Interview: Si Beckwith ahead of Show Bricks

In this podcast interview, comedian Si Beckwith discusses his journey in comedy, the evolution of his style, and the importance of venues in Newcastle. He also talks about his involvement in arts and culture, including his work as a trustee and his podcasting experience. Si shares insights into his new show, ‘Bricks,’ which explores his relationship with his stepdaughter. He emphasizes the need for representation of step-parenting in the media and aims to make audiences laugh and have a good time.

Takeaways

• Si Beckwith started his comedy career at the age of 27 after being inspired by watching stand-up acts.
• The creative process of writing and performing comedy involves similar elements of structure and preparation.
• Confidence and comfort on stage are key factors in a comedian’s growth and development.
• Step-parenting is an underrepresented topic in the media, and Si Beckwith aims to shed light on this relationship in his new show, ‘Bricks.’

Aaron
So welcome and today I’ve got someone fabulous as our first guest on the new series of podcast interviews that we’re doing. Ambassador for Arts and Culture, founder of Felt Nowt, podcaster and just genuinely hilarious and funny comedian, Simon Beckwith. So thank you for joining us this morning, Simon. I know, I know, so I try and be proper about it sometimes.

Si Beckwith
Cheers for having us. Never get called Simon by the way, it’s always nice to be so formal in the meeting.

Aaron
But sorry. So we’re here. You’re here to talk today to us about your new show that’s coming to the stand Newcastle. But I always like to find out kind of where it all started. So roll back the years. So comedy for yourself. Where did it all start as a youngster? I guess.

Si Beckwith
I wasn’t that young, so I was 27 when I first did stand -up. So I’d always written. I was in a series of dead -end sort of call center jobs that I absolutely hated. And I knew I wanted to write and be creative. And then I started watching a bit more stand -up. I’d always watched stand -up for years. Went to an open mic night. And after watching a very mixed bag of acts, so some good, some very, very bad, it’s sort of the bad ones that make you go, well, if they can do it, I can do it. So after watching an open mic night, I thought, you know what, I’m gonna give this a go and then boot myself in like a couple of weeks later. Did me first gig and then it’s just been sort of 10 years on now that I’ve been doing it.

Aaron
And did you have any kind of growing up any kind of influence comedic influences that kind of dictated your style or anything like that?

Si Beckwith
Not really. I mean, I watched a lot of stand -up, so there was always stuff made me suspicious. I used watch a lot of like the American sort of mixed bill stand -up shows. So Comedy Central at the Comedy Store with the British one, the Montreal Just For Laughs ones for the sort of Canadian Festival comedy. And then there was loads of American stand -ups that I used to watch. I used to love Bill Hicks. I used to watch a lot of watch Doug Stanhope and Josie Long, who are both sort of two ends of the spectrum. But both of them I’d went to see live before I did stand up.

Si Beckwith
I watched a lot growing up but I just try to absorb as much as I can with anything like that anyway so there’s no particular influence but I did watch a lot of Stan.

Aaron
Okay. And you mentioned that you wrote a lot before actually kind of doing it live. So how do you find the difference between the creative process of writing versus that of actually kind of getting up and performing and, you know, in front of the crowd?

Si Beckwith
The process behind it is still similar. So whether you’re writing like short stories, reviews, articles, bits like that, it’s still similar that you’ve got to put out like structure. I like putting the work in. I like the prep. So all of it and the actual process behind it that gives you the freedom to be creative on stage is quite similar. So I think there’s a lot of similarities in the work that you put in. It’s just that on one of them, you’re getting up and performing in front of a bunch of people, which then is a different skill in itself.

Aaron (02:52.015)
Definitely. And in terms of from when you first started, have you found your styles changed at all or do you think it’s remained quite similar in terms of kind of deliverance and such?

Si Beckwith
Oh, it’s definitely changed, like I’m much better now. I was way in the air as crap as I was when I first started. So you definitely, I think you get better confidence is a huge thing for a stand up. The more confident and comfortable you look on stage. So I think the huge thing that comes is when you start to really enjoy being up there and when you just want that time to last forever. And it feels like this amazing thing that you want to just keep going. You feel more confident, more comfortable. Because ultimately the best comics are the ones who just take who they are and turn the volume up to 11.

So like the more comfortable that you can feel up there, the more that you yourself, the more honest and open you are. I think that’s definitely helped. Like I’m definitely more of an honest, open act than I thought I would be. And I’ve gone down more of a sort of particularly doing shows like narrative, storytelling is really interesting. But ultimately, you just need to be funny. It just needs to be joke, joke, joke, joke, joke. And you get better at writing better jokes the more that you do it.

