Quotes from Rob Beckett

It sounds quite mad, but once I've got a show up and running, walking out on stage is the easiest part of my day. All I've got to do is talk until they laugh and then I stop, let them laugh and talk. It's a bit like meditation really.

I know how hard it is to get a babysitter, get dressed and go out again after work. I'm like, right, I owe you lot a good show.

I did gigs alongside Oxford students and I thought being working class I'd feel inferior. But the thing is you don't feel inferior if you're getting more laughs than the other bloke on the bill.

Boxing has parallels with stand-up, because you're on your own. If a boxer gets knocked out in the first round, it's humiliating.

Romesh Ranganathan and I come from similar backgrounds and we've both done well for ourselves.

I do like a savoury bake, I love a Gregg's savoury pastry more than something with the word chocolat in it.

It's the hardest job in telly as a newbie. You're writing standup every night on your own and presenting live TV. It's like a really tough apprenticeship in front of two million people.

I can tell there's going to be a fight in a pub five minutes before anyone else.

I quite like winding up other competitive people. I enjoy that.

I am so excited to announce that I have written a book. I have actually written it myself with no ghost writer, just me! I never thought it would be possible but I have done it.

If you Google St Petersburg, it shows you some amazing buildings. When you go there, you realise that there are a lot of grey depressing ones that aren't on Google.

My dad was a taxi driver - he's a long distance lorry driver now - and he has an amazing work ethic.

In the kitchen I just do all the normal stuff - roast dinners - Christmas dinner is probably my signature dish. Nothing baked, though. I just do boring family stuff.

I've three older brothers, Dan, Russ and Darren, and a younger brother, Joe. It was a lot of fun.

Where I grew up in South East London you became a cab driver or worked in a flower market.

I can't imagine a time I don't want to do standup.

Comedy isn't subjective like music. You either get the laughs or you don't.

I was told Moscow was the tough place and St Petersburg was the hip, happening, cultural centre of Russia. I've never seen so many miserable people in my life. If that was hip and happening, god knows what the vibe is like in Moscow.

Being launched into a show with two million viewers every night made me instantly famous. I found it quite difficult to deal with but it got easier.