YOU know who really gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks. That was the one-liner that won Stewart Francis best joke at this year’s Edinburgh Festival and now he’s bringing his sardonic wit to the Palace Theatre.

The Canadian comic will bring his stand-up show, Outstanding in his Field, to the Palace, Westcliff, on November 22. The date was added due to extra demand and tickets are almost all gone, so move fast if you want to snap one up.

But it’s hard for him to explain exactly how it will turn out as, with his trademark brand of one-liners, he says there’s not such a set format to guide the show through.

He explains: “There will be one-liners, a little bit of dancing maybe – there’s no format with one-liners, it’s kind of all the jokes you remember to tell. You memorise them like an actor approaching a script, but there’s no format or flow.

“I kind of lock and load. Regardless of how the audience responds, I’m going to be telling them.”

Stewart is a familiar face on Mock the Week, where his dry, cutting, and sometimes bonkers, one-liners saw him invited straight back after his first appearance.

His parents are both British and Stewart moved to the UK from Canada after he realised his brand of humour was going down something of a storm on these shores.

“I’d been coming over here for about 15 years part-time,” he says. “And every time it was always good. Good things were happening.

“I decided I’d invite myself to the UK and good things would come. Boy did I call that right.

“One-liners are a very British style – Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson – it’s very dry, it’s just the way it developed in Canada. Maybe on a subconscious level it was always British stylised comedy.”

Either way, Stewart’s British fans took his one-liners to their hearts immediately – propelling him from humble beginnings to household-name status and landing him high-profile gigs. He supported Office star, Ricky Gervais, on his Science tour – where he got to brush shoulders with royalty.

“Like any career, there’s evolution and progression,” says Stewart. “You go from amateur nights to getting paid gigs. I met Prince Harry after a gig supporting Ricky Gervais, that was lovely. He’s a very lovely young man.”

He lists another career highlight as winning the award at the Edinburgh Festival this year for best joke, after his gag about the Beckhams.

“It’s all good, but that was special,” says Stewart. “It’s lovely. I’ve met a lot of great people through my comedy. It’s been a joy.”

Stewart often finds himself faced with famous fans in the audience, but he says it never makes him nervous. The only thing that does pull his focus once he is on stage, is knowing his wife is in the audience.

“It doesn’t matter if there are famous people out there,” he says. “They’re no more important than anyone else in the audience. “But it is distracting with friends and family. I become distracted if my wife’s in the audience, I’m very aware, but it’s not nerves.”

Stewart is busy with the tour at the moment, but he has plans for a new TV series. It is still in its fledgling stages at the moment, but he will be focusing on it once he is off the road.

“I’ve got a great idea for a TV show,” he explains. “There’s not much to tell at the moment. It’s a sort of day in the life of me, just allowing my vivid imagination to run wild. It’s definitely a show I’d like to watch, so hopefully we’ll get that made.”

Stewart Francis
Palace Theatre, London Road, Westcliff
November 22, 7.30pm, £18.50
01702 351135