Comedian Richard Herring is going through a mid-life crisis. Depressed and disorientated after having split up with his girlfriend, moved house and been stricken with writer's block, he resolves to take inspiration from the bust of Hercules that graces the front of his new home and perform twelve impossible or arduous labours in the hope of giving his 37 years on this planet some kind of meaning.
Will the small, fat man from Somerset prove that he is a match for the bronzed and toned Roman demi-god? Or, more likely, will he not?
In some of his tasks Herring attempts to emulate Hercules:
· He travels to Scotland in order to kill the Loch Ness Monster as an homage to Hercules's prodigious slaying of mythical monsters, such as the Hydra.
· He dates 50 women in 50 consecutive nights, as a nod to Hercules most amazing achievement - impregnating as many women in the same time span.
· He attempts to steal Germaine Greer's bra, which is the closest thing in the modern world to the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons.
But in other challenges the timid couch potato faces his own worst nightmares:
· Overcoming his twin fears of heights and being splattered into the ground at tremendous speed, by learning to parachute.
· Enduring the arduous training needed to run the London Marathon.
· Filling the void left by the death of Norris Mcwhirter by learning the entire Guinness Book of Records off by heart. And being tested LIVE ON STAGE.
He discovers his own real and imagined limitations, challenges the notions of what constitutes a hero and attempts to determine whether we are just playthings of the gods or ultimately in control of our own destinies.
Who says there are no more heroes?
Richard Herring has been working as a professional writer and comedian since 1989. He was one of the team behind the seminal Radio 4 series "On The Hour", and then worked alongside Stewart Lee on the cult BBC2 shows "Fist of Fun" and "This Morning With Richard Not Judy". More recently he wrote 37 episodes of Al Murray, the Pub Landlord sit-com "Time Gentlemen Please" for Sky 1 as well as two acclaimed one-man shows, the most recent of which "Talking Cock" has been translated into over ten European languages and has spawned a book of the same name, published by Ebury Press. "The Twelve Tasks of Hercules Terrace" will be the 19th show that Herring has written or performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, after making his debut there as a student in 1987. You can read Herring's daily blog "Warming Up" at his web-site
http://www.richardherring.com/
