Latest news with #MocktheWeek
Metro
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Favourite British comedian forced to cancel shows after saying he's quitting sta
Rob Beckett has been forced to axe a string of shows after previously announcing he was quitting stand-up. The comedian began performing stand-up in 2009, making his debut at Edinburgh Fringe three years later. He is now best known for appearing on shows including Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Taskmaster and Lol: Last One Laughing UK. However, in March, the 39-year-old detailed his plans to take a step back from the stage. A month after Rob had announced he was stepping down from his BBC Radio 2 show, he explained he was planning on pausing stand-up shows to prioritise time with his children. Although he'd had shows planned in Scotland next week, Rob's now had to pull the plug after falling ill. Posting a message on Instagram, he wrote: 'Hello everyone, I'm so sorry but I'm not well and can't do the shows in Scotland this week. 'Aberdeen has been rescheduled to Wednesday 14th Jan 20206 and Edinburgh has been rescheduled to Thursday 15th Jan 2026. 'The venue will be in touch, but tickets remain valid for both shows. I hate doing this, but I'm not well enough to give you the best show possible, but I look forward to seeing you all at the new shows.' Despite his plans to take a break from stand-up, Rob has shows throughout the UK up until April next year. While most of Rob's upcoming stand-up shows have sold out, these ones still have tickets available: Southend- Cliffs Pavilion (September 10) Derry- Millennium Forum (September 25) Dublin- 3Olympia Theatre (September 27) However, after the cancellation of his Scotland shows, he won't be back on stage again until September, where he will perform in Liverpool, Sheffield, Southend, Buxton, Oxford, Belfast, Derry and Dublin, before he embarks on a tour of Australia. When previously explaining his decision to spend more time with his family, Rob told The Sun: 'I'll still do stand up and local clubs and charity gigs but I'm going to take a break from touring until the kids are 16/17. 'Then I'll do a big tour when they're sixth form and when they go to Uni, me and Lou are going to spend Feb and March in Australia bumming around.' The comedian also revealed that when he is 50, he wanted 'to do a psychology degree'. When revealing he was quitting his radio show, Rob said in a statement: 'I've had such a laugh each Sunday getting to know the listeners, but as my tour schedule hots up and my family forget what I look like, I've decided to step away from a weekly show.' More Trending However, the comedian also promised fans that he would return. He added: 'But you won't get away from me that easily as I'll be back presenting shows on Radio 2 later in the year when normal service is resumed!' Rob has been married to teacher Louise Watts since 2015. They share two daughters. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: All episodes of the 'funniest show on TV' are finally free to stream MORE: Amazon confirms beloved 98-year-old star will return in 2027 sequel to iconic 80s comedy MORE: Netflix fans rush to binge 'must-see' series after huge Rotten Tomatoes boost
Daily Mirror
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Comedian forced to apologise to fans after cancelling gigs over ill health
Mock the Week star, Rob Beckett, has said sorry to fans after cancelling a number of shows from his UK Giraffe tour, admitting he's 'not well enough to perform' Rob Beckett has been forced to cancel a string of gigs on his popular Giraffe tour due to ill health. The Mock the Week star, 39, told ticket-holders he wasn't well enough to perform for the Scottish leg of his concerts as he took to Instagram with an apology. Admitting he 'hated doing this' but was too poorly to go on stage, Rob wrote: "Hello everyone, I'm so sorry, but I'm not well and can't do the shows in Scotland this week. Aberdeen has been rescheduled to Wednesday 14th Jan 20206 and Edinburgh has been rescheduled to Thursday 15th Jan 2026. The venue will be in touch but tickets remain valid for both shows. I hate doing this, but I'm not well enough to give you the best show possible, but I look forward to seeing you all at the new shows." Responding to the news on X, formerly Twitter, several fans said they were 'gutted' Rob had been forced to cancel as they wished him a 'speedy recovery', adding that they hoped they'd 'see him soon'. It comes after the dad-of-two, who is one of the most recognisable comics in the country, admitted that he wanted to take a step back from stand-up. Speaking to The Sun, Rob said he needed to prioritise his family as the dad of two young. daughters. Lifting the lid on his career in March, he said: "I'll still do stand up