of Ferrero Rocher to expectant guests at a dinner party, to which one of the guests comments "you are spoiling us with these chocolates".
Of course a show like this must include some darker elements of the human condition and it was so easy to see the lengths he went to in order to bring us the kind of pathos needed to make it more than just a comedy show with jokes about sexual love. If he is due to come to your town or city in the
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