After much nerve-jangling and limited training, Digital Spy's plucky friends Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries have finally taken to the stage for their first-ever stand-up comedy gig.
The former Hollyoaks duo have been in training to perform on the behalf of DS at the Leicester Comedy Festival and their final performance is here for you to enjoy and judge.
Watch Matt and Darren's final performance at the Leicester Comedy Festival:
Digital Spy Diary: Darren Jeffries
Did it! We went on stage at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival with the main aim of making people laugh, and we actually managed to raise a few giggles! And one actual cackle from my girlfriend, but I guess that can't count. Biased, you see.
And it seemed to go smoothly! An attack of dry mouth at the start which I guess is the norm, and a few of our main sections got swapped around during,...
The former Hollyoaks duo have been in training to perform on the behalf of DS at the Leicester Comedy Festival and their final performance is here for you to enjoy and judge.
Watch Matt and Darren's final performance at the Leicester Comedy Festival:
Digital Spy Diary: Darren Jeffries
Did it! We went on stage at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival with the main aim of making people laugh, and we actually managed to raise a few giggles! And one actual cackle from my girlfriend, but I guess that can't count. Biased, you see.
And it seemed to go smoothly! An attack of dry mouth at the start which I guess is the norm, and a few of our main sections got swapped around during,...
- 2/21/2013
- Digital Spy
There's nothing we like to see more at Digital Spy than celebrities being forced to do silly things. So when Matt Littler and Darren Jeffries (Max & Ob from Hollyoaks) put themselves forward to perform a stand-up set at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival, we signed them up without hesitation.
Find out how the cheeky duo are getting along by reading the latest instalment of their comedy diaries:
Digital Spy Diary 2: Matt Littler
By now you all know the situation. Me and my man-wife Darren Jeffries are attempting stand-up at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival, but there's a problem. We ain't comedians. A few sessions in now, and our main teacher Marc Blake has somehow squeezed and skewed us into a (albeit rough) comedy mould. We have definition. A dynamic. And now comes the tricky part - the material.
Part of the deal was that after Marc had trained us we got...
Find out how the cheeky duo are getting along by reading the latest instalment of their comedy diaries:
Digital Spy Diary 2: Matt Littler
By now you all know the situation. Me and my man-wife Darren Jeffries are attempting stand-up at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival, but there's a problem. We ain't comedians. A few sessions in now, and our main teacher Marc Blake has somehow squeezed and skewed us into a (albeit rough) comedy mould. We have definition. A dynamic. And now comes the tricky part - the material.
Part of the deal was that after Marc had trained us we got...
- 2/14/2013
- Digital Spy
At last year's Dave Leicester Comedy Festival, Digital Spy sent one of its own reporters off to test their stand-up skills and run the gauntlet with a full five-minute set.
This year, we're going one better. Darren Jeffries and Matt Littler, perhaps best known as Max and Ob from Hollyoaks, have signed up to take part in the comedy festival for Digital Spy and are prepared to put their dignity on the line for laughs.
Darren and Matt will be sharing their Diaries with us as they prepare to take to the stage.
Digital Spy Diary - Darren Jeffries:
Me and my big fat unfunny mouth. I'm standing outside some language school in central London waiting for Mr Marc Blake, who is our tutor for today's comedy lesson, and also Matt Littler, my husband in televisual crime, to learn how to write a stand-up routine for a gig at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival.
This year, we're going one better. Darren Jeffries and Matt Littler, perhaps best known as Max and Ob from Hollyoaks, have signed up to take part in the comedy festival for Digital Spy and are prepared to put their dignity on the line for laughs.
Darren and Matt will be sharing their Diaries with us as they prepare to take to the stage.
Digital Spy Diary - Darren Jeffries:
Me and my big fat unfunny mouth. I'm standing outside some language school in central London waiting for Mr Marc Blake, who is our tutor for today's comedy lesson, and also Matt Littler, my husband in televisual crime, to learn how to write a stand-up routine for a gig at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival.