Aaron
Okay and do you have any like memorable performances or anything from the years that you’ve been doing it that stand out?

Si Beckwith
You tend to remember the bad ones Aaron, that’s the thing, it’s like they’re the ones that stand out. I can tell you loads of good stories about Ruins Both Pub gigs where I’ve performed with two people and the dogs, like I’ve got loads of them stories. But the good ones, like there’s loads of just nice gigs, like the nice gigs tend to be the common thing. It tends to be the things that happen most. I can tell you loads of nice stories like stand weekends are always nice. We’ve got the stand Newcastle, Glasgow, Enfra, great clubs, stuff like doing the Fringe was really good.

Si Beckwith
My solo shows, so doing a solo show at The Starm previously, doing a solo show at Alfabetty, those are the ones that you remember, but the good gigs tend to thankfully be in the main. Like, I had a lot of good gigs towards the back end of last year where just there was a run of them where every single gig was like, oh, well, it’s just amazing and memorable and everything feels just nice. Like ultimately, like comedy audiences, I think particularly coming out the pandemic, we’re just desperate to go to stuff again. So there’s been quite a nice vibe in most rooms for comedy lately.

Aaron
And you might you must still get the odd heckler at gigs and things like that. So how do you deal with that when you when you do get them?

Si Beckwith
You don’t get it anywhere near as much as people think it happens. I think it’s more common now because of white powder being more prevalent on people’s nights out. And generally, I think because people crowd work more and see a lot of crowd work clips online, they think they’re helping or they think they’re part of it. They’re absolutely not. Just pack it in. But I think because I do a lot of compare and I do a lot of crowd work, like ultimately, like if you just sort of.

Si Beckwith
Deal with it. I think audiences are always on your side. So as long as you say something back, generally audiences have paid money to watch you or watch other comedians, not to watch them. So putting down a heck of a deal with a heck of a deal isn’t really that hard because ultimately they’re not helping. They’re not adding to the show. They’re just being a bit of a bell and audiences don’t like that.

Aaron
You touch on like crowd work there and I suppose if you watch TikTok or Facebook nowadays, you see a lot of comedians put out kind of a lot of clips about like crowd work and such like that. And then I’ve seen comments, I went to the gig and it’s nothing like, or I say nothing like is what I saw online. Because crowd work is only, like you say, a small element kind of of a gig and such like that. Do you think it’s, not misrepresenting but…

Do you think it is the crowd work, it’s good to interact, I guess, with everyone kind of on stage and such like that. Do you think it gives a false impression in terms of kind of being known for that solely as opposed to…

Si Beckwith
I can do, yeah, you’ve got to just write jokes, do jokes, comedies jokes. You will never think of something on the spot that is anywhere near as funny as something you’ve honed and crafted on stage over the years. Just write jokes, do jokes. So I think the big misconception is that there’s a lot of crowd work clips going out online and they’re great, but often they come from compays. Compay’s jobs, it is, and I do this a lot, to warm up a crowd. So interacting with people, warming them up. What you’re trying to do is set the room up ready for stand -up comedy, because stand -up comedy for me is the best art form in the world.

watching someone do a proper set or a show or something that they’ve honed is the best. Crowd work’s good, but it’s just like it’s a trick. It’s like a performance trick. And I think the curtain’s been sort of pulled back on that a bit now because there’s a lot of crowd work out there. So ultimately, I think for audiences, it’s people who’ve never gone to a weekend club or gone to their local comedy club or every town’s got a room above a pub gig. And if anyone’s never went to one, all I can ever do is go, just go watch what it’s like watching a mixed bill show with three comics in a compare on.

Si Beckwith
Because what you get is a comp here, the best compliment you’ll get is someone going, you should do that. You should get up and do stand up because they just assume you’re part of the room or part of the venue and just introducing the act. So crowd work’s great and it’s fun and it’s great for pulling clips out because you’re not burning material like you want to do all the time. But ultimately it’s nowhere near as good as proper crafted jokes. Like that’s what stand up is. It’s those jokes and those interesting ways that you structure those jokes together. There’s nothing ever going to be as good as that.

Aaron
Do you have a personal joke, not from your own repertoire, but that you’ve heard that is a favourite of yours or one that you repeat to friends?

Si Beckwith
I don’t reckon because of my favorite jokes because I was telling I was talking about this the other day I don’t think there’s anything suitable for this interview that I can repeat here and like my favorite jokes are like horrendous and there was one the other day but like jokes don’t like I do love the crafting of jokes and what I’ll find is like with you what’s great is your mates write jokes that you really really love and you quote those back or you’ll be in a call going to like a gig and like a horse bath or something and you spend that entire call journey having a chat about

Si Beckwith
I remember when such as have said this or I like this joke, so deconstructing jokes is really fun. But what happens to in comedy is you just enjoy comedy less for a bit because you deconstruct everything and you try to look at the mechanics behind it. So there’s loads of jokes I love. I kind of think of any that are clean enough or suitable to repeat now.

