Debut tour grew to ~50 dates
Laura Smyth's first stand-up tour grew from 20 planned dates to nearly 50, including Hackney Empire and Indigo.
Snapshot · Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe
S12 EP46: Laura Smyth (The Return)
Explore episode
Jun 12, 2026
Where this was said
Parenting the Sweet Spot and Surviving the Teenage Years
At 43:21 · chapter starts 43:10
With all three hosts parenting children in the 8–10 range, the conversation finds easy consensus: this is the sweet spot. No car seats, no toddler chaos, not yet teenagers, funny companions with real interests. Laura has already done the teenage years with Rosie and is watching Bonnie approach 11 with a mixture of experience and dread. Her key lesson: become an absorption sponge. Rosie would stomp around for weeks, and eventually they'd discover a friendship fallout was the real cause — she was venting sideways. This time Laura plans to absorb rather than react, set quiet standards, and not take it personally. Rob adds his own confession: Lou occasionally mirrors the 'stank face' back at the kids, at which point Rob tries to intervene and the whole thing escalates. The segment also touches on Laura's insight that she gets more triggered by her daughters' behaviour than her son's, because they're little versions of herself looking back at her. The car seat height rule (135 cm or age 12) spawns a lengthy detour involving Warwick Davis, Danny DeVito and Bob Hoskins's actual height, measured on phones in real time.
Similar snapshots
AI novel 'Call Me, I'll Hide the Body' sold for $2.4M
A novel called 'Call Me, I'll Hide the Body' triggered a 14-publisher bidding war and sold for $2.4 million before critics alleged it was predominantly written by AI.
John Mulaney cold-texted Robby
John Mulaney cold-texted Robby Hoffman out of nowhere to offer to produce her Netflix special, which became Wake Up.
Posed as a courier to pitch HBO Canada
Robby Hoffman posed as a courier to hand-deliver her spec script directly to the president of HBO Canada early in her career.
Two Netflix specials filmed in one night
Robby and Mulaney filmed two shows in one night for the Netflix special; after the first they knew they had it, so the second was a victory lap.
250–300 shows per year
Jimmy Carr performs up to 300 shows a year, often doing two shows per night, which he says reduces nerves rather than increasing them.
Comedy optimal speech: 92 BPM
Jimmy Carr says that speaking at roughly 92 beats per minute is the optimal cadence for comedy and public speaking, including political speeches like Obama's.
The oldest joke is ~4,000 years old
The oldest recorded joke appears in a Roman book called 'The Lover of Laughter' and is still funny — a barber asking how a man wants his haircut, who replies 'in silence'.
Overton window expanded by comedians
Jimmy Carr argues that comedians like George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Dave Chappelle have permanently expanded the conversational Overton window on sex, politics, and taboo topics.
Lion King musical: $11B lifetime gross
The Lion King musical has grossed over $11 billion in its 30-year run, making it the single highest-grossing piece of entertainment in history across any medium.
