I listen to a lot of podcasts and one show I have followed for years is Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (aka RHLSTP). Richard is a British comedian who has been around for many years. He did various TV shows with Stuart Lee and he has really embraced the podcast format. He actually does several different shows, but this is the one I listen to most where he interviews various people. They are often comedians, but he has had writers and other people on. We saw his standup show a few years back when he was talking about turning fifty. Now we are both approaching sixty, so there may be a show about that.
We never got around to seeing RHLSTP at the actual Leicester Square Theatre, but he has been taking it on tour and it came to my home town of Bedford. The show was supposed to be last month, but the venue had a flood.
It is simply a live interview show with no fancy gimmicks. He tends to do two per show that get put out separately. The first 'victim' was Al Murray who is known for his Pub Landlord character, but is also an avid historian. He went to school in Bedford around the same time as me, but he was at the boarding school. They talked a bit about his time there, but also about his books. Like a lot of comedians he is a very smart man and Richard is an experienced interviewer who makes it entertaining.
The second guest was Olaf Falafel who I had not heard of. He is a joke-teller who does shows for kids as well as for adults. He has written books for kids that he also illustrates. He was entertaining too.
After the show Richard was selling his books and some other merchandise. I already have his book about his experience with testicular cancer, so I bought another and he signed it. He does seem to have drawn a penis as well, but then that fits the theme of the book.
He actually lives not far from me, but I have not bumped into him otherwise. I asked him if he was still doing parkrun, but he said he has to take his kids to soccer practice these days. He had his kids fairly late, but seems happy with life and has recovered well from his cancer episode. He is shorter than I expected.
It was a nice evening out and not too far to drive home afterwards. You can check out the podcast. The episodes I saw may not be out for a while as I think he has a backlog. He mixes in some 'book club' episodes with authors that are not done live. I just cannot keep up with all he does.
