How I became the mouth of the south

Rob Beckett soon discovered when he was growing up that chatting to people was one of the only things he was good at.

The 8 Out Of 10 Cats team captain could talk his way into pretty much any job but he soon found out that he did not have the attention span for any of them when it came down to it.

Rob’s first job was at a flower market when he was 14. He has also worked at a pub, a supermarket, a cricket ground, a restaurant and an office before his charm ran out on his bosses.

He said: “I’ve never been good at anything apart from talking. I could get a job – I’d do alright at the interview – but I could never do the job. I was rubbish. I used to get by by getting the boss to like me.”

His outgoing, chatty personality meant that Rob was also drawn to comedy.

But his heroes were superstars like Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy and so he always thought becoming a stand-up was an unrealistic goal.

The 31-year-old, who has performed at the O2 Arena and Royal Albert Hall, added: “I used to watch them and think: ‘I can’t do this. They’ve all got these crazy lives’.

“Eddie Murphy was this big, flamboyant good looking American and it just seemed so unobtainable.”

That was until Rob discovered Peter Kay and Alan Davies.

He said: “I watched Peter Kay and Alan Davies do jokes about cats and weddings and garlic bread and I realised you could be normal and still be funny and people will want to hear you talk.

“I saw Peter Kay when I was 15 in Croydon with my whole family and he made us all laugh uncontrollably. I thought: ‘That’s a bit of me’.

“To be able to do that to everyone in the audience is incredible.

“I want to be able to make everyone laugh instead of having a tiny niche. Peter Kay for me was a huge inspiration for that.”

At that point Rob still did not quite have the confidence to take to the stage until he saw a ‘rubbish’ stand-up in his local.

Rob, who appeared in Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain’s sitcom Fresh Meat, added: “There was an open mic night at my comedy club and there was geezer up there and he was rubbish but still getting some laughs. I thought: ‘I could do that. There’s no way I could be any worse. If I go on I could at least say I’ve done comedy’.

“I was terrible but I still got laughs and got clapped off. No one booed or beat me up. I kept on doing it and I kept on being invited back. It’s a hobby that’s got out of hand.”

That was in 2009 and things moved fast for Rob after that when he basically started saying yes to every opportunity going. He won four competitions for emerging comics between 2010 and 2011.

“I basically went into these competitions to get gigs and when I won a round I got another gig,” said Rob, who used to present I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Now!

‘I watched Peter Kay and Alan Davies do jokes about cats and weddings and garlic bread and I realised you could be normal and still be funny’

Rob took that to the next level when he won the Amused Moose Laugh Off which earned him an invite to perform at the Adelaide Comedy Festival in Australia.

He added: “I arrived in Australia on my own and I was so poor that I had to bunk the fare on the tram to get to my gig.

“I nearly had to pull a gig once because I got caught by a ticket inspector.

“I was staying at this hostel with all these business students in an old converted church.

“Then when I arrived for the first gig I was expecting to do 15 minutes and was told I had to do an hour.

“I got thrown in at the deep end and it worked.

“I did 25 days in a row doing an hour every day and if you’re not a comic by the end of that you’re never going to be one.”

Rob now gets the best of both worlds, with regular TV work in between his live tours. So which does he prefer?

“They’re different disciplines but I like them both,” said Rob, who is working on scripts for two sitcoms.

“TV is all in the edit so you never really know what you’re doing. You feel freer when you’re on stage.

“With something like 8 Out Of 10 Cats you’ve got to write about the news and what has happened that week.

“What’s nice about my shows is that because I don’t talk about the news it means it’s a different skill and it’s more fun.

“You know what it’s like at the moment. It’s so bleak with Brexit and Trump and every time you turn the news on it’s something more depressing.

“Whether you were In or Out there are bits of bad news on either side.

“I want my gig to be an outlet. I want you to come and I won’t talk about any of that.

“I talk about silly little things and let people have an hour and a half out of their week.

“This is your escape from the nonsense.”

n Rob Beckett will be at the Parr Hall on Tuesday, February 21. Visit pyramidparrhall.com or call 442345

DAVID MORGAN