6 saturday review 1GR Saturday November 14 2020 | the times
The song that saved me
I went on holiday on my own to
Thailand before I met my wife
in the early 2000s and
I was quite depressed.
I remember listening to
Learn to Live with What
You Are, by Ben Folds
again: “There’s never
gonna be a moment
of truth for you.” It
made me think: “Stop
wallowing, you’ve got to
learn to live with who you
are.” It was an epiphany,
sitting in a nice bar overlooking
the sea, drinking cocktails on my own.The instrument I play
I started playing the piano, which
I hated. Then trumpet, which I
also was not good at. Finally the
euphonium, which I was slightly
better at. My great-granddad
played the euphonium, so there
was a connection. It belonged
to the school, so when I left
I stopped.The instrument I wish
I’d learntIt would be amazing to play the
piano or the guitar. My sister’s
a brilliant musician, but I’ve
got stubby little fingers so my
teacher said I’ll never be good.The music that cheers
me upThe Song for Phil Daoust by Tim
Minchin, a response to a one-star
review he got in Edinburgh. It’s self-
defeating as it’s about his anger, but it’sskeleton crew Coco. Left: Spinal Tap.
Right: a Lewis Chessman. Below:
Grayson and Philippa Perrya few years. The stuff they get into each
episode is impressive and it’s allowed
to be a bit ruder than regular TV.My favourite piece of music
The Luckiest by Ben Folds, the
first song we danced to at my
wedding. I’m not massively into
music, but it’s a very sweet song
and slightly weird — he’s
wondering if he would still
have loved his wife if he had
been born 50 years before.The last film that made
me cryCoco, a brilliant children’s
film about the afterlife. At
the end there’s a very old
grandmother he’s trying to
reach through a song she’s forgotten.
I had a similar experience with my
grandma, who didn’t remember her
favourite piece of music.The lyric I wish I’d written
“I’m flying high on something beautiful
and aimless/ It’s got a name but I prefer
to call it nameless.” A great simple lyric
about love from Terry Hall’s Sense.My favourite author or book
Kurt Vonnegut. He’s undervalued
because he writes sci-fi, but he’s very
witty. I really like Margaret Atwood too.
The book I’m reading
Just the Funny Parts... and a Few
Hard Truths About Sneaking into the
Hollywood Boys’ Club by Nell Scovell.
It’s a brilliant, funny book about being
a female writer and how things are
changing, but not that quickly. She
created Sabrina the Teenage Witch
and has written for The Simpsons
and Late Night with David Letterman,
so she’s had an amazing career.
The book I wish I had written
All of Dan Brown’s books, just for the
money. Or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy — it was the first time I saw
a book that could be wild and funny.
There’s a line early on, “The ships hung
in the sky in much the same way that
bricks don’t,” and that blew my mind.
The book I couldn’t finish
Martin Amis’s Yellow Dog. He’s a very
good author, but I struggled to get into
this. And then I left it on the side of the
bath and it fell in. I was quite relieved.
The book I’m ashamed I
haven’t read
Don Quixote. Everyone tells me how
brilliant it is. It’s very difficult to read at
the moment, with young kids. I tend to
just listen to audiobooks, but even that’s
quite hard to do. The idea of reading
a book of that size is almost impossible.
My favourite film
This is Spinal Tap. It’s been massively
influential on all comedy throughout
the last 30 years or so. Even the outtakes
are brilliant.
My favourite play
A Resounding Tinkle by NF Simpson,
a slightly forgotten playwright. It’s an
obscure comedy that influenced people
like Monty Python. A lot of surreal
stuff happens and it was a lot of fun to
be in — I did it in school, then again at
university.
The box set I’m hooked on
Schitt’s Creek takes a while to get into,
but is rewarding if you stick with it. It
takes characters who aren’t particularly
likeable, a rich family who’ve fallen on
hard luck, and then you get to like them.
You don’t usually get your attitude to
sitcom characters changing, or this
cynical look at love. It’s about
pansexuality and it’s lovely to see
a gay relationship played like a normal
sweet relationship, like it should be.
My favourite TV series
Rick and Morty. I’ve been writing
something annoyingly similar for
my culture fix
The comedian lets us into his cultural life
Richard Herring
WALT DISNEY/PIXAR; TOM STODDART/THE SUNDAY TIMES; DAVE J HOGAN/GETTY IMAGES
wonderful to see him break that contract
and just wish death on the person. Phil
has been haunted by this song, but what
goes around comes around. Minchin’s
amazing, brilliant musically, also really
funny. We used to listen to it on repeat
every time we drove — it always made
me cry with laughter. We can’t now
because my kids understand the words.If I could own one piece of art it
would be...The Viking chess pieces found on the
Isle of Lewis. They’re in the National
Museum of Scotland and the British
Museum. I’ve got some facsimiles,
and a sculptor sent me a “me as a Lewis
chessman”, which is good but slightly
freaky. Noggin the Nog is based on the
Lewis Chessmen, so maybe there’s some
residual memory of them that makes me
like them so much.The place I feel happiest
Ancient Pompeii. I’m really interested
in history. The first time I went I was
with a friend and we got split up. I
ended up sitting in one of the smaller
amphitheatres and I felt a connection
back through history to performers of
the past.My guiltiest cultural pleasure
I’m slightly obsessed with the worst
films of Adam Sandler. Sandler is
really talented, and when he puts in
the effort he’s amazing, so I’m fascinated
about the decisions he makes artistically.
It’s weird when he does something like
Jack and Jill.I’m having a fantasy dinner party,
I’ll invite these artists and
authors...Van Gogh, Picasso,
Leonardo da Vinci.
I’d get them to draw
on a napkin and
sell them. Geoffrey
Chaucer and Henry
Fielding were pretty
funny. Ben Jonson, a
great playwright. Grayson
Perry and his wife, Philippa.And I’ll put on this music...
John Cage’s thing with no sound on
repeat.The play I walked out on
Stones in His Pockets. I usually stay to the
bitter end, but I had a girlfriend who was
quite judgmental.Overrated
William Makepeace Thackeray, who
wrote Vanity Fair. I had to study him for
my A-levels — he’s also the great-great-
great-grandad of my friend [Al Murray],
so it’s funny to put him in. I just found it
embarrassing.Underrated
Terry Hall. I met Hall and told him how
great he was — I was the only person
who seemed to think that — and you
can’t even get his album Home now.
Richard Herring appears in
Taskmaster, Thursdays at 9pm on
Channel 4. His new book is The
Problem with Men: When Is it
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