Review: Alisdair Beckett-King — Nevermore
Stand Newcastle, 27 April 2024
You may have seen Alisdair Beckett King. It’s quite hard to miss a man who looks a lot like a Renaissance artist¹ had decided to paint a distinctly strawberry blond hippy Jesus. Even he remarks that he looks like an extra in any historical drama you could care to name, for any era at all - it really wouldn’t make any difference. But he’s a busy lad. He has some nice stuff over on YouTube, does the very enjoyable Loremen podcast with James Shakeshaft, and has even turned up on TV from time to time, especially in late series of Mock The Week, where he was a welcome presence.
His early opening gambits deal with his distinctive appearance, the fact he’s actually from just down the road in County Durham, and the show I’m watching is the first of two today, and he tells us he’s discovering the limits of his commercial appeal in his own back yard; he has worked out that his two shows have drawn about as many people as the single show he did last time he was here, so he reckons his reach in the north east is pretty much restricted to the capacity of The Stand. Consequently there’s some really nice call and response about economic viability², and the many and varied ways that locals can manage to pronounce “Newcastle” that he admits probably won’t travel quite as well to other places where they are somewhat less fluid on how to actually say the name of the place where they live. There is also an sort-of apology to an audience who he knows will understand some specific references that he has made composite for wider consumption.
Part of this set of local references includes working on a pier on the northeast coast, and growing up as the slightly strange, not very sporty kid in a school with a bluff PE teacher who sounds less ‘Bullet’ Baxter, and more ‘Dynamo’ Doug Digby³, doing swimming lessons in the actual North Sea, and being constantly reminded of how your every action whether inside or outside could “represent the school”.
There’s a generally predictable structure to lots of longer form stand-up shows now, with intros setting up callback jokes for later, a moment of dramatic tension at a point approaching the end that allows for subsequent resolution, and a satisfying denouement. I say “lots”, because this is not one of those shows. ABK does use the word “whimsical” about himself more than once during the hour he spends with us, and it’s definitely the right word for what he delivers. “Silly” should be there too, for all the right reasons. “Silly” is a dreadfully underused word, and technique, these days, where too many are desperately attempting to be an auteur, and need to be reminded that “no, you’re not Lenny Bruce, son. Go and have a quiet word with yourself.”
There are throwaway one liners, strung together with occasionally stentorian, actorly enunciation, and video stabs on the screen, dropped in from time to time at the front of the stage, with a couple of rewarding silly running jokes, and also includes a discussion on why prehistoric cave paintings are actually rubbish. And, oh yes, some bad dancing.
Yes, there are some callbacks, one of which does indeed pretty much finish the show, and references an earlier moment which involved him retelling the same gag with several alternative punchlines. But generally it’s a lot looser in structure, and all the better for it, because ABK very much has that kind of “Squirrel!” energy on stage, and is all the more likeable as a result.
So it was an altogether jolly and splendid way to spend an hour in a darkened room in Newcastle, really.
¹ Someone like Titian, just for example.
² Though he does say that at least part of this is for enhanced comedic effect when he’s finishing up.
³ A couple for the teenagers there . Look ’em up, kids.
