At his hometown gig in South London

Comedy crowds can be brutal – even to a five-year-old girl.

Rob Beckett has revealed that he brought his young daughter on stage at a hometown gig in Bromley, South London, a few months ago only for her to get heckled. 

He said: ‘My daughter was like five and wanted to come out and tell a joke to about 1,000 people in Bromley. My five-year-old had come out to tell her squirrel joke, which is, "Why do squirrels swim on their back? To keep their nuts dry." A little bit of fun. A little bit naughty, but a little bit of fun.

‘And as she walks out, someone shouted, "Get on with it!" South East London – at the homecoming gig. She’s five! Bromley’s brutal.’

His comments were made to Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett on their Dish from Waitrose podcast, where he also spoke about how his previously undiagnosed dyslexia turned out to be a benefit in comedy.

‘I found out I was dyslexic about two years ago, but I didn’t know all the way through school. 

‘So, I’ve got no working memory. What that means is it’s much harder for me to remember what I plan to do. So, I’ve built a sort of coping mechanism of being able to just think on the spot all the time. 

‘I didn’t realise how much of an asset that was in live performance until I got into it. I spent years trying to do comedy the way everyone else was doing it. By writing it all out, practising it. And actually, I thought, no, all I need is a bullet point, and do loads of gigs and work from there.

‘So, my show, there’s no script,  I haven’t got anything to show you apart from 10 bullet points. And then that might be a 10-minute routine. And then over time that sort of disappears and leaves my mind. I used to worry about that, but no, actually, if it goes, then it can open up space for new stuff.’

Published: 14 Oct 2026