Review by Steve Bennett

New comics are always told they need to ‘find their voice’, but Lee Ridley knows exactly where his is – it’s in an app on his iPad.


In a story that has been widely reported, cerebral palsy has left the 32-year-old unable to speak since he was a baby, and needs the technology to communicate. Stand-up might not be the obvious career choice given that drawback, but he makes it work.

His whole show is pre-programmed into the computer, and Ridley prods the screen to get from one line to the next, giving him some control over the timing. At first it’s an odd experience, like listening to an automated booking line doing comedy, but you soon become attuned to the dry voice. After all, many comics deliver in a deadpan monotone, a style that can boost great jokes but tends to leave weaker ones horribly exposed. That’s true for Ridley, too.

About 18 months into his stand-up career, he falls into many of the usual traps of the rookie. There’s a lazy, meant-to-shock reference to Madeleine McCann, an ‘...and that was just the teachers’ pullback, and a few too many easy gags.

However, when he became more personal, the show picks up immeasurably. The story of how his condition left him with depression which he overcame so he could do this has a clear emotional tug. But he’s also got a mischievous streak, most amusingly demonstrated in the practical jokes him and his friends at special school used to pull, exploiting their disabilities, very much in the line of Channel 4’s I’m Spazticus. There are plenty more non-PC ‘spaz’ jokes where that came from, too, although able-bodied people’s reaction to him is the main butt of the humour.

A section about how James Bond villains have linked disability with evil in popular culture is too similar to Laurence Clark’s whole show on the subject, even though Ridley adds a strong payoff of his own. And Stephen Hawking jokes come with the territory.

The speech technology is used to generate its own jokes, too – for example as Ridley tries to get the very RP voice to speak in the Geordie accent he should really have. The inability to banter with the audience is made a joke of, too, though I couldn’t help but wonder if the software could facilitate a conversation, in a similar way Howard Read has made animated characters perform stand-up before.

Ridley is likely to attract a audience based on either novelty value or the patronising if well-meaning ‘isn’t he brave?’ feeling that he should be supported. But if the comedy isn’t up to it, that sympathy wouldn’t last more than ten minutes.

However, with his solid script, Lost Voice Guy has proved himself a decent act making a reliably accomplished debut. Ironically, he could become a word-of-mouth hit.

Review date: 18 Aug 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett