Heckles and applause fall on deaf ears

Hearing-impaired comedian takes to the stage for Hebden Festival

Hecklers welcome – because this is one show where even the applause and laughter falls on deaf ears!

Radio 4’s Steve Day, comedian and actor, hearing-impaired since the age of 18, comes to the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival next month.

In a warm, witty and engaging show (signed, of course), Steve Day deals with the dilemmas of being a deaf man in a hearing world. He plays and talks about the seven records he remembers and misses most.

Deafy’s Island Discs is at the Trades Club on the opening Saturday of the two-week Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, which starts on June 27.

There’s enough comedy at this year’s Festival to get the valley echoing with laughter.

Take Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf, for instance – billed as a chance to get out from behind the sofa and get aboard award-winning comedian Toby Hadoke's Tardis on a trip through time, charting the rise, fall and subsequent rise of a television legend. It’s a must-see show for anyone who's ever had a passion for anything. Intimate knowledge of Doctor Who not required, though a disdain for The Daily Mail, George Galloway, the BNP, football hooligans and Hollyoaks would be useful.

Comedy-connoisseurs can’t have missed the rise of Phill Jupitus, but few will have heard him reading Dickens. During the reign of Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens performed readings of his work at The Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh. Phill Jupitus, well-known to many as team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and It’s Only TV, But I Like It, will audaciously recreate this event at Hebden Bridge Picture House.

Tickets for Ed Byrne’s shows are like gold-dust, says The List, so a chance to catch the star of TV’s Mock The Week is sure to be a hot date for Festival-goers too.

Postal booking for the 40-plus performances and workshops is now open. The box office on Albert Street opens on June 14.

The 2008 Festival runs from Friday, June 27 to Sunday, July 13.

If you’d like to be kept in touch with what’s planned, e-mail hbfestival@gmail.com or visit www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/festival.