and local clubs and charity gigs but I'm going to take a break from touring until the kids are 16/17. "Then I'll do a big tour when they're in sixth form and when they go to Uni, me and [wife] Lou are going to spend Feb and March in Australia bumming around." And when he's 50, Rob plans to change tack from comedy completely, revealing: "When I'm 50 I want to do a psychology degree." It was more than a decade ago that the bespectacled star started doing stand-up comedy, which lead to a whole host of appearances on TV shows and podcasts. Rob has been on the likes of 8 Out of 10 Cats, Rob & Romesh Vs... and All Together Now and also narrates reality series Celebs Go Dating. His impressive career must be the envy of many stand-ups starting out in the business, but in his memoir, A Class Act, Rob admitted he was 'headed for a breakdown' after a stint of filming in Cape Town, South Africa. During the shoot, which was sandwiched between dates in his sell-out comedy tour, the comic claimed he was "the unhappiest I have ever been. He wrote: "I woke up on January 5 in a five-star hotel room thinking it would be better and easier for everyone if I was dead. Rob continued: "I thought I was a confident and well-balanced person, but I wasn't. I was feeding off that drug of attention and applause and laughter from the gig," the 35-year-old continues. "You chase it like a drug, but the reality is that being content is what you're after, which comes from inside." After talking with his manager, Rob went on to seek a therapist's help for eight months, which he says, thankfully, gave him breathing space. He shared: "I did some therapy to calm my brain down. I wouldn't say I had a breakdown because that would be unfair to people who have had them, but I was definitely heading that way. "The timing of getting therapy and the pandemic and my gigs stopping was lucky. It gave me the breathing space that you can't always take if you've got a busy schedule."
Scottish Sun
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Frankie Boyle's net worth revealed as wealth soars
Although he made the bold claim that he thinks money is "pretty pointles s" despite his fortune IN THE MONEY Frankie Boyle's net worth revealed as wealth soars COMEDIAN Frankie Boyle boosted the value of his personal company to more than £4.2 million last year. The stand-up's firm has just posted a healthy set of financial figures. 2 Frankie Boyle's wealth has soared in the last year Credit: PA:Press Association 2 The comedian's earnings have skyrocketed since 2005 The Glasgow-born comic's earnings have rocketed since he shot to fame on the BBC panel show Mock the Week in 2005. Boyle, 52, has earned a fortune from television appearances, documentaries and sell-out tours. Latest accounts for his company McShane Karate show the firm has total assets of £4,953,846. That is made up of £2,340,357 held in an account, £964,980 owed by debtors, tangible assets of £1,386,957 and a £261,552 investment portfolio. The company owes £734,023 to creditors within a year leaving it with shareholder funds of £4,219,823 - almost double the previous year's figure of £2,233,288. Boyle set up the London-based firm in 2014 and the accounts cover the period up until August 31 last year. Despite his earnings, Boyle has previously described money as 'pointless' and said he did not enjoy splashing out on so-called luxuries. In an interview with fellow comedian Frank Skinner, he said: 'I think ultimately money is pretty pointless. 'When you get to the point that you have money you realise that luxury and that whole idea you were sold of 'Oh it would be nice to go on a cruise', well it really isn't. "It's like being at a China Buffet King on roller skates for two weeks. Frankie Boyle leaves fans in stitches over outfit on Taskmaster 'And these meals that they sell, a romantic meal on the beach and then there's sand on your food and that table moves in the sand and the waiter is smoking a fag. 'None of it is any good. It's like trying to eat the picture of a burger off a menu, it's all just a sales pitch.' Boyle won a Bafta Scotland award in 2023 for his Channel 4 documentary Frankie Boyle's Farewell To the Monarchy. His debut novel, which is called Meantime and is set in Glasgow, was published in 2022 and he completed a UK stand-up tour last year. Last year, he revealed he is considering quitting stand-up to write 'cosy crime' novels.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Show I Thought I'd Hate (And Learned to Love)
