On Thursday, poet, writer and former children’s laureate Michael Rosen will turn 80. To celebrate, he’s continuing to do what he clearly loves best, performing his works and making people laugh.
His new tour, Nice!, is named after what has become one of the writer’s most famous poems. After a YouTube performance of the work, which involves himself and various members of his family blowing on cooked potatoes to make them cool enough to eat, the poem’s chorus of “hot food, nice!” has become a meme, extracted into GIFs and shared all over the world. Rosen’s performance of the poem makes great fun of the repeated lines, actions and non-verbal sounds, with the poet encouraging the whole audience to join in whenever they can.
And participation is a key part of Rosen’s style. Early in the hour, he discusses the composition of his poem Hand on the Bridge and uses call-and-response to teach the entire audience the short verse. The sequence also includes a tribute to fellow poet and friend, the late Benjamin Zephaniah, a reference which goes down better with the grown-ups in the room, but which leads into a pleasant segue on the two writers’ different approaches to composing their poetry.
Rosen also performs his long biographical poem, Chocolate Cake, which chronicles a late-night visit to the kitchen to “have a little nibble” of the cake meant for his lunch the following day. Again, this is a work redolent with Rosen’s trademark combination of childhood nostalgia, self-deprecation and amusing noises. He also works through a longer version of I Was Born in the Stone Age, originally written in response to a central government edict that the Stone Age should be part of the primary history syllabus. It also plays on the concept that someone of Rosen’s age can seem immeasurably old to young children – and so a humorous poem about education through the ages feels like a glimpse into another world.
At just an hour, there’s certainly not enough time for the younger audience members to get bored. For the grown-ups, it feels over far too soon. There is a brief Q&A at the end, most notable for Rosen deftly sidestepping a child’s question about whether he will ever retire. The poet doesn’t seem to have much enthusiasm for such an idea, and why would he? It is clear that performing his works for the young, and the young at heart, brings him as much pleasure as it does us.
That is a boon for us all. There is something so delightfully innocent about Rosen’s poems, even when he’s being slightly transgressive, that it is easy to see and hear why generations have come to adore him. As he approaches his 80th birthday, it certainly feels a privilege to be in the company of a man who embodies vitality and fun.
Reviewed on 4 May 2026 and continues to tour
