Herring aid for penile dementia

Puppetry Of The Penis has been a festival favourite for a couple of years now - but Richard Herring thinks it's time to give the male genitalia a more serious examination.

The idea for his latest solo show, Talking Cock, came while performing at London's Arts Theatre - a venue he shared with Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. 'I was surprised no-one had done it before; there are a lot of stereotypes about men and their genitals that are really false and unfair.' Such as? 'The idea that all men are obsessed with sex and selfish in bed, which might be true of some 17-year-olds, but not of most men I know.'

This mature approach is at odds with what we might expect from a performer who used to argue with a human-sized orange on BBC2 series This Morning With Richard Not Judy. But Herring took his research seriously enough to interview sex therapists and organise an Internet survey including questions such as: 'If your penis could speak, what would it say in two words?'

It emerged that, in Herring's words, 'one in every four men is seriously messed up about his genitals'. What did he find most surprising? 'That 34 per cent of men say they've faked an orgasm - I think it's indicative of the sexual anxiety men have now because of women's much higher expectations.'

But Herring doesn't lose sight of the fact that while one in four men in the audience might have a problem about their genitals, the other 75 per cent don't - so expect some of his odder findings to provide the laughs.

Will Talking Cock's blend of serious cultural ruminating and gross-out ribaldry secure it the success of The Vagina Monologues? Herring obviously hopes so: 'It would be good if the show had that kind of life but I always want to do new things; I wouldn't want to stay in it for ten years.' Does that mean you'd take another leaf out of The Vagina Monologues' book and have the piece read by every F-lister in town? 'It'd be great to get someone like Johnny Vegas because he's funny and can do pathos really well, but if I were to get "fill-in-crap-celebrity here", that would be interesting too.'

Until Aug 26, Pleasance, 60 The Pleasance, 8.30pm, £9 to £10, £8 to £9 concs.