Aaron
Never know who will get to watch this, so yeah, keep it clean this early in the morning. So you mentioned earlier as well about being able to perform at places like the Alphabetti and the Stan Newcastle. You said earlier as well, especially coming out of Covid, people want to get out and see how important do you think these kind of venues are in Newcastle and just similar venues around the North East, just in general.

Si Beckwith
Our cultural scene is massively made up by, like the venues are critical and cause you’ll always get again, like people creating pop -up stuff. So a music scene will always be driven off to buy like room above pub gigs through do your bigger tour venues. And then the same with comedy, you’ve got like a regular comedy club here, which we’re very lucky to have somewhere like the stand. But then again, you’ve got the odd little room above pub gig and things on the outskirts, but it’s, theater’s that then allow like shows to thrive and.

I mean, we’ve got, we came up with a commission to write for theatre, so theatre is in the support level that we’ve got for that, it’s really, really exciting. But ultimately, like the more venues you have, the more people you have creating work, which means the more of a cultural scene you’ve got. The key to those venues is stopping people having to move away. If you’ve got a strong theatrical cultural scene in the North East, it means people aren’t having to move to London for work or move to Manchester for work. Ultimately, that’s what the North East is always struggling with, is creating regular work. So the more…

good venues that we have, the more work left in this city, the less we have to move away from work.

Aaron
And through your own kind of day to day, you play quite a big part, I guess, in terms of like cultural, you know, kind of influencing or, you know, just pushing culture within the North East. I know previously you’ve been at Newcastle Castle, you’ve been at Alphabet E Theatre, you’ve been a board member at the Exchange Theatre and Queen’s Hall Arts in Hexham.

So what’s it like for those kind of roles to partake in what they’re doing as well?

Si Beckwith
It’s great for me, I think, because I grew up very working class, very poor. Like I didn’t feel welcome in the arts. So I was like in the 20s. If I didn’t do stand up, I wouldn’t work around arts and culture because I wouldn’t have known it was for me. I didn’t feel like it was for me until stand up got me in the theatre hasn’t got me in other rooms. So they being grown up, working class, grown up in a town like heaven, it’s really important to me that access to the arts is there. So even just the term the arts, I know is a barrier enough putting to some people. So for me, it’s key.

that where I can, I try and work in, so again, being a trustee of a charity like the Queen’s Hall is great because I get to be a part of the decision -making process for a massive venue that opens up doors for people to go and see the art. And it’s always been really important to me to have people get access to the art. And I’d always worked as a freelancer around art. I mean, now I’m solely, as of this month, I’m solely relying on comedy and writing. This is my income, because I’d always just had that safety net, if you like, of doing other little bits and bobs of freelance work. So whether that was like working with art companies or marketing shows, working around content and branding and stuff like that, that there was a bit of extra money coming in to top up when I was chasing up invoices for comedy or whatever. But now, so it’s stepping back from some stuff, but then aiming bigger. So rather than working with a theatre show around the market and I’m working on my own theatre shows and writing. So it’s a big…

Si Beckwith
step but exciting but I still obviously being trusty of both theatres in general and things like that I still want to be involved as much as I can and to give as much back as I can for it. General or form that’s gave as much to me.

Aaron
it’s great that you give him back and, you know, trying to push, you know, that access to kind of people, anyone that’s looking to get into it across the board. And you also co -found, you run regular podcasts previously on like maths and such like that. So that must be kind of fun, fun entertaining things to do on the side as well previously. And they gained quite kind of a say, a following I think, maths in general has a kind of following, it’s one of them, but taking the different topics that you have done podcasts on, how have you found doing those?

Si Beckwith
Always good, I think what you do with a podcast is you try and find a niche of something you want to talk about. I mean, my mate Kelly did 17 episodes about the film Grease 2. No one else is ever going to make that podcast. And I’m glad that we did. And it’s I think that in itself can be a real art form and something that’s really accessible, really easy to make. It’s really hard to make good. And I think that’s always been the key for me is to make quality content, like make stuff that’s high end produced. And it’s something where definitely if you listen to the first podcast I made, I’m mortified by how they sound compared to the later ones.

