I saw a £15 ticket offer for this gig earlier in the week. Of course, being Ticketmaster, £15 tickets actually ended up costing £20.80. It was still worth it, though. This was Ray's biggest-ever solo show, and it felt good to support him. I've always found him a disarmingly funny comic with an easy, conversational style that packs a killer punchline.
He's never nervous on stage because, with two deaf parents, he's always had to be confident from a young age to help them navigate the world of sound. He gets a lot of mileage from his deaf parents. Despite hearing some of the stories before, I couldn't help but laugh at them again, because 1) his delivery is so smooth, 2) everyone is laughing, and 3) the stories are very funny. For example, Ray hears someone using a chainsaw outside his house early one morning. He looks out his window and sees his deaf dad cutting the hedge. He also sees all the neighbours watching from their windows, annoyed at being disturbed so early. Ray makes gestures to try to catch his dad's attention (no point in shouting), and eventually catches his dad's eye. Ray signs to him that he is disturbing the neighbours. His dad looks about, shrugs and then signs back, "That's your problem," and carries on.
Ray performed both halves of the show with his sign language interpreter. She also provided a few laughs, like when she showed him the middle finger (not up the bum - injoke*) after he made a joke about her.
Before the show, Ray watched the audience on the screens backstage. With many deaf people in the audience, he was able to eavesdrop on their signed conversations, the best one being one chap who asked his wife if she thought he had time to go for a shite.
It would have been brilliant if he could have sold out the venue, but even with the last-minute £15 tickets on sale, the Front Circle was less than half full, with no one in the rear seating or top floor. This was a shame. It was a good night.
Afterwards, on the way back to the car, I persuaded my wife that we should stop at McDonald's. I wanted a Creme Egg McFlurry, and she decided she'd like the same, but the mini version. At the order screen, I raced through the transaction, but the machine had no receipt roll. As I took out my phone to photograph the order number, the screen returned to the start. My wife berated me for hitting the wrong button. She said I had cancelled the order. So I repeated the process, and again it leapt back to the order screen, though this time I briefly noticed the number 97 flash before it disappeared. She was angry now. Why did I cancel it again? She now wanted to leave, but I was determined to order my ice cream. For a third time, I went through the process, taking each step slowly. At the end, I paused to read the instruction she claimed I had got wrong. 'Yes' meant retry. Nothing happened. It couldn't. There was no receipt roll. 'No' meant continue without a receipt. Then we heard 97 being called, just after 95. Two sets of our order were on the counter, with a third on the way. My wife couldn't stop laughing. In the end, they refunded the other two orders. The assistant asked if I wanted a receipt. I said no. I got one anyway.
Ticket Price:Venue £15 Ticket offer: £15.00 x 2 = £30.00
Service Fee: £2.05 x 2 = £4.10
Venue Facility Fee: £2.50 x 2 = £5.00
Handling Fee £2.50
Total £41.60 via Ticketmaster
* At a wedding, Ray persuaded an American guest to order a 'Finger Up The Bum' at the free bar. Ray credits the barman with the greatest of replies. "Is that a single or a double?"
Selected Preshow music:
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