Lost Voice Guy: BBC New Comedy Award winner finds his calling

Last week I decided to quit my day job to do the thing that I love doing most – making people laugh. It certainly wasn’t an easy decision to make. In fact, it’s a massive risk. I’m leaving a well-paid job in the hope that people will laugh at me enough to make a living out of it. Let’s be honest though, I’m disabled (I have Cerebral Palsy and can’t speak) so people tend to laugh at me anyway. At least this way I’ll be getting paid for it!

And, yes, being a stand-up comedian when you can’t even talk is a very strange career choice. I’ve always liked a challenge though. That’s what made me determined to go to university, to be independent, and to become a journalist. And it’s this determination that is now helping me follow my latest dream. If the last three years as a budding comedian have taught me anything, it’s that anything is possible if you truly believe in yourself.

If you’re wondering how I tell my jokes, it’s quite simple really. I carry my iPad on to the stage with me and I get that to say what I have written on screen. Of course, this means that even though I’m from Newcastle upon Tyne, I can’t have a Geordie accent. My accent is from PC World instead. I guess you can’t have everything though. Thinking of an easy to remember stage name was simple too - Lost Voice Guy.

When I first started doing stand-up comedy back in February 2012, I had no idea where it would take me. I wasn’t even sure if it would work at all because of my inability to speak. My friend insisted it was a good idea. I thought he was crazy but the idea got stuck in the back of my mind, eventually I decided to give it a try because I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. It turns out my mate was right after all.

I’ve always enjoyed making people laugh and doing it in a comedy club in front of hundreds of people turned out to be a massive buzz. Ever since I stepped onto the stage for the first time and experienced that, I have known that this is what I wanted to do with my life.

It hasn’t all been glamour. I’ve worked hard to get this far. The long drives home from Cardiff in the early hours, the cheap hotels in Halifax, performing to just three people in a strip club in Edinburgh (doing comedy I must add!). But that’s made the good times even better. I’ve supported my comedy idol, Ross Noble, on his tour, I’ve played to 1,500 people at a charity gala, and this year will be my third year of taking a show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Winning the BBC New Comedy Award 2014 in December was definitely the turning point. That was the moment when I thought that my dream career just might become a reality. Pardon the pun, but I was speechless when I picked up the award at the Comedy Store in London. Not least because it was voted for by listeners of BBC Radio 2. It’s a great feeling to know that the general public find you that funny!

I didn’t expect to win it all when I first entered the competition. I just thought it would be good experience for me. So when Patrick Kielty read my name out as the winner, I was on cloud nine for about a week afterwards.The BBC award has definitely changed my life. I’ve never been busier as a comedian and I’ve been given a great opportunity to work with BBC Comedy to develop a radio sitcom.

This brings me to the reason why I knew it was the right decision to leave my day job and give comedy a proper crack. I came to the conclusion that there would never be a right time to do it and that if I didn’t do it now, I might never do it at all. Opportunities to make a name for myself don’t come along every day. I want to be able to devote all my time to do my best of taking advantage of that.

Most of all, I think I’ve reached a massive crossroad in my life thanks to the award and the support shown to me by BBC Comedy since. They seem to want me to succeed almost as much as I do. It’s finally given me the last push that I needed to make the jump into a scary new world. I could just keep doing what I’m doing now and never ever reach my full potential or I could concentrate on comedy and everything that comes with it.

Only time will tell if this is the start of my mid-life crisis, but I need to give it a real try whatever happens. If I don’t try to follow my dreams and do what I love doing now, I feel like I’ll regret it forever. Life is too short for that. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll even be able to afford to get a Geordie accent for my iPad.

Lee Ridley is a stand-up comedian and winner of the BBC Radio New Comedy Award 2014.

• Find out more about the BBC New Comedy Award.