Richard Herring has been inspired by a particularly male attribute, as he tells CHARLES HUTCHINSON

No, the title is not a red Herring. Richard Herring, once of Lee and Herring and now of a new double act, really will be Talking Cock in his new live show at the Grand Opera House, York, next Friday.

Whereas the naked, ancient Australian art of Puppetry Of The Penis will tie itself in knots in York on February 12, the Pocklington-born Herring will keep his appendage under wraps while unravelling the mysteries, myths and mirth surrounding this ultimate symbol of manhood.

Tackling the subject of the tackle, he could have called his show Members Only, Willy, Won't He? or Cock Crowing, but no, he settled for one of those titles that does exactly what it says on the label. "Everyone had suggested Cock Tales or The Penis Monologues, but I don't beat about the bush, as it were, with my show, so if you're offended by the title of Talking Cock, you probably wouldn't want to come," says Richard, star of BBC2's This Morning With Richard, Not Judy.

Talking Cock was test-driven at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer - "His Cock is as funny and fascinating for women as it is for men. I loved it. I only wish it could have been longer" - Kate Copstick, The Scotsman - and has since been expanded for a West End run, followed by a couple of autumn shows in Newcastle and Aldershot. York, next Friday, will be night two of a 34-date national tour.

What gave Herring the idea to present the low down on the down below? "Basically, it all started when I was doing my Christ On A Bike show at the Arts Theatre in London, and I was sharing the theatre with The Vagina Monologues," recalls Richard. "A lot of people were saying 'You should do a male version', but I thought it seemed such an obvious idea, and I couldn't see how it would work as I thought it would just be a competitive macho thing.

"Then I became interested in why no-one had done it, thinking that maybe the idea of celebrating masculinity was considered offensive or ridiculous."

So into the breeches he stepped, setting up the website www.talkingcock.com with questions for both sexes to answer, and so far 3,500 men and 1,500 women have responded, giving Herring plenty of source material in the manner of Dave Gorman's investigative comedy shows. National media coverage has ensued, drawn to the website's frank revelations on sexual preferences, funny stories, and women's revelations of the most amusing shape they have encountered.

The questionnaire has serious questions too, not least about men feeling the pressure to perform, and the resulting show is both humorous and sobering, moving from willy gags to subverting that brand of comedy.

"I realised the importance of getting both male and female responses, especially after I finally got to see The Vagina Monologues in June, where I felt rather uncomfortable. In that show men were getting the blame for everything, and there was nothing positive about penetration: even having sex by consent was somehow a violation by men," Richard says.

"So I wanted to do a show that celebrated the penis as well as pointing out its ridiculousness and the performance shows that ridiculousness but then subverts it. I look at the psychology of men and the penis, where there's this massive insecurity about it and yet men have to put up this front about having a large one.

"As the position of men in the world changes, there's a serious side to it as well as a humorous one because a lot of what male insecurity is about is penis size and that's why we behave like prats - but I believe not talking about it creates much more of a problem than talking about it."

Unlike the predominantly female audiences for Puppetry Of The Penis - Herring hasn't seen it - audiences for Talking Cock in Edinburgh and London were divided equally between men and women. Only two people left early: a middle-aged woman walked out three-quarters of the way through one Fringe performance, while Herring asked a drunken man to leave another because he was "blathering on".

Far from causing offence, Herring's "Vagina Monologues with balls" has proved such a hit that variations on Talking Cock are to be mounted in Australia (by Herring himself), Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

As we spoke, Herring was in the British Library researching for his spin-off book, Talking Cock, to be published by Ebury Press in the autumn.

"I probably know more about penises now than anyone else in the country, and I never thought that would be the case!" he says.

Richard Herring presents Talking Cock, Grand Opera House, York, January 17, 8pm. Tickets: £14; ring 01904 671818. Also: Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, January 26, 8pm; tickets: 01482 323638.

Updated: 10:02 Friday, January 10, 2003