Richard turns to love

Having tackled politics (Hitler) and religion (Jesus), comedian Richard Herring continues his exploration of the big issues with his latest show, this time turning to love.

What Is Love, Anyway brings him to Brighton’s Komedia on Wednesday, February 8 (0845 293 8480).

As Richard says, in 1983 the Welsh, poet-philosopher Howard Jones asked the question: “What is l-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uhve anyway? Does anybody love anybody anyway?”

No one has tried to offer an answer - until now.

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“So I decided that I would try to define love and then destroy it. It seemed a good comedic perspective. But basically I am worn down by it. I am a cynical and a romantic person at the same time. I have always believed that there would be a person for me and that I would find her. I hope I have now. I have been with her for four years now. The show is pretty much about my life until this point, working out how it has happened and whether it will last.

“I am 44, I am not married, I have not got children - but I have managed to live a long time as a kind of romantic failure. I think that you have got to be in the right place at the right time, and sometimes I have met the right person at the wrong time.”

But Richard insists he’s not fatalistic about it all: “It’s also about making it work. A comedian can be a hard person to be with because you are away from home six months of the year. There are lots of temptations out there. Or there were. But it is different now that I am in a proper relationship. Comedians can be very self-centred and up themselves, but the relationship now seems to be working…

“But it is not just about sitting back and waiting for fate to deliver the right person to you. I think we can actually sometimes be a bit overkeen to fall in love. We have to just get out there and meet people.”

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Complicating the relationship for the comedian is the fact that simply being a teenager is licence for an extra 20 years of being a teenager - though, again, with stability, that’s now fading, Richard says.

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