AN award-winning comedian says he looks forward to being faced with former footballing foes as he takes to the stage at the Albany later this month.

Ray Bradshaw will bring his Doppleginger show – which sees the Glasgow comic search for the person who looks most like him - to Greenock on April 20 as part of his 37-date tour.

The tour kicked off in Southend in February, with Ray having visited several towns and cities in the UK and Ireland over the past six weeks.

Ray told the Tele: “Essentially, I’m trying to find the person in the world that looks most like me.

“I’m always told I look like people. In Scotland, I get John Hartson a lot.

“I thought, ‘you know what, I’m going to find a better one’.

Greenock Telegraph:

“I’m not going to lie to you, it’s got massively out of hand. I essentially started a cult at one point.

“People are bringing bald ginger people to the show who don’t know what the show’s about.

“They’ve bought them tickets for the front row and then I walk out. It’s an intervention kind of thing.”

Greenock is set to be a highlight for Ray on the tour, who also visited the Albany on his Deaf Com One tour last year.

He said: “When you’re on tour, you definitely look forward to the places that you know will be a bit more fun, a bit more mental.

“I really enjoyed Greenock last time and I went to the big Tesco in Port Glasgow on the way home for dinner, so I got the full experience.

“I like Greenock generally because half the people in the audience have abused me when I played Saturday morning football at Port Glasgow or Gourock!

Greenock Telegraph:

“You see all your enemies from over the past ten years. That’s always a nice touch.”

Having grown up with deaf parents, Ray became the first comedian to perform in both English and British Sign Language (BSL) whilst touring his Deaf Comedy Fam show in 2018.

All shows on the Doppleginger tour will feature a BSL interpreter.

Ray says his use of sign language at gigs has inspired other comedians – inlcuding the likes of Aisling Bea and John Bishop – to make their own shows more accessible.

He added: “That’s the thing I’m probably most proud of – bringing people who don’t usually come to comedy to a comedy gig.

“Yesterday, a great comedian messaged me to ask how you would go about getting an interpreter or a note taker for the Edinburgh Festival. I’ve had lots of questions about that.

“It’s so much better than when I started but I think there’s still a wee bit of a way to go.

“It’s just the nature of it – you can only afford to do it if you’ve got the money.

“It’s a dreadful situation to be in, but that’s the truth of it.”

Tickets for Ray’s Greenock gig are on sale from The Albany.