Rob Beckett has talked recently about how he is going to take a break from stand-up for a while to focus more on bringing up his two children and letting his wife Lou have more of a career, having just published her first book. If that’s the case he is certainly going out in style, winding up his Giraffe tour with a lengthy run at the Palladium and then some Glasgow Comedy Festival shows in April.
The south-Londoner has been on the road on and off with this show since 2024 so it’s no surprise that he is match fit and on superb form. The Saturday night set I saw was also being filmed, another reason for him to make sure every pay-off hit the spot. He might look like he’s walked onstage from the pub, with an impressive relaxed attitude, but he’s a true professional. When he slightly garbled a couple of lines he seamlessly redid them so you won’t even notice after the edit.
The show starts with Beckett flexing his formidable crowdwork muscles. It might be the usual where are you from/what do you do? banter but he brilliantly riffs off the most mundane answers. Someone in the audience claimed to have 14 children. Beckett clearly attracts a lot of couples because of his Parenting Hell podcast with Josh Widdicombe but while it seemed like a wind-up to me he handled it superbly, teasing his fan but never quite calling him out.
After the off-the-cuff material the set evolved into something more structured. Again the topics were familiar - family, pets, holidays, marriage – nothing political apart from a couple of lovely sly digs at Brexit – but he made every routine shine. He was particularly good on the subject of dogs. He didn’t want one, his wife did, so they compromised and got two. His description of trying to put a jumper on his bagpipe-shaped whippet being like trying to dress a notably bony celebrity that I won’t name will stay with me for a long time.
In the second half the stories were longer and benefited from their extended play. He painted a wonderfully hilarious picture of his parents. His octogenarian dad is a classic working class ducker and diver, who is fussy about his food and insists on taking his own butter with when he holidays in Spain. Beckett had great fun telling stories about how they manipulate him to get him to buy them things they want.
As the show reached its finish, however, he got more personal than usual, talking about his recent late-diagnosis dyslexia. At school he had been written off as disruptive, anti-authoritarian and, frankly, a bit thick, which really damaged his self-worth. Suddenly in his late thirties it all made sense, he wasn't stupid at all. He account of his assessment is packed full of gags and also quite touching, drawing together all sorts of strands and bringing the night to a lovely climax.
Here’s to a much-deserved semi-quasi-retirement Rob. But let’s hope you get itchy feet and want to get back onstage in the not too distant future. Stand-up comedy needs you.
Tour dates here.
Picture Credit: Through A Lens Photography
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