THE man who created the Dundonald Liberation Army (DLA) Facebook page, who has written for comedians like Shane Todd and created his own run of sell-out shows, will bring his brand of comedy to Down Arts Centre on Friday.
Stephen Large is embarking on his second comedy tour, having started standup comedy four years ago.
He told the Mourne Observer what he is most looking forward to about his first date on the new tour, ‘Having it Large’.
“It is the biggest thing that I have done in terms of stand-up,” Stephen said.
“I am looking forward to getting out and about and meeting some new people.
Hopefully building a base in these places.”
Comedy fans will know Stephen from his DLA Facebook page, which has 63K followers.
One of its most recent posts compared Downpatrick and Dundonald.
“It got a very good response.
People have seen it,” Stephen said.
In the clip, Stephen makes a cheeky comparison of the two places.
“Downpatrick has the grave of St Patrick, the man who brought Christianity to Ireland.
“Dundonald has Micky Modelle who brought commercial dance music to Ireland in the late 90s.
And let’s be honest, St Patrick never had a top 10 UK hit.”
Stephen said that the DLA website has been a great way to promote his work.
“Hopefully they will know the DLA stuff, and they will know the type of humour.
They might not know my stand-up.
So it is a good opportunity to meet new people and stick a marker down in these areas.”
The ‘Having it Large’ tour is his second tour.
His first tour, ‘Sabotage’, was cut short because of the death of his father.
Stephen explained the comparison between the two shows.
“The first show I did was in 2023.
That was autobiographical.
It was my partying in my 20s and parenting in my 30s.
“This show is more about my own observations.
I am looking at travelling, social media, streaming services, it is more topical.”
He has been a comedy writer for just over a decade.
He started with the Dundonald Liberation Army page in 2016.
“I always like the Waterford Whispers, the Daily Mash, those satirical news sources.
“I wanted to give it a go.
The early posts with the DLA really took off.
“Social media was different.
It was more text and article based.
Now it has shifted completely into video.
There was a big market for it then.”
He was approached by the BBC to write videos for their comedy online page.
He then followed that by writing books and plays, all of which were incredibly successful.
“Some of the videos that I did for BBC Northern Ireland comedy got upwards of 30 million views.
“They were shared by BBC Scotland, BBC3, and some of the bigger social media pages like Unilad.”
He explained that his change to stand-up four years ago, having been a comedy writer for many years, is exciting.
However, it has not been straightforward.
“I was predominantly writing material for other people, and then I decided to give it a go just before we went into lockdown.
It was just terrible timing.
I had wanted to do it sooner, but no sooner than I decided to do it, we went into lockdown.”
After the pandemic eased, he managed to do some open mics and then did a short tour which was cut short because of the death of his father.
But now he is back with his second tour and is excited for what the future holds.
“I always wanted to give stand up a go, especially when you were in packed theatres and guys were delivering your lines and everyone around you was laughing.
“It was a nice feeling but at the same time you were sort of going ‘I wish I would grow a spine and give this a go myself because I would enjoy it.’”
Stephen Large’s Downpatrick show is at the Down Arts Theatre on Friday 10 April at 7pm.
Tickets are on sale at https://nmdtickets.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173670591
