Becks
Interview: Amy Bell
Photography: Owen James Vincent
Becks began presenting, producing and writing for radio & tv in Australia after leaving her job as a pokies attendant aka give a lot of rich people money that they don’t really need to gamble.
She is host of the 'So This is Adulting' podcast, has worked on Heart Radio with Amanda Holden & Jamie Theakston, presents a segment on comedian, Mark Dolan’s radio show and is a radio producer.
“Redundant at 25, I decided to take flight from the shores of Oz and head to Blighty. A friend suggested my quirky and overtly positive personality wouldn’t fit in with the Brits and despite him being right, I still aim to crack the average Brit.”
We got to speak to Rebecca about podcast and working in radio.
Hi Becks, thanks for talking to ReVamp, you are a radio host, have your own podcast and do comedy on the side, how did you get into all of this?
It sort of naturally happened, so at the moment I'm not doing any radio presenting but I do comedy on the side and I am a podcast host. This all started off accidentally in Australia getting in to the radio industry, I was working at a bar and I wasn't having a good time. I was about to do an event management course but then I watched a video of Caroline Flack and loved what she did, so I changed my mind and I went on to a media course and since then I've been in the industry. So if it wasn't for Caroline Flack I would off been an event planner and not on radio and television. So it went from me doing a course, then promotional work for a radio station and then I got my first full time job in Camberra as a writer and then it went to being a producer and doing some presenter. Soon after I was made redundant and my manager told me to go to London as their was more entertainment.
What made you interested in the hosting world and who motivated you to get into that side of things?
Well, I absolutely love talking to people and communicating with people and getting my personality out there. My main motivation is to make people laugh and there's a lot of set backs in this industry and other goals I want to achieve but I guess the people who push me on when I want to give up is my Dad and my best friend. My Dad is my number one supporter, there are times when I wanted to give up and he keeps on telling me to keep on doing it. He just wants me to be happy and believes in me!
You began presenting in Australia, how do you think the U.K. differs from the Australian side of things, and do you think there are more opportunities here in the U.K.?
I think our humour is a little similar but Australians are more laid back with their presenting style when I'm probably a bit more out there. There are lots of presenters in the U.K. who are prim and proper, they don't really take risks and that's why I love people like Allison Hammond from This Morning who just takes risks, super funny and brings joy to people. There are more opportunities here because in Australia radio and television are so limited and they use the same presenters all the time and the content is not as big as it is here in the U.K.
What would one piece of advice be for people who want to get into hosting?
Don't take yourself too serious! At the end of the day you're not a brain surgeon, you are going to get no's but just keep on going. It's just presenting man, don't take it serious! [laughs].
When working on Heart with the likes of Amanda Holden And Jamie Theakston, how does that make you feel?
That was actually pretty cool as I use to follow Amanda's journey in Australia and meeting her in person was great. I was presently surprised on how nice the team were there as I was just a runner, I was just doing some production work for them and they treated me with a lot of respect as a lot of people don't treat people in that job position with respect. Every single person at Heart was amazing from the producers to the editors to the presenters. It was by far the best job I've had in the U.K. today and working Amanda and Jamie was so funny, they spoke to us about other stuff than work.
Let’s talk about your podcast ‘So This is Adulting’, can you talk about what it is and what the podcast focuses on?
'So This is Adulting' is a podcast based on my journey from Australia to London. Each topic is an adult topic that adults go through whether it's friendships, relationships, dating, sexuality, body issues, responsibilities, you name it! I get a celebrity on each episode and we talk relevant to that topic and we just discuss it in a light hearted funny way.
Talk me through your typical day when you are recording your podcast and how do you come up with the ideas for the podcast?
Usually it's topics I want to talk about and then I try to find the most relevant people for that whether it's family like I had Audrey Hepburn's granddaughter on, so it's either that and I reach out to them or their people or I like someone and I like their story and I make a topic for them.
What is next for you and what is one goal you want to achieve by the end of 2021?
There's a few projects that I'm working on! I would love to finish Season 3 of 'So This is Adulting', I would love to do more comedy shows by the end of 2021. My goal is eventually to have my own talk show and TV show and that is a big goal of mine!