Comedian Ray Bradshaw shares wild stories ahead of social experiment stand-up show at Aylesbury's Waterside Theatre

Comedian Ray Bradshaw is trying to find as many people that look like him as possible before he brings his unique comedy show to Aylesbury next year.

In 2024, the Scottish comedian brings his latest stand-up show Doppelginger to audiences across the UK.

In the build up to his biggest series of performances, he is trying to find as many fellow bald men with ginger beards.

One of the dates on the 40-plus date tour is an Aylesbury performance at The Waterside Theatre on 8 March.

"The show is not finalised at all, come on we’re three months out,” Ray told The Bucks Herald. "Four have come through in the last two hours and because I’m still trying to find ginger people that look like me. The ones I’ve got today are interesting: one’s really good, one is quite insulting.

"Because I’m constantly meeting new people the it will constantly evolve, which I’m quite looking forward to. Every show will be slightly different, if there’s lots of bald ginger people there, or if I’ve met someone in the last couple of days...the show will be constantly evolving throughout the tour.”

Ray was inspired to come up with the concept of basing a show around finding other follicly challenged red heads when he was constantly being mistaken and told he looked like someone’s friend.

He added: “It’s really common. I’ve had the idea for years and it all stemmed from 2016, I was at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. And this girl came up to me after the show, and she was like ‘what are you doing tomorrow?’ And I was like ‘oh sorry, my girlfriend’s here, I’m not interested.’ And she was like ‘no no no, it’s not that. There’s a ginger pride rally tomorrow.

"So I went along, and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen 600 ginger people at the same time, but it’s very unsettling. And Hayley, who is now my wife, was like ‘he looks like you, he looks like you, he looks like you’. And it kind of evolved from there. To the point where I do a lot of Sky Sports News and if I do it, I just see people getting tagged, with people saying I look like them. And I found my first grey hair about six months ago, and I was like: if I want to do this I need to do it soon.”

Another aspect of the 2024 tour that Ray is looking forward to is having an interpreter alongside him to translate. Last year’s Deaf Com One tour was recorded in sign language and played alongside his live performance, meaning it could not be altered more than once a fortnight.

This time he is free to improvise and react to the different gingers he sees as he journeys through the UK. Ticketing information can be found online. The tour kicks off in Southend in February and will finish in Salford, April 2024.