After Dinner Speaker
You were top notch. I looked at the 16-year-ols who found you very funny right through to those of 75 years and more.
Roger Cook,President, Outwood CC
You were great - everyone enjoyed themselves
Julie Griffin, Secretary, Silversmiths & Jewellers Charity Xmas Dinner , 2012
You entertained us royally - as hysterical as ever
Tom Rodwell,Chairman, Lord's Taverners
Jo Davis,Event Organiser
after Bob appeared with Miles Jupp at the charity's national Xmas Lunch for 1200 people in LondonDecember 2012
Best Speaker we've had for years
John Alton,President UK Lubricants Assoc, November 2012
You were breathtakingly funny as usual and added greatly to everyone's enjoyment of the day
Martin Long, co-Chairman,Crystal Palace FC 2011
Everyone thought you were hilarious. You pitched it just right.
Doug Johnstone,Chairman,Keston Park Residents' Association 2011
He’s now at the top of the tree with bookings coming in from all over the world. Not just sporting dinners but now major corporate events because he is such a “safe” performer.
Bob is a big favourite with the SAS. Here he is at their headquarters at Hereford entertaining the officers after a rugby match. The Station Commander wrote "thank you for entertaining us all, for the time and effort you put in to attending and for your performance. The feedback from the lads has been full of praise and admiration."
But just how did he come to be regarded as Britain’s No. 1?
It all started at the Old Wilsonians’ Association Dinner. Bob had founded a weekly newsletter for the Old Wilsonians’ FC and his amusing writing led to the invitation to speak.
On the night an actor told him he had good timing.
Further invitations followed until he sent a recording of his speech to the Bank of England FC to a well-known speaker agency run by Dabber Davies. “To this day he has never got me a job” says Bob.
“To this day he has never got me a job” says Bob.
Nonetheless he persevered and after four years he had his first paid booking at Harlow Town FC in 1980.
But events would soon overtake his efforts. Mike Langley of the Sunday People and Jimmy Hill had heard Bob speak at an Ipswich Town Dinner in 1979 and he was booked for the Footballer of the Year Dinner in 1980.
This notoriously difficult audience gave him a standing ovation.
He would return to this dinner three more times over the years – a record.
He even wrote a poem about Gary Lineker in 1992 which brought the house down and is still hanging in Gary’s downstairs toilet!
Thank you so much for a great job last night bringing so much laughter to the AIRMIC dinner. I cannot remember a time when the guest speaker has had so much of the attention of what can be an easily distracted audience
John Hurrell, CEO,December 2009
Bob’s feel for all types of audiences led him into the corporate market where has appeared at countless sales conferences and awards ceremonies.
I have never seen so many people cry with laughter at the same time
Most important of all he is a “clean performer” suitable for all audiences.
We had some great comments and the evening was very successful so thank you again. Some guests who attended the evening came back this week for lunch and couldn’t stop talking about it.
Gerard Basset, Founder of Hotel de Vin and Hotel TerraVina ,after Bob’s new one-man show in January 2010
After a Variety Club Luncheon with Sven Goran Erikson Henry Winter awarded Bob “the Cat” Bevan with the “Daily Telegraph Best After Dinner Joke of the Year”