Award-winning comedian Alasdair Beckett-King bringing 'whimsy' back into fashion

  • Watch Sabet Choudhury's chat with Alasdair.

An award-winning comedian will visit the West Country this week and he's planning to put old-fashioned "whimsy" back in style.

Alasdair Beckett-King became a household name over lockdown when he started sharing witty videos on social media.

Yet his comedic success stretches back to 2013, when he reached the finals of the So You Think You're Funny? awards.

Speaking to ITV West Country's Sabet Choudhury, Alasdair said: "I suppose the unfashionable term for what I do is 'whimsy'.

"Everybody hates whimsy these days. It's light-hearted, clever nonsense and it's just an excuse to do observational comedy with a sort of sci-fi-ish, Doctor Who-ish, bent - but there are real jokes as well."

Alasdair mixes sci-fi with his observational comedy.

The Durham man plays down his success, but old-fashioned whimsy has taken him to Glastonbury Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, and the BBC's Mock the Week.

Yet, when the world ground to a halt in 2020, he was already kitted out to make funny videos at home.

"I was lucky to have started putting out little videos on the internet just before we were all locked down in our houses and nobody was allowed to go outside," he said.

"It was just coincidence that I had a background in doing film-making and animation, unlike all the other comedians who didn't know how to do all that stuff."

Now that he's touring again, Alasdair has noticed a difference in the kind of people who attend his stand-up shows.

He said: "Previously people used to come along and they took a punt because they liked a flyer I had put out or they'd seen a poster.

"But now people sort of have an expectation that the show is going to be good, which on the one hand creates pressure to actually be good, but on the other hand it creates a wave of energy in the room which I can kind of surf."

Alasdair Beckett-King will perform at Bristol's Hen & Chicken on North Street tonight (28 April) at 8pm and tomorrow night he will be at the Tiverton Community Arts Theatre.