Comedian forced to apologise to fans after cancelling gigs over ill health

Daily Mirror

5 hours ago

Mock the Week star, Rob Beckett, has said sorry to fans after cancelling a number of shows from his UK Giraffe tour, admitting he's 'not well enough to perform'
Rob Beckett has been forced to cancel a string of gigs on his popular Giraffe tour due to ill health. The Mock the Week star, 39, told ticket-holders he wasn't well enough to perform for the Scottish leg of his concerts as he took to Instagram with an apology.
Admitting he 'hated doing this' but was too poorly to go on stage, Rob wrote: "Hello everyone, I'm so sorry, but I'm not well and can't do the shows in Scotland this week. Aberdeen has been rescheduled to Wednesday 14th Jan 20206 and Edinburgh has been rescheduled to Thursday 15th Jan 2026. The venue will be in touch but tickets remain valid for both shows. I hate doing this, but I'm not well enough to give you the best show possible, but I look forward to seeing you all at the new shows."
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Responding to the news on X, formerly Twitter, several fans said they were 'gutted' Rob had been forced to cancel as they wished him a 'speedy recovery', adding that they hoped they'd 'see him soon'.
It comes after the dad-of-two, who is one of the most recognisable comics in the country, admitted that he wanted to take a step back from stand-up.
Speaking to The Sun, Rob said he needed to prioritise his family as the dad of two young. daughters. Lifting the lid on his career in March, he said: "I'll still do stand up and local clubs and charity gigs but I'm going to take a break from touring until the kids are 16/17.
"Then I'll do a big tour when they're in sixth form and when they go to Uni, me and [wife] Lou are going to spend Feb and March in Australia bumming around."
And when he's 50, Rob plans to change tack from comedy completely, revealing: "When I'm 50 I want to do a psychology degree."
It was more than a decade ago that the bespectacled star started doing stand-up comedy, which lead to a whole host of appearances on TV shows and podcasts.
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Rob has been on the likes of 8 Out of 10 Cats, Rob & Romesh Vs... and All Together Now and also narrates reality series Celebs Go Dating.
His impressive career must be the envy of many stand-ups starting out in the business, but in his memoir, A Class Act, Rob admitted he was 'headed for a breakdown' after a stint of filming in Cape Town, South Africa. During the shoot, which was sandwiched between dates in his sell-out comedy tour, the comic claimed he was "the unhappiest I have ever been. He wrote: "I woke up on January 5 in a five-star hotel room thinking it would be better and easier for everyone if I was dead.
Rob continued: "I thought I was a confident and well-balanced person, but I wasn't. I was feeding off that drug of attention and applause and laughter from the gig," the 35-year-old continues. "You chase it like a drug, but the reality is that being content is what you're after, which comes from inside."
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After talking with his manager, Rob went on to seek a therapist's help for eight months, which he says, thankfully, gave him breathing space.
He shared: "I did some therapy to calm my brain down. I wouldn't say I had a breakdown because that would be unfair to people who have had them, but I was definitely heading that way.
"The timing of getting therapy and the pandemic and my gigs stopping was lucky. It gave me the breathing space that you can't always take if you've got a busy schedule."