Comedians who quit stand-up as Jon Richardson says 'it's time for a career change'

is the latest comedian to quit stand-up in news which has left his fans in shock. The celebrity Gogglebox star, 42, announced his decision to step away from the spotlight on , telling his followers he wants to carry on after an extended hiatus from the stage.

Jon is one of several stars who have decided to step away from stand-up, with comedians, including Rob Beckett, TV star Dave Chappelle and Hollywood A-lister, Steve Martin, all deciding to focus their attention elsewhere. So, as Jon focuses on his new career as a teacher, here's some of the stars, who've walked away the mic...

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Rob Beckett

Despite being one of the UK's most popular comedians, Rob Beckett has announced he is quitting stand-up touring after his upcoming shows, which start this month.

Just a month after revealing that he is also stepping down from his radio show, the 9 out of 10 Cats stars has admitted plans to step back from stand-up tours to prioritise time with his kids.

Rob, 39, has become a regular TV personality over the last decade hosting awards shows, such as the TV BAFTAs last year, and featuring on panel shows.

However, despite his soaring success touring with gigs, he told the : ‘I’ll still do stand up and local clubs and charity gigs but I’m going to take a break from touring until the kids are 16/17."

Emma Thompson

Before becoming a Hollywood star, actress Emma Thompson was a stand-up comedian, doing gigs, which she admitted 'terrified her'.

Lifting the lid on her experience before she, in her words, 'wisely gave up comedy' to focus on acting, she told Vogue: "Stand-up. It’s an innocuous enough term. You stand up. You say things. People laugh. You go home with some money in your pocket. But for me it meant the essence of jaw-grinding, dribbling fear, prequel to the sort of failure that I can only liken to sudden-death syndrome.

"Whenever I think of doing stand-up, I see a vision of myself onstage with a microphone and the cartoon mouse Jerry below sawing through the stage around me. The mouse saws and saws and only stops if I get a laugh. If I get a laugh, the changes. I get to live."

Steve Martin

Hollywood A-lister, Steve Martin, left the stand-up scene at the height of his career in 1981 because he felt the act had been seen by so many people, it was getting boring.

He told “The act essentially, besides all the jokes and bits and everything, was conceptual. And once the concept was understood, there was nothing more to develop. It's like painting the same blank canvas over and over and over and over and over.

"Once the concept is known, you don't need to see two. And that was in the back of my head - that I was really done artistically with what I had created or pastiched.”

Dave Chappelle

Chappelle's Show star, Dave Chappelle, quit stand-up and his television show in 2005 after some rowdy hecklers made him reconsider his life.

He was performing to a 4,000-person audience who wouldn’t stop interrupting his set to yell out references to his TV show, which made the comic storm off stage in anger.

He returned to the stage to slam the audience for their behaviour, exclaiming: “People can’t distinguish between what’s real and fake. This ain’t a TV show. You’re not watching Comedy Central. I’m real up here talking.”

Jon Richardson

has stunned fans with the news that he’s quitting comedy to take up a completely different career. The star has been a mainstay on the stand-up and TV circuits for years, but is now choosing to step away from the spotlight.

the , 42, who got divorced from fellow comedian, Lucy Beaumont, a year ago, shared the update on today.

Filming himself wrapped up warm as he took a walk and spoke to the camera, he shared: “I just thought I’d give you a little update. I don’t really do social media updates, and I’ll tell you why - because I don’t think anyone cares. But I have a little bit of news. I’ve obviously been taking a little bit of a break from stand-up and it’s really made me… want to carry on taking a break from stand-up.”

He added: “I’ve been thinking a lot about a diary entry that I found from 1997.” An excerpt of his old diary then popped on screen, as the Radio 6 star explained: “It’s this one. I was 14 years old, it says although I would love to be a stand-up comedian, I’ll probably end up being a teacher. And I’ve been thinking a lot about that.”

Jon concluded: I’ve loved being a comedian, it was absolutely the right choice. But I’ve decided it would’ve been nice to try the other option, so that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”

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