★★★★½

Review by Tony Frame. Venue 23 Pleasance Dome – JackDome 19:00.  Aug 10-21, 23-29

As soon as you enter the venue at the Pleasance Dome you instantly feel at peace because Alasdair Beckett-King is already on the stage, sitting comfortably on his chair, waving to individual audience members as they take a seat. It creates an ambience like we’re all a bunch of old friends who have come to sit around the campfire and listen to his stories of days gone by.

This was an interesting start, I thought, and the show hadn’t even begun! But, of course, it’s part of Beckett-King’s plan and thus he makes a point of this serene beginning and takes us through a couple of hilarious variations on how his show could start – all of which bring rapturous laughter from the room.

The show is part-sketch, part-story, with Beckett-King retelling some of his experiences of childhood, of school, and the sea. If you’re familiar with his Twitter feed you will be accustomed to his hilarious video sketches, so you’ll be glad to know that some of them are incorporated into his show here as well. In fairness to Alasdair, he probably doesn’t need these video sketches in his show (I could probably just watch him sitting on the stage waving for the hour, to be honest) but you get two Beckett-King’s for the price of one, so what’s there to complain about?

Well, actually, there is something to complain about, now that I mention it – the audience were laughing so much throughout the show that I missed one or two of the jokes because of the noise of their laughter (goddamn them!), and there was a fly buzzing about in the room which distracted me at times, and I should also mention that I was sat at the very end of a row, and the angle from where I was sat (in relation to the stage) meant that my neck was sore afterwards.

I’ll also interject here by saying that this is the first time I’ve seen Alasdair Beckett-King live (in person), and I was in two minds afterwards whether or not to give his show four stars or five. I find comedy (especially stand-up) can be the hardest genre to exceed expectations, and I feel that if I were to give Alasdair five stars then he might retire and never do another live show again. So, it’s four and a half stars for now. In the meantime, can Netflix or BBC give him his own show? Preferably a Scandinavian crime drama. Thank you.