- 2/6/2013
- Digital Spy
Here we are. Less than a month after agreeing to become a stand-up comedian, I arrived at the opening night of Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival to do my first (and quite possibly last!) ever set. With the help of comedy tutor Marc Blake, I'd flung my personality down on paper, edited it into something coherent, stuck some jokes in and then practised saying it out loud. I had a comedy masterclass with Peep Show's fabulous Isy Suttie. But I was still terrified, sandwiched between four other hacks who seemed way less nervous than I felt! How did it go? Well, you can watch the video below to find out.
As you can see, not too bad! My fellow journalists-turned-stand-ups (Tom Latchem, Sophie Heath, Stephen Armstrong and eventual and deserved winner Toby Earle) were all lovely and hilarious. Compere Ian Stone (more)...
As you can see, not too bad! My fellow journalists-turned-stand-ups (Tom Latchem, Sophie Heath, Stephen Armstrong and eventual and deserved winner Toby Earle) were all lovely and hilarious. Compere Ian Stone (more)...
- 2/9/2012
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
It's finally happened. After weeks of messing about sat on my bum, the time has come in my stand-up journey to well... stand-up. Thankfully not in front of a baying mob at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival (just yet!), but in an old classroom provided by my comedy tutor Marc Blake. Before you start talking you have to get up there. Marc advised me to strut on and make sure I'm okay with the mic. Either take it off the stand and pop the thing aside or, as in my case, keep it stuck there to stop me pacing back and forth. Lee Evans I am not. We practised with a brolly and a water bottle, but I couldn't procrastinate any more. I started talking. Fast. Way too fast. Those who have seen my rare public speaking outings (my wedding, my bar mitzvah) will know that I gabble. And when I get nervous I gabble faster.
- 2/2/2012
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
After a week of ranting and another sticking those rants into paragraphs, this is the last week I'm going to be scribbling down new stuff before next week's attempt to start saying it all out loud. As red line after red line goes through the page I optimistically thought of as "a set", my comedy tutor Marc Blake is doling out some important words of wisdom. The main word is "brevity". I might not be good enough for some Tim Vine wordplay, but I can definitely learn from him to make every word count. Losing all my pointless adverbs. Paring it all down to the bare bones. And targets. We mentioned targets last week but despite my best attempts, too much of the set was going nowhere. So, where I was skirting around a target, I had to narrow in with the crosshairs. If I just couldn't pin down a target,...
- 1/27/2012
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Last week was easy enough. Comedy tutor Marc Blake gave me plenty of encouragement, and comedy fans and stand-ups alike said nice things on Twitter about my journey from no-nothing punter to a proper (if short-lived) stand-up. But then came the hard part - turning a load of ill-informed gibbering into something funny. Terrifyingly, I've now been told that I'm likely to be on stage on the first day of the Dave Comedy Festival in Leicester. That's February 3. Argh! I quickly worked out that the brilliant/awful pun route is way more difficult than it looks. And despite a burning desire to rage against the machine, my political ranting is sixth-form at best. So, I combined my previous list of things that (ahem) grind my gears with some stuff about myself into a rambling sort-of-speech. The first thing Marc said was to cut out the needless fluff. Out went half...
- 1/19/2012
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Stand-up comedy... it's just standing up on a stage, having a rant or two, popping out a DVD at Christmas and watching the money tumble in, right? Michael McIntyre has apparently raked in a whopping £5 million over the last couple of years. We reckon we're at least a hundredth as funny as him, and 25 grand a year would do us just fine! With this in mind, when Digital Spy was given the chance to learn how to be a stand-up, we just couldn't turn it down. On this weekly blog, we'll be letting you know all about going from zero experience to being someone stood on stage at a proper event, being judged by ravenous comedy punters. There'll be a clutch of tutorials with writer/performer (and our comedy tutor) Marc Blake, a session with a comedian off the telly (Tbc), before we get to show off at Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival next month.
- 1/10/2012
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
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