Alasdair Beckett-King is ‘Interdimensional’

With several viral internet hits and appearances on Mock The Week under his (vegan leather) belt, Alasdair Beckett-King has returned to his first love – stand-up comedy and taken his hit stand-up show The Interdimensional ABK on the road.

Alasdair Beckett-King:

“My name is Alasdair Beckett-King, and ABK are my initials. Basically, they don’t let you work in showbiz if your name is too long. That’s why Benedict Cumberbatch had to shorten his name, which was originally the entirety of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.

“I’m an interdimensional comedian, and this show is about moving from the “A Timeline” (freedom, optimism, adventure) to the “B Timeline” (paper cuts, climate change, Noel Edmonds). If you’ve spent your whole life in the B Timeline (AKA, the real world), you’ll know how hard it can be. I come from the A Timeline, so I get to make jokes about all the best and worst things in ourworld, from an outsider’s perspective. So, there’s silliness, whimsy, and absolutely several proper jokes. We’re talking double figures, easy.”

His hugely successful (almost every date a total sell-out) 27-date debut UK tour will wrap up at Leicester Square Theatre on 17th and 18th June.

After several sold out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, Alasdair predicts that 2023 will be the year of hard-hitting, uncompromising whimsy. His YouTube spoofs now have millions of views, sure. But he learned to do stand-up first, so The Interdimensional ABK is a real show with jokes and everything.

Schopenhauer said ours was the worst of all possible worlds, cementing the German philosopher’s status as “a right laugh”.  But He had a point. How are you supposed to perform whimsical comedy when the real world is so terrible?

Astute, intelligent, and jammed with niche nerdery, whilst easy on thinly shredded nerves, The Interdimensional ABK is giving it a good go… Because as it turns out – here we all are, rudderless-ly moping about in the bafflingly miserable B Timeline, totally clueless to there being a marginally superior version.

Alasdair Beckett-King

In the A Timeline Wetherspoons is called Definitelyspoons to start with. And, well, all and sundry is just generally better, happier, and more optimistic. But don’t despair – Alasdair Beckett-King is here, on a heroic mission, sent from the A Timeline to save us all from ourselves.

He has, however, hit a snag. The madness of B Timeline – war, injustice, growing anti-Ginger sentiment – is overwhelmingly distracting. And that’s before you get him started on Agatha Christie Poirot plots. Also – it turns out the B Timeline has heaps of awful things that he kind of loves. Instead of Alasdair making the B Timeline better, is the B Timeline is making him worse?

Innovative observational comedy, idiosyncratic animated illustrations and what one critic called “majestic” ginger locks, team up to deliver charmingly subtle commentary on the unavoidably addressed political climate in which we Timeline B inhabitants find ourselves.

Alasdair Beckett-King:

“Schopenhauer said we live in the worst of all possible worlds. And he was right -but what a downer. I created this show because Iwanted to spend some time in a better world. And I also wanted to make my own animated theme tune, in the style of a 1980s Saturday morning kids’ show. Which is the most self-indulgent thing anyone has ever done, but it turned out quite nicely.”

Alasdair Beckett-King won the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year in 2017. He garnered a very enthusiastic critical response plus an Amused Moose Comedy Award nomination with his debut Edinburgh show of the same year. Alongside his recent TV appearances and YouTube fame, he has featured on BBC radio as a comedian and sketch writer and performed stand-up across the UK, at Glastonbury, Citadel Fest, the Udderbelly Southbank, and the Fringe. He once won a student RTS award and was nominated for a Student Oscar, but quit filmmaking for stand-up on realising it was a cheaper medium to be unsuccessful in.

ALASDAIR BECKETT-KING: ‘THE INTERDIMENSIONAL ABK’

LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE, LONDON, 17th & 18th JUNE 2023

https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/alasdair-beckett-king-the-interdimensional-abk/