Greg Davies
Himself
Overview
Greg is back with his first stand up show in four years, and biggest ever tour, You Magnificent Beast.
Cast
Reviews
5 min readThe Beast in the Room
I’ve always thought stand-up comedy is the closest thing we have to live jazz. A performer steps onto the stage with a setlist of ideas, but the real magic happens in the gaps—the pauses, the glances, the way they lean into the mic like it’s the only thing keeping them upright. Greg Davies’ You Magnificent Beast understands this better than most.
It’s not just a comedy special; it’s a masterclass in how to turn the act of talking into something physical, something almost architectural. Davies doesn’t just tell jokes. He builds them, brick by brick, until the audience is trapped inside a structure of his own making, laughing because they have no other choice.
There’s something inherently theatrical about Davies’ presence. At 6’8”, he’s a man who was born to be looked at, and he knows it. But unlike other comedians who use their physicality as a crutch—think of the way Jack Black turns every punchline into a full-body workout—Davies treats his height like a prop, something to be toyed with, subverted, even weaponized.
In one of the special’s best bits, he recounts a childhood memory of being asked to reach something off a high shelf. The way he mimes the moment, his long arms stretching upward like a giraffe trying to blend in with the trees, is so vivid you can almost see the dust motes swirling in the air above his head. It’s not just funny; it’s visual.
Comedy often lives in the ear, but Davies makes sure it lives in the eye, too.
What’s striking about You Magnificent Beast is how little it relies on the usual crutches of stand-up. There are no long, meandering stories about his dating life, no riffs on the absurdity of modern technology, no easy targets. Instead, Davies digs into the weird, uncomfortable corners of human behavior—the way we lie to ourselves, the way we perform for others, the way we’re all just barely holding it together.
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsA drunk student named the special from the curb.
Decider printed the origin. Davies is easy to spot in London, so a drunk student lurched at his taxi and yelled the title at him. "You Magnificent Beast." He was approaching 50 and found nothing magnificent about the body. The hour is him describing what he has done to spruce it up. Netflix's card lists terrifying dates, manscaping disasters, latestnetflix.com maintains, and his father's pranks. TMDB still carries the tour line. First stand-up in four years. Biggest ever tour. 66 minutes. Peter Orton directs. Avalon produces. 
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Chortle's Steve Bennett, watching the Hammersmith Apollo tape, said the star of Davies's stand-up was never Davies. It was his father. The writing system, which the Netflix trailer and Chortle both quote, is a notepad and a wait. "I wait for my parents to say weird shit, and I come and I tell you." Bob Davies died three years before the tour, an act Bennett joked showed no concern for his son's career. Mum then made him vow not to repeat her insane comments. He cannot keep a promise. ,
The Guardian's Brian Logan, at the same Apollo run in November 2017, heard a trigger warning for every fanbase. Inbetweeners and Man Down people would be fine. Taskmaster and Cuckoo people might find the stage persona hotter. Big, delinquent, often blue. The Times was colder. Four sold-out Apollo dates, biggest-selling and least charming live show, a new coarseness now that Dad is a spectral presence. Bennett still clocked the hour as ferociously funny for its shameful transgressions, and sarcastic in the title. , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znXH2QUIzBM
Netflix locked 10 April 2018. Chortle noted the 2018 Chortle Award for best tour, taped at Hammersmith in November, the same room that already held Jimmy Carr, Katherine Ryan, Jack Whitehall, and Jim Jefferies specials. Beyond the Joke clocked the Apollo at 4,000 seats. Cuckoo, Man Down, and The Inbetweeners were already on the service. The official teaser is still on YouTube. , ,
The closer is the part that is not a dirty joke. Logan heard a musical tribute to the eccentric father. Shropshire Star, catching the Birmingham Symphony Hall date, said Davies hired a Welsh choir to sing a folk song his dad taught him, then learned it was a vulgar poem about sex and animals on a farm. Karaoke lyrics on screen. He said that summed his father up better than any eulogy. Hospice, a male nurse, a 13-stone six-year-old with an appetite for roast chicken. The title came from a drunk. The hour is a son who lost his best source and kept talking anyway. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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