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The previews for the second leg of my one-balled tour start up this week - Bishops Stortford on Friday and Radlett on Saturday
http://richardherring.com/ballback/tour. I thought possibly no one would come, but tickets are selling OK (not sure about Luton next week -what have those idiots got against me?). I have been attempting to relearn the show, which is proving much more difficult than I'd expected.
My memory, like a reliably erect penis (when required), was always one of my strengths. No longer though. And in once case a bit shorter. It's only six months since I last did Can I Have My Ball Back? (and I've done a couple of stand up gigs doing bits of it in the mean time) but I have forgotten nearly all of it. I do have tapes of a few of the shows from the tour, but it's so horrible having to listen back to it and I haven't got more than half an hour in as yet. I woke up at 3am and couldn't sleep so tried to run the show in my head and I couldn't even recall the start properly. I've still got a few days, but it's going to be a horrible stress.
My stupid voice, my stupid jokes, my umming and erring, you know - thanks so much to those of you who buy tickets to see me. I have no idea what you get out of it. I've had enough of me after 4 minutes. The ridiculous thing is that even if I conquer the script for these shows, then it's practically a month til the tour starts and I am going to have to learn it all again.
I will get there, or most of the way there by Friday, but this sort of thing used to be pretty easy for me. Even back in 2015 when I spent six weekends performing all 12 of my stand up shows (including a new one) at the Leicester Sq Theatre, it only took a few listens to each show to have it mainly back in my brain. Whenever I have to relearn the genealogy of Christ it's pretty much still in there - even the acronym. Can I Have My Ball Back? is a complex show in which I try to present a lot of ideas, both serious and funny and some of the routines took a long time to construct. But still. There shouldn't be big chunks that feel almost entirely unfamiliar to me after six months.
The show had got a bit flabby towards the end of the last tour, mainly because I like to use each performance to try and add more or work on bits, so some of it isn't precise and I actually welcome the opportunity to edit it back down again and cut out the bits that don't add enough info or laughs. it's definitely the most conversational one I've done. And maybe that's why it's hard to relearn.
To lose a ball is one thing, to lose your memory is more concerning. And what if a lot of my memories were stored in my ball? All the fun ones anyway.
It's a little over four years now since I had my scan and got the news that something was up. I thought I hadn't really written about it directly,
but I was quite blase on the day of the scan, coming up with some jokes that made it into the show, but also failing to betray that I had had one of the most profound experiences of my life as I received the phone call saying that there was something up, cried like a baby and was pretty sure I was about to die and fully understood what that meant. At that point I would have been very happy to hear that I was still around four years later. And four years later I am delighted to have had these four years and whatever else might be coming to me in the future.
One more year and they declare me immortal. Wish me luck.
I also (surprisingly to the me of now) wrote about the original GP appointment, again fudging the details,
but getting the good news that it was very likely nothing was wrong. The future is always full of surprises. Most of them horrible. At least I got to do my stand up show. But then again, now I have to learn the stand up show, so that's a negative.
Joining Dave Gorman on RHLSTP on Monday 3rd Feb at the Leicester Sq Theatre are ace internet satirists Larry and Paul. Still some tickets left for this one (some £18.50 ones if you're quick). As always the audience is such an important part of this show and we need to sell more tickets if we're going to carry on doing these live, so do come along if you can. It's a terrific and cheap Monday night out.
Links here. 