Si Beckwith
But you get better as you go and I think if you can find the niche and things you want to talk about, there’s an audience out there. It’s something like 90 odd, 95 % of podcasts don’t make it past 10 episodes. It’s something stupid like that because most people will do a few and then get bored or realize it’s a lot of work and a lot of admin. So I’m always pleased that everyone I’ve started, I’ve finished, it’s either been like a limited run of something or it’s planned out and still ongoing. So I think podcasts are a great way of getting an audience for something that’s a bit different to stand up.

Aaron
That’s it. And now you’re coming obviously back, I say back to Newcastle, but you’re coming back with a new show. So your last one was Get Lush, I believe your first solo show, which again had huge, great reviews and such like that. So now you’re coming back with a new one called Bricks. This one’s quite personal to you. So firstly, I guess we’ll ask, how did you come up with the title?

bricks and what is the show that you’re bringing out about.

Si Beckwith
So the show’s about me relationship with my stepdaughter, which is a very positive relationship. So I love being a step -daughter. Like I’m a da, like ultimately, like I’m a da, she’s me babe, but we’re your step -family. And it doesn’t get represented in media a lot. And I’ve just said some throwaway jokes on stage once about being a step -parent. Someone come up and talk to us after, because they had a step -family and they were like, never gets talked about. And it just sort of like lit a fire in his incetimate in my head. That was like, all right, that’s interesting. And ultimately I called it Bricks, because me and Erin bonded over playing Lego.

So it was that simple, really. That was something that we, when we first started hanging out, just played Lego together. I think that’s why for ages she just didn’t fully get that I was an adult. She just thought I was another parent to hang out and play Lego with because of how we are. So that’s the show in a nutshell, really. It’s just about being a step -parent and what our relationship is, but it touches on a lot of other topics, but that’s the core of that story.

Aaron
How did your partner and stepdaughter feel when you said that I’m going to do a show about this? Like you said, it’s hugely personal, so I don’t know if there’s anything that obviously relates to certain things within it, but did they find out a positive step as well?

Si Beckwith (16:02.071)
Definitely like Erin’s got a poster of it on her wall so like she’s absolutely chuffed because she’s got a little Lego version of her on the poster so she was delighted so I think if you’re going to talk about other people all I think you can ever do is really talk about from your perspective anyway so I think you’re not telling and there’s a line I say in the show about like there’s a bit where I touch on something to do with her and I’m like that’s her story to tell I think you keep to what your story is and it’s fine but if you feel like anything’s personal I’d always just ask anyway.

Aaron
And you said it’s kind of underrepresented in the media. Is there any particular reason why you think that is, or is it just a subject that’s not covered in general?

Si Beckwith
just don’t think it’s cover, I just don’t think I think because it’s not the the main sort of family format and it like you spent I mean throughout the 80s and 90s particularly in sitcoms it was a very nuclear family driven version of what a family is so it’s not something I get to represent in loads and if it did it’s either evil Disney ones so like there’s loads of evil Disney step parents but it’s just it’s hard I guess to represent every family type but ultimately it’s just not come up loads it is starting to change you do see more of them but it’s nowhere near is represented as what the percentage of the population that experience it is.

Aaron
And I know this show’s already had kind of two, a couple of outings previously. Has it developed or changed in any way that people might, who may have already seen it come to the show and they go, oh, a bit different or is it?

Si Beckwith
Yeah, it’s changed a lot. I think I always evolve everything you do. So it’s much, much better than even like last time I did it. I was really, really happy with it, but there’s a lot of changes gone in. There’s a lot of work and there’s a lot of tweaking the bits that I like that have made better and the narrative of it updated. So I’ve tried to make sure the story I’m telling is the story up to the day, not the story to the last time I did it.

Aaron
And I’ve read on some of your promotion for it, obviously, it’s a show for everyone, but you are particularly encouraged for people like yourself, step parents, step kids and that to attend. Is there anything in particular you want them to come out of the show afterwards feeling? Or kind of is it relating to, or is it just a general feel good show?

Si Beckwith
I just want them to laugh, ultimately it’s comedy, like yeah there’s a narrative and there’s a story behind it but ultimately I just want them to come out and go I’ll laugh the loads then. That’s what the goal of any stand -up show for me should be is just to make someone laugh relentlessly for an hour. Like that’s all, like there’s a story there and it’s nice that I get to tell my story but ultimately what I want is for people to come in and just have a really good night, just watching a good hour of comedy.

Aaron
And the show’s this week. And that’s happening at the Stan Newcastle. So tickets are still available. So if you fancy a night out, evening out, and good laughs, then Si is your man. And yeah, grab your tickets online. The link will be down below. But yeah, let’s thank Si for his time today. And yeah, we’ll be there at the show. So we’ll be looking forward to.