Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast

EPISODE 50: Freaks and Geeks - Rumpel, Orbax and Pepper and Keir McAllister. The Fringe is over and Richard is winding down like a non-Duracell bunny. There's a definite end of term atmosphere and some literal clock-watching, but there's still much to entertain - even if it is mostly visual. Kangaroo King Rumpel returns after last year's bizarre appearance and this year he is dressed up and spouting pearls of wisdom from amongst the madness. Crikey! Then Oryx and Crake (not their real names) the Canadian freakshow double-act come up to get their 25th consecutive daily photo with Herring. They stay for a chat about terrible injuries and bifurcated tongues and put cutlery in unusual bodily orifices. Keir McAllister provides the stand-up. Thanks to www.gofasterstripe.com and everyone at the Stand for the terrific support. Richard will be touring his cock round the UK over the next few months and is doing more Leicester Square Theatre podcasts from October!

2012 #18: Yorkshire Robin Hood – Al Murray and Celia Pacquola. Richard Herring, the sweaty-backed comedian happy to give piggy-backs to his fans as long as they ask first is on a downward spiral of tiredness and illness, but still trudged down to The Stand to interview Al Murray. He literally has the hardest job in the world. Literally. And he does it all for love. The love of losing money. Luckily Al has a lot to say, so Rich can have a much needed snooze. There's an in depth discussion of the Twitter Joke Trial, a much needed light shone on the story of the British Army in Burma in World War II and Rich recounts an odd dream about his wife and his first girlfriend, which might shed some light on his strange and damaged psyche. Al shows he won't let sleeping dogs lie and Richard wonders if it is possible to rape an ant? So it's pretty much business as usual, but with a lot more stuff about Burma in it than usual. Exactly a week of the festival remaining. Oh God. Stand-up from the very funny Celia Pacquola.

2012 #24: Fireworks - Phil Nichol and Tony Jameson. After last year's lost podcast with Phil Nichol, Richard is praying all will work today lest Phil starts to take it personally. Nichol takes us through some of his less successful Fringe shows and how he got involved with acting and pretending to be Terry Gilliam. He's got some stories about spectating on public sex, walking on the moon and Buzz Aldrin and even tries to tell Herring's audience some jokes (something they are very unfamiliar with). Stand-up from Tony Jameson. Tomorrow is the final show and RHEFP #50 and sees the return of Rumpel. Anything can happen but probably won't. Crikey!

2012 #23: Rasputin Beard - Martin Mor and Ro Campbell. Richard has egg all over his trousers, but it's not the result of experimenting with sex with birds after recent cloacal revelations - he's been competing for an Edinburgh trophy at the Malcolm Hardee Awards. Has he finally won something in Edinburgh? ... No of course not. His guest is Martin 'Bigpig' Mor, an intimidating, but gentle giant and Rasputin lookalike (will he do a show about what it's like to have the same facial hair as an historical figure?) who has worked as a juggler and a knife-thrower, which proved great practice for dealing with hecklers. There is also discussion about whether the gym both men frequent is a good pick-up joint, how all art could be improved by a monkey Jesus and Rich's own first artistic commission. Did Richard get the idea to do a TV show from Stewart Lee? Is there anything that wasn't Stewart Lee's idea? With leafletting-based comedy from Ro Campbell. Only two days from the end - and the 50th RHEFP (rhefp).

2012 #22: Tokyo Honeymoon - Simon Evans and Lloyd Langford. Richard is showing off because Nicholas Parsons came to see his Talking Cock, but the audience seem unimpressed by his celebrity connections or his attempts to foment an Anglo-Scottish war. Simon Evans is the guest for the first three quarters, but then he has to go to be Prime Minister (in a play alas) and so stand-up spot Lloyd Langford gets a mini-interview too. There's as dire warning from history about how politeness can save your city, theories about the afterlife, faux poshness and what it's like writing gags for other people. Lloyd Langford discusses his show about buying bread, whilst Richard gives him another dire warning from history about winning the Daily Telegraph Worst Comedy Experience of 2005. There's probably some other stuff in it too. Listen to it to find out. You've only got three more chances.

