{"id":278885,"date":"2026-02-11T15:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/278885\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:22:12","slug":"josh-widdicombe-shares-the-cruel-heckle-that-has-stuck-with-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/278885\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Widdicombe shares the cruel heckle that has \u2018stuck\u2019 with him"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Comedian Josh Widdicombe<\/a> has recalled the brutal heckle he received early in his career that has \u201cstuck with\u201d him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Widdicombe, whose busy comedy career<\/a> started in 2008, was performing a set at Edinburgh Fringe Festival<\/a> that didn\u2019t go down too well when someone shouted words of discouragement from the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doing a 10-minute show and was doing really badly,\u201d he said. \u201cA member of the audience said: \u2018In 10 years, you\u2019ll be average.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The comedian, 42, told The Times<\/a> that the wording \u201cwas such a specific angle that it obviously stuck with me\u201d. <\/p>\n

He acknowledged that part of being a good comedian is improvising whenever hecklers rear their heads, but he advised those watching comedy gigs to remain silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, if you can\u2019t deal with hecklers, then you\u2019re not a very good comedian, but I\u2019d implore anyone reading not to bother heckling because it doesn\u2019t add to the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Josh Widdicombe\u2019s comedy career started in 2008 and he has been a regular on panel shows since the 2010s (BBC)<\/p>\n

Widdicombe\u2019s comedy career was launched when he made it to the final of So You Think You\u2019re Funny? , a comedy tournament at the Fringe.<\/p>\n

Three years later, in 2012, he made his debut on panel show Mock the Week, before becoming a regular on The Last Leg in 2013. He joined BBC 5 Live in 2014, hosting Fighting Talk alongside Georgie Thompson, but quit after just two years due to his \u201cincreasingly busy schedule\u201d.<\/p>\n

Widdicombe became the first-ever winner of comedy favourite Taskmaster in 2015, and during the pandemic in 2020, he launched the successful podcast Parenting Hell with fellow comedy star Rob Beckett, following their respective obstacles as fathers. <\/p>\n

Widdicombe has two children with TV producer wife Rose Hanson, whom he married in 2019.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the comedian suffered a \u201cmental collapse\u201d due to severe burnout, leading to \u201chorrific panic-attack-led insomnia\u201d after being left \u201cterrified about going to sleep at night\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Rob Beckett and Widdicombe started a \u2018Parenting Hell\u2019 podcast in 2020 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Widdicombe explained his anxiety stemmed from a fear that if he ever stopped working, then all his success as a comedian would vanish.<\/p>\n

He told The i<\/a> that he was \u201cinitially very resistant to taking antidepressants\u201d as he thought there was \u201csome sort of shame or stigma involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Widdicombe added that taking medication allowed him to \u201dmake the life changes I needed to make\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame that there\u2019s still stigma attached to it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really helped me to just deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Beckett revealed his podcast co-host had been \u201cstretched beyond belief at home and at work\u201d after committing to too many things, leading him to \u201cnot enjoying life and feeling stressed and fed up\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to UK government statistics published in 2024, 8.7 million adults in the UK are on antidepressants.<\/p>\n

Widdicombe, who has launched a new podcast named Josh Widdicombe\u2019s Museum of Pop Culture, is currently embarking on his comedy tour, Not My Cup of Tea, across the UK.<\/p>\n

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-278885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}