As we mark NZ Sign Language Week, Scottish comedian Ray Bradshaw is delivering laughs to the deaf community at live shows in Auckland.
As a CODA – a person raised by two hearing-impaired parents – British Sign Language was Bradshaw's first language.
"It's a big part of my identity, he tells Jesse Mulligan.
Ray Bradshaw Photo: www.comedyfestival.co.nz
Bradshaw is in New Zealand for this month's NZ International Comedy Festival, where he'll perform Deaf Com 1 – a show about fatherhood, teaching his son sign language and a disastrous trip to Bahrain.
He says he'll be signing through parts of the show but has hired a local interpreter to make sure the show is "100 percent accessible."
"People sometimes struggle with my accent over here and they might struggle with my hands, as well."
On a recent visit to Australia, Bradshaw learnt the hard way that the Australian sign for 'Coca-Cola' is the same one Scottish people use for 'sex'.
"I presume I'll be making all sorts of social faux pas over here, as well."
On his recent 40-date UK tour, Bradshaw says it was "so, so much fun" to see people who looked like his family in the audience.
He guesses around 20 to 30 percent of the audience at his shows are hearing impaired.
As sign language is direct to the point of being "quite brutal", Bradshaw finds out what people think in real time.
"I see immediate feedback because the audience is signing to each other rather than whispering."
Sometimes people heckle him in sign language – first putting their hand up to get his attention – and he'll then relay the comment to the whole audience.
"It's a much more polite way of heckling."
As we mark NZ Sign Language Week this week, the world's knowledge of sign language is still way, way behind where it should be, Ray says.
He recommends people think about learning sign as a way of acquiring a versatile skill.
"It's a great language skillset to have and it can also make someone else's day a bit easier."
Ray Bradshaw is performing The Classic in Auckland until the 20th of May.
Related:
Listen - Living between the hearing and deaf world
Listen / Read - 'Once I started signing, my sense of self just expanded'
