Lost Voice Guy T-shirt at comedy exhibitions in Newcastle

A T-shirt worn by Lost Voice Guy comedian Lee Ridley when he won Britain’s Got Talent is one of the artefacts at an exhibition celebrating North East comedy.

Other exhibits include posters from 40 years of the show, a DVD of 102 Dalmatians signed by actor Ben Compton and a life-size statue of Viz character Johnny Fartpants.

Organizers are asking the public to lend them additional items that showcase the region’s “cheerful heritage.”

Mr Ridley, who has cerebral palsy and is from Consett, County Durham, won the 2018 ITV talent show while wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “I was disabled before it was popular”.

The exhibition is organised at BottleWorks in Byker by Felt Nowt, a co-operative of north-eastern comedians, with support from Tyne and Wear Archives and the Discovery Museum.

They are looking for props, prints, programs, tickets and costumes “for an exhibition of comic curiosities from over a century of laughter” and “the hilarity culture of the Northeast,” a Felt Nowt spokesman said.

The objects can be loaned for the exhibition or donated as a first step towards a museum dedicated to the region’s comedy.

Felt Nowt comedian Lee Kyle said the group wanted to promote new comedians and also “preserve” previous ones.

He said: “We all know Bobby Thompson, Sarah Millican and Rowan Atkinson, but lesser-known figures such as Wavis O’Shave, Ella Retford and Wee Georgie Wood also played an important role in the cultural history of our region and it is equally important that we preserve and recognise their contribution.”

Mr Kyle said organisers wanted the “personal stories” of people whose families “have contributed to comedy in the North East in some way”, as well as stories of people who have seen comedy or met comedians.

“The more obscure the better,” Kyle said, adding, “We’re honestly after anything.”

Among the stories already told in Not Only Sid James Died In Sunderland are those of a court jester replaced by a monkey, a comedian sentenced to death for being gay, and the region’s connections to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.