Review by Steve Bennett

Deadpan Pete Beckley has a nice poise, although a lot of his by-the-book writing makes for very familiar territory: starting by referencing a famous person he looks like and encompassing internet dating, Facebook (with the obligatory ‘poke’ reference) and how predictive text can hilariously garble messages - even though most modern phones are more advanced than that. Even the old ‘get off, you’re rubbish’ heckle putdown gets worked into the set as if it were material.

As a novice he makes a few easy-to-rectify mistakes - his payoff about a lap-top dancing club is telegraphed since it immediately follows material about computers, and a callback about ‘a friend of mine’ is redundantly explained even after it gets the laugh – but getting more adventurous in his inspiration will be a more difficult hurdle than technical tweaks.

A few enjoyably offbeat lines make their way into his set – but there’s not quite enough of them.

Review date: 31 May 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: The Dogstar