Audiobooks by comedians seems to be my go to at the moment, so when I saw this on NetGalley I thought I would enjoy it for the drive into work. And I was right! It’s a funny look at Rob Beckett’s life in comedy as a working class man surrounded by middle class people
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The stories he tells of not fitting in or not understanding situations because of his background was interesting and I feel that people from a working class background would understand these feelings. He explores the privilege and “leg up” people from wealthier backgrounds have just because of their position and background, and knowing people who can help in the business, and how even as successful as he’s been he can’t forget having nothing in the bank and how that affects him today. Told in funny anecdotes I really enjoyed this look at his life. I do think he’s speaking from a specific type of working class people, and the way he explores some things are very London-centric, but the feeling of not fitting in is a universal one. I liked that he acknowledged that however hard he found it, he knows it is harder for those who are not white
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The book includes some serious and personal stories as well as some hilarious anecdotes of the Beckett family, and I think listening to the audiobook helps bring his family to life. For a lot of the book he narrates as if he’s on a stand up gig which made the book funnier than it might have been just reading it myself. There is some repetition in passages and some aspects were explained more thoroughly than they needed to be, so maybe it needed a bit more editing, but as a fan of his comedy I enjoyed it. It’s also a fairly short audiobook at around 5 hours so I got through it quickly.
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Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Audio for this ARC to listen to and review