2012 #21: Monkey Jesus - Nick Doody and Steve Gribbin. Rich is delighted that at last some funny news stories have appeared for him to joke about, like badly restored frescos and Prince Harry's embodied anus, but the audience aren't so sure that he is as funny as he thinks he is despite him having a T-shirt which PROVES he is the 6 star King of Edinburgh. Nick Doody is sitting on the guest stool today and chats about how it's a bad idea to consult a comedian if you have blood in your urine, how he lives in the opening titles of Peep Show, why there is a massive picture of his face in Edinburgh and at Seaworld and the time he interviewed Bill Hicks as a 19 year-old (listen to it here: http://bit.ly/DoodyHicks). Richard is unpleasant and the audience seem surprised, but he at least apologises for some of his worst excesses before compounding them. But he asks the questions that other interviewers fear to ask, but only because he hasn't got a list with the proper questions on and thinks it's better to ask about ghosts. Steve Gribbin provides the music as he will on every 23rd August as long as this podcast is running. It's a guaranteed booking.

2012 #20: Performers from the Moon - Felicity Ward and Hayley Ellis. Richard is almost better, though he's reeling from the demolition of the Time Gentleman Please pub and from not being on the comedy awards list despite not being eligible. But his guest Felicity Ward (who has only come from Australia - it's not like she travelled through space) is in a cheery mood, enjoying her run of her already award-winning show The Hedgehog Dilemma though her dilemma about hedgehogs is predictably different than Richard's. There's chat about ghosts, premonitions of death and using Koalas as cold remedies, so it gets quite scary if you're on a night shift. But Rich reveals his nerdiness about Scrabble based games and ebooks and recounts the story (not for the first time) of what he did when someone's phone went off in his show. Hayley Ellis is the stand-up. Only five more to go. You'll miss it when it's gone.

2012 #17: Wanker's Chariot - Simon Donald and Helen Arney. Richard is still reeling a bit from a late night assault of friendliness and his usual crappy performance at Best Of The Fest, but luckily some of the normal folk have strayed into his den of Morlock-faced comedy fans and he can bully them to make up for it. Comedy legend Simon Donald is on hand to chat to about swearing, censorship, the most niche train spotting magazine in the history of the world and the creation of Viz comic, which somehow became a bigger success than Richard's schoolboy attempts in Inkings. With stand-up and music from the brill Helen Arney.

2012 #16: Weasel Prophylactic - Nick Helm and Jay Foreman. Rich is husky and ill and worrying about the parallels between his life and the fate of Rodney Bewes and trying to live his life vicariously through the life of his audience by fixing up random people based on what they've got in their hair. Colin is back on the front row, which freaks out Nick Helm as he was recently on the front row of his audience too, but he manages to recover his wits to talk about Winchester college, eating found Chinese takeaway, as well as being forced to field all the regular questions from the various podcasts. Rich further examines his Krankies tribute act (no news on if Susan Calman is up for it) and gets cross about the Independent slightly making stuff up about him. With music from Jay Foreman.

2012 #15: Olbas Tissues - Susan Calman and Tiffany Stevenson. Rich is a bit woozy and under the weather today, not sure of where he is and if it is Edinburgh where that is. It must be nearly all over by now right? His guest Susan Calman has kindly given him some Olbas scented tissues, which he becomes unnaturally obsessed with. Both Richard and Susan have recently married (though not each other - not yet) and they chat about love, but any sweetness will soon be wiped out by the filth spewed by Herring, high on Olbas, who tries and fails to find the politically correct term for two women marrying. With an ex-lawyer in the room and with his head swimming with disease he may not have chosen the right day to discuss if it was possible to rape an animal, but he has a go anyway but there's plenty for fans of Dr Who and penis maps too. Plus a welcome return for Richard's accurate impression of a Scotch person. If illness doesn't kill him, then someone from Scotland probably will. Only 10 more to go - oh God! Stand-up from Tiffany Stevenson.