Lee Ridley won Britain’s Got Talent as Lost Voice Guy in 2018 and since then his career has rocketed.
Lee has cerebral palsy and lost his voice at a very early age, but that hasn’t stopped him from following his dream of working as a comedian. He had started on this path after being discovered on the Ross Noble show when he challenged Noble that he could do a better Stephen Hawking impression. But BGT really propelled his career forward.
LVG performs via his iPad with voice enabling software, and specialises in self depreciating jokes about being disabled.
As he is helped on stage, we notice his t-shirt reads, "I was disabled before it was popular" and the ad for his book on screen is titled I’m Only In It for the Parking.
This can be a little unsettling at times—are we allowed to laugh? Is this a suitable subject for comedy?
But LVG soon puts us at ease as he is genuinely funny, and by encouraging us to laugh with him rather than at him gives an insight into the challenges of his condition and the struggles many like him face as they battle red tape and society expectations.
Among other subjects, he takes aim at the benefits system, the disabled dating scene, the Paralympics and being ‘an inspiration’—something he obviously takes great issue with.
For him, he is just getting on with life—it just takes him ten times longer than us to put on his pants!
Some of the humour is a little near the knuckle, but the majority of the show is just laugh-out-loud comedy anyone from 14–80 could enjoy.
And in spite of what he says, I think most of the audience did see him as an inspiration, not only showing that you can achieve anything you want if you put your mind to it but as a champion for the disabled and highlighting what needs to be done to make life a little easier for them.