For ages, various friends of mine recommended that I check out Taskmaster, a British comedy game show in which a group of five comedians earn points by completing a series of silly challenges. The show, which first premiered in 2015, has crossed the ocean in recent years to become a word-of-mouth hit, with fans drawn to its comic hijinks and nonsensical premise. Yet every time my friends nudged me toward Taskmaster, I'd wrinkle my nose. Making the program sound exciting is tough: The idea of stand-up comics and character actors improvising art projects and undergoing physical trials doesn't seem like it'd be very fun to watch. And more important, I spent much of my youth in England; as I'd repeat to anyone who'd listen, I left the country to escape series like this one. Taskmaster is what's known as a panel show, a format that is a pillar of British TV. It's as foundational as the pre-dinnertime soap operas or the smoldering costume dramas that are exported to Masterpiece. Series in this genre are typically simple and cheap to produce: A committee composed of several comedic entertainers make fun of current events (Mock the Week, Have I Got News for You), answer trivia questions (QI, The Big Fat Quiz of the Year), or suss out which of them is telling the truth (the aptly titled Would I Lie to You?). The panelists' goal is to amuse one another as much as they do the audience. This type of comedy series can be good background viewing, but it's also overwhelmingly homogenous—both the rotating casts and the bits often start to feel repetitive. So the thought of diving into Taskmaster didn't initially appeal to me, even with the more competitive angle; after all, plenty of panel shows ostensibly revolve around a game, even if winning it doesn't matter. The Taskmaster setup, I discovered, is special, despite the glancing similarities to programs of its ilk. After enough hounding by some pals—British and American ones—I gave in and fired up an episode. (In the United States, the series is available to watch in its entirety on YouTube and Pluto TV.) At first, I was at most mildly amused by the seemingly traditional panel-style proceedings. But I was properly hooked after the comics were issued a bizarre prompt: 'Create the best caricature of the person on the other side of the curtain. You may not look at the person. The person may only say yes and no.' [Read: The game show that parodies your to-do list] Strange requests of this nature, I soon learned, are Taskmaster's bread and butter. The activities are overseen by the titular Taskmaster, Greg Davies, and his assistant, Alex Horne. Horne is the show's creator, but on-screen, he plays an eager second fiddle to Davies, who presides over each episode with imperious fury. Davies judges the panelists based on a combination of in-studio and on-location challenges. The ones undertaken onstage follow set rules: First, guests present the funniest answer to a ridiculous request (such as finding the 'most interesting autograph on the most interesting vegetable'); then they take on a dare that unites them in some sort of tomfoolery. The remote tasks, however, are the series's centerpiece. Sometimes, the premise is straightforward—finding creative ways to fill a tub with water or slide the furthest distance, for example. Sometimes, it's a more subjective concept, where who wins is totally up to Davies's personal taste. And sometimes it's a puzzle of sorts, a fiendish brainteaser designed by Horne and his team to get the best, most infuriated reactions from the participants. The contestants watch edited clips of their performances together, giving them the chance to see—and poke fun at—how they each accomplished the challenges. The seemingly impossible assignment Horne and company have set for themselves is to create a weeks-long tournament focused on what appears to be a mundane idea. The stakes are somehow ridiculously low—the winner essentially just receives bragging rights, along with a comically ugly metal bust of Davies's head—and incredibly high, for comedians looking to boost their notoriety. But the revelations that emerge, such as which comedian has a surprising level of artistic talent or a particularly creative approach to problem-solving, are more than just hilarious. The panelists handle their tasks seriously; each prompt yields very different results, and the methods they choose offer a small, fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of their brain. Watching how they go about keeping a basketball on a treadmill without touching it is as much part of the joy as hearing the jokes they tell about it afterward. I started with Season 4, because it had several guests I recognized—the comedians Noel Fielding and Mel Giedroyc were well known when I lived in England, and the actor Hugh Dennis has memorably popped up in international hits such as Fleabag. Taskmaster almost always throws some up-and-coming British comics into the mix too; the variety makes for an exciting change of pace from the stagnant casts populating the panel shows I remember. The serialized format also helped me become a fan of the performers I was less familiar with. The emotional investment builds naturally, with the audience following the contestants week to week. [Read: The comic who's his own worst enemy] The show even seems willing to expand its own comedic sensibilities. Season 19, which began airing last week, features a notable American player—the actor Jason Mantzoukas, a podcast and sitcom legend who's probably best known for his work on The League and Parks and Recreation. Only one other American comedian, Desiree Burch, has been on Taskmaster before now; unlike Mantzoukas, she is established in the U.K. and has lived there for more than a decade. American humor can often be more brash than British comedy, which is cloaked in irony and self-deprecation. So far, however, Mantzoukas's high energy is gelling well with the show's competitive bent. The first episode—which, like every installment, landed on YouTube the day after its premiere—makes clear that his anarchic style would stand out against Taskmaster's vibe of enthusiastic curiosity, what with its big, brassy score and fast-paced editing. That spirit does take some getting used to. For its first few years, Taskmaster was a cult program even within the United Kingdom. It has since cultivated a loving fan base and expanded into a global franchise, with editions produced in New Zealand, Finland, and Croatia. By contrast, a spin-off made for U.S. audiences in 2018 flopped. Yet the producers seem to believe that the American audience is only growing, as bringing in Mantzoukas, putting every episode online, and announcing the Season 19 cast at an event in New York City all suggest. Instead of Americanizing it, however, it's best to emphasize Taskmaster's most easily translated quality: its sense of novelty. With reinvention baked right into the concept—new participants each season, new tasks each episode—it stays fresh and compelling far longer than the average British comedy game show. I still swear I'll never watch another panel series, as cute as the clips that come across my social-media feeds sometimes are. When it comes to Taskmaster, the efforts made to win over someone as resistant as me have worked: I'm now as fervent as the folks who urged me years ago to check it out. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
The Show I Thought I'd Hate (And Learned to Love)
For ages, various friends of mine recommended that I check out Taskmaster, a British comedy game show in which a group of five comedians earn points by completing a series of silly challenges. The show, which first premiered in 2015, has crossed the ocean in recent years to become a word-of-mouth hit, with fans drawn to its comic hijinks and nonsensical premise. Yet every time my friends nudged me toward Taskmaster, I'd wrinkle my nose. Making the program sound exciting is tough: The idea of stand-up comics and character actors improvising art projects and undergoing physical trials doesn't seem like it'd be very fun to watch. And more important, I spent much of my youth in England; as I'd repeat to anyone who'd listen, I left the country to escape series like this one. Taskmaster is what's known as a panel show, a format that is a pillar of British TV. It's as foundational as the pre-dinnertime soap operas or the smoldering costume dramas that are exported to Masterpiece. Series in this genre are typically simple and cheap to produce: A committee composed of several comedic entertainers make fun of current events (Mock the Week, Have I Got News for You), answer trivia questions (QI, The Big Fat Quiz of the Year), or suss out which of them is telling the truth (the aptly titled Would I Lie to You?). The panelists' goal is to amuse one another as much as they do the audience. This type of comedy series can be good background viewing, but it's also overwhelmingly homogenous—both the rotating casts and the bits often start to feel repetitive. So the thought of diving into Taskmaster didn't initially appeal to me, even with the more competitive angle; after all, plenty of panel shows ostensibly revolve around a game, even if winning it doesn't matter. The Taskmaster setup, I discovered, is special, despite the glancing similarities to programs of its ilk. After enough hounding by some pals—British and American ones—I gave in and fired up an episode. (In the United States, the series is available to watch in its entirety on YouTube and Pluto TV.) At first, I was at most mildly amused by the seemingly traditional panel-style proceedings. But I was properly hooked after the comics were issued a bizarre prompt: 'Create the best caricature of the person on the other side of the curtain. You may not look at the person. The person may only say yes and no.' Strange requests of this nature, I soon learned, are Taskmaster 's bread and butter. The