Andy Ford (comedian)

Andy Ford (born 1958, Bristol, England) is an English comedian, actor and singer. He regularly appears in pantomime and has done for over 20 years.

Career

Music and pantomime

Ford began his career at the age of 12. He started out his career singing and joined his first band at the age of 14 as the Cliff Brown Trio. He was the lead singer for many years until he went solo. Ford had a hit with the single "Pillow Talk" in the mid 1980s. He released his second album 'Love And Stuff' along with 'Only wanna make things right' before turning his hand to stage work. He moved into the pantomime scene where he has always played the 'Simple Simon' roles such as Buttons. Ford regularly appears as lead characters in pantomimes^[1][2] and has held the title of 'Panto Man' for over a decade. In 2015, Ford starred alongside Britain's Got Talent winners Ashley and Pudsey in a performance of Dick Whittington. This performance was Ford's first to be recorded for DVD.

Television, radio and film

Ford performed a comedy routine in 1997 on ITV's Big Talent Show, and his performance on the show landed him a slot on the Royal Variety Show that year. In 1999 Ford joined Channel 5's Havakazoo as Patrick the baker, working on the series for over four years. Ford appeared in slots on ITV's Today with Des and Mel, and later took to the streets with sketches for his online show Andy Ford on the Streets. This saw the comic talking to the public and finding out who their favourite comedians were. He would also ask people to tell a joke, and if they made him laugh they would win a small gift. One of the segments included Ford tricking the public by making up facts, for example, "Did you know this road was made by the Romans?"

A few years back Ford starred in a short film entitled Loss. The film focused on mental health issues with Ford playing the lead role. He also starred in the radio series The Incredible Inspector Biggins.

Live comedy

Ford's style of comedy has always been smut-free and innocent, and he has a camp, manic style. Ford is known for writing poetry, which he also includes in his performances, along with one liners and puns.

A show from his 2004 Live and Lovely tour was released on DVD that year. Ford started touring for his show West End Crazy in 2006, also released on DVD. In late 2010, Ford performed a stand-up show called "This is my Day Job" to mark 40 years in his professional career; also released on DVD. In early 2014, Ford toured with "Daft as a Brush", released on DVD as "Live from the Heart of West Country". His 2016 tour was titled "Live and Un-hinged".

Ford runs comedy workshops, and in 2016 launched an online programme entitled "Confidence Thought Comedy", a platform to help people become more confident in speech making, using techniques from comedy.

Ollie the Otter