R1 newsreader tries stand-up

Radio 1 newsreader Dominic Byrne has had his first crack at stand-up… and just about survived.

Byrne, who reads the news on the Chris Moyles show, was dared to give comedy a go at the Laughs In The Park festival in St Albans.

He took to the smaller BBC Comedy tent at the Eddie Izzard-fronted event this afternoon, after which compere Jarred Christmas said he ‘got away with it’.

However, he didn’t do his own material but a string of pub gags, linked by game called ‘Hug Or Head’, which he proudly told the audience he played with Jennifer Aniston last week.

The gags were of the ‘two Mexicans are in a desert’ type – and at one point an audience member shouted out a punchline a good 30 seconds before he got to it.

And as he approached the end of another long gag, Byrne hurriedly had to add: ‘Oh, and he’s Irish – should have said that right at the beginning’.

Published: 22 Jul 2011