James Beckett on trying to turn his disability into an advantage

Timing is everything in comedy, isn’t it? Laughs per minute, neatness of delivery and economic use of words are industry KPIs [key performance indicators] that modern comedians are measured by. But what happens to those who aren’t able to operate precisely on those terms?

Since the age of five, I've had a stammer that has stayed with me right until the age of 40. As such, I find myself in a disability bracket that directly impacts my performance. There’s an unpredictable force that threatens to interrupt a sentence at any moment, for a completely unknowable amount of time. 

I remember doomscrolling through the comments section of an article about Rosie Jones last year, laden with the usual unnecessary attacks that are usually directed at her timing. These comments should rightfully be discarded into oblivion, but as someone who finds themselves in not-so-dissimilar shoes to Rosie in how our disabilities impact our performance, they resounded in the back of my mind.

The reason why? Well, it’s because there’s an element of truth in the assertion that comedians in our bracket have to address our timing. I’ve seen it so many times where if I have a block at the ‘wrong’ moment, it can completely kill a punchline. 

You end up trapped in this awkward moment where you can observe the audience getting to the punchline before you have a chance to reveal it. They reserve their laughter for something that’s more appreciative than genuine.

So does this mean those in this bracket just give up? Or do we just fly by on grace and appreciation rather than being held in the same esteem as our peers? Well, the solid answer to that is absolutely not!

The real solution for us lies in our ability to weaponise the inaccuracies as a leverage for comedy. Working within the pragmatic framework that comedy needs a rhythm, the optimistic twist is that comedic rhythm is undefined. 

We have the unique ability to add a layer of genuine unpredictability to comedy, an unpredictability that has to be emulated by most others. While alternative acts spend years trying to artificially break the metronome of stand-up to manufacture awkwardness, we disrupt the timeline naturally. We don't have to fake the tension; it's already there in the room.

Because of this, my material is so heavily adapted to accommodate me, much like Rosie and other folk with disabilities that impact them verbally have done.

I’ve learned how to leverage faux blocks, which satisfy my natural speech patterns on my own terms and make it less likely for me to have involuntary blocks at key moments. Alongside this, I purposefully write material that I can tail into should I get stuck at a critical moment, turning an unexpected silence into its own callback.

We don’t all need ‘perfect’ textbook timing. We just need great ideas about how to weaponise the very aspects that seemingly hold us back. If you follow the strict traditional rules of comedy, you’re pretty likely to be benchmarked as a good comedian. But sometimes, breaking those rules completely is exactly what makes you funny.

• ...Eventually by James Beckett is on at  15:45 at Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters from August 17.

Published: 14 Aug 2026