Will & Ralf Should Know Better is back on U for a new run of shows. They talk about facing their latest challenges, including stand up, below.
As part of the fourth episode on hobbies you try life drawing classes, did you getthe giggles?
Will Mellow: Quiet, serious rooms where you’re not supposed to laugh, especially if you have to draw naked models, are not good for me and Ralf! I kept catching his eye, even though I tried not to. It was the same when we went into the Buddhist temple in the first series and tried to behave ourselves. We just can’t!
Ralf Little: It reminded me of filming ‘Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps’ and trying not to laugh. The cameraman was standing closely behind this guy posing in the nude, so I drew the cameraman with his big wide eyes instead of the model. Another time I had the cameraman behind me so I deliberately did a really silly schoolboy drawing of the male anatomy, I could feel the camera shaking as he got the giggles and he had to go off for five minutes!
Will: I actually surprised Ralf by being one of the naked models in that episode, and he had to draw me! He did this doodle of me with a big belly and a bald spot on my head!
Is it true you attracted some attention when you did fresh-water swimming?
Will: We were wolf whistled by a group of old ladies whilst we were getting changed!
Ralf: I honestly felt more objectified then than I did stripping off with the Dream Boys last series! We were behind a tree getting changed, turned away from the camera. Will drops his pants and 30 yards away was a group of women in their 70s! standing on the rocks, looking at us and cheering! They were actually swimming with us, they hadn’t just randomly turned up…
Will: Once I got in the water there was nothing for them to see – we were in a freshwater lake in Scotland, and it was Baltic!
What about the day you spent as cowboys…
Ralf: I didn’t know we’d be doing that, it was genuinely a total surprise! The guy who runs it is retired and has built his own pretend wild west town - you can show up, wear all the gear, play at being a cowboy and make your own short films with little cap guns. It reminded me to never lose that inner child, the sense of innocence and wonder. I found it really inspiring.
Will: We got to make our own mini-western movie, but Ralf wasn’t happy when he saw the script…
Ralf: I was fuming – Will had monologues and I had one line! A year ago, I was number one on the call sheet doing Death in Paradise in the Caribbean, now I’m second billing to Will… But it was a great experience!
What about riding a tandem bicycle in episode five, was that tough?
Ralf: It was the worst reaction I had to anything. I had a meltdown while we were doing it and got so angry at myself. I love a challenge but don’t enjoy anything repetitive. I’ll dash around a pitch chasing a ball for hours, but running in a straight line, rowing, cycling, swimming… that’s not for me. People say it helps you push through a mental barrier to be alone with your own thoughts – but that’s the last thing I want!
Will: Then we crashed when Ralf tried to hop up a curb. Ralf: I felt a bit bad about that… Will: He’s steering so I’m staring at his backside, and we’re speeding down this hill...
Ralf: We get down to a roundabout at the bottom, I slowed right down and was about to turn left into the car park and instead of taking the curb straight on I thought I could hop over it. The angle was wrong, I was going a bit too fast… To be fair Will was quite magnanimous about it!
Will: Luke Grenfell-Shaw is this amazing guy who’s been through some incredibly hard times, he helped us on that challenge – when you hear his story it’s no wonder he’s grabbing life and doing what he wants to do.
Ralf: He’s not going to wait for the right time to pursue his dreams, the right time is now and everything else can fit around it. That’s sort of a theme of our show.
In the last episode, you learn the trapeze to try and conquer your fears…
Will: I really struggled with that and gave it the best I could, but there was literally a mental and physical blockage stopping me.
Ralf: I’d never seen Will refuse a challenge before. He literally and figuratively could not let go! Will: I just froze. I realised how much I like to be in control, and I wasn’t. That was hard, it was my version of Ralf and the tandem.
Was it nerve-wracking doing stand-up comedy?
Ralf: We’ve both talked about that and threatened to give it a go for years, but it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done.
Will (pictured): Our podcast is unscripted and improvised, but you can’t go on stage unprepared. Nerves will throw you. Everyone is waiting for you to make them laugh, and the audience didn’t know we were going to be there, so it wasn’t like they’d bought tickets to see Will and Ralf. We had to come up with a 10-minute routine, the terror before going on was awful – I was pacing, my heart was pounding…
Ralf: Then once you’ve done it, you feel alive.
Will: That’s what I live for, the feeling of adrenaline from performing. I came off thinking I need that again, it’s addictive. So you’d do it again?
Ralf: Legitimately, we have both discussed it. Watch this space…
Will: We were worried if we’d be welcomed by other comics because we haven’t done the hard graft to get there, do we deserve it?
Ralf: I hosted a show in 2002 called Edinburgh Nights interviewing comics at the festival, guys like Dara O Briain and Russell Howard before they were famous. They used to get annoyed if someone swooped in without having worked the circuit, but the comics I spoke to this time said it’s not really like that anymore because people are getting opportunities through TikTok and social media. They’re writing their own material, putting themselves out there and gaining a following, so the comedy community is more chilled about it, which is an interesting development.
Will: When we did ‘Two Pints…’ we learnt the importance of timing with an audience, which is everything. But stand-up is scary and lonely, there’s that fear of dying onstage. We had a great experience, but who’s to say it wouldn’t be the opposite if we did it again?
Ralf: I met a female comic who wasn’t bothered about making a career out of it, she just enjoys doing a five-minute set every few weeks – it’s a hobby that she’s good at, and that’s enough for her. She also confessed to having a poster of Will when he was in Hollyoaks on her bedroom wall when she was younger!
Will & Ralf Should Know Better streams on U from February 23.
Picture/interview supplied by UKTV