activities are overseen by the titular Taskmaster, Greg Davies, and his assistant, Alex Horne. Horne is the show's creator, but on-screen, he plays an eager second fiddle to Davies, who presides over each episode with imperious fury. Davies judges the panelists based on a combination of in-studio and on-location challenges. The ones undertaken onstage follow set rules: First, guests present the funniest answer to a ridiculous request (such as finding the 'most interesting autograph on the most interesting vegetable'); then they take on a dare that unites them in some sort of tomfoolery. The remote tasks, however, are the series's centerpiece. Sometimes, the premise is straightforward—finding creative ways to fill a tub with water or slide the furthest distance, for example. Sometimes, it's a more subjective concept, where who wins is totally up to Davies's personal taste. And sometimes it's a puzzle of sorts, a fiendish brainteaser designed by Horne and his team to get the best, most infuriated reactions from the participants. The contestants watch edited clips of their performances together, giving them the chance to see—and poke fun at—how they each accomplished the challenges. The seemingly impossible assignment Horne and company have set for themselves is to create a weeks-long tournament focused on what appears to be a mundane idea. The stakes are somehow ridiculously low—the winneressentially just receives bragging rights, along with a comically ugly metal bust of Davies's head—and incredibly high, for comedians looking to boost their notoriety. But the revelations that emerge, such as which comedian has a surprising level of artistic talent or a particularly creative approach to problem-solving, are more than just hilarious. The panelists handle their tasks seriously; each prompt yields very different results, and the methods they choose offer a small, fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of their brain. Watching how they go about keeping a basketball on a treadmill without touching it is as much part of the joy as hearing the jokes they tell about it afterward. I started with Season 4, because it had several guests I recognized—the comedians Noel Fielding and Mel Giedroyc were well known when I lived in England, and the actor Hugh Dennis has memorably popped up in international hits such as Fleabag. Taskmaster almost always throws some up-and-coming British comics into the mix too; the variety makes for an exciting change of pace from the stagnant casts populating the panel shows I remember. The serialized format also helped me become a fan of the performers I was less familiar with. The emotional investment builds naturally, with the audience following the contestants week to week. The show even seems willing to expand its own comedic sensibilities. Season 19, which began airing last week, features a notable American player—the actor Jason Mantzoukas, a podcast and sitcom legend who's probably best known for his work on The League and Parks and Recreation. Only one other American comedian, Desiree Burch, has been on Taskmaster before now; unlike Mantzoukas, she is established in the U.K. and has lived there for more than a decade. American humor can often be more brash than British comedy, which is cloaked in irony and self-deprecation. So far, however, Mantzoukas's high energy is gelling well with the show's competitive bent. The first episode—which, like every installment, landed on YouTube the day after its premiere—makes clear that his anarchic style would stand out against Taskmaster 's vibe of enthusiastic curiosity, what with its big, brassy score and fast-paced editing. That spirit does take some getting used to. For its first few years, Taskmaster was a cult program even within the United Kingdom. It has since cultivated a loving fan base and expanded into a global franchise, with editions produced in New Zealand, Finland, and Croatia. By contrast, a spin-off made for U.S. audiences in 2018 flopped. Yet the producers seem to believe that the American audience is only growing, as bringing in Mantzoukas, putting every episode online, and announcing the Season 19 cast at an event in New York City all suggest. Instead of Americanizing it, however, it's best to emphasize Taskmaster 's most easily translated quality: its sense of novelty. With reinvention baked right into the concept—new participants each season, new tasks each episode—it stays fresh and compelling far longer than the average British comedy game show. I still swear I'll never watch another panel series, as cute as the clips that come across my social-media feeds sometimes are. When it comes to Taskmaster, the efforts made to win over someone as resistant as me have worked: I'm now as fervent as the folks who urged me years ago to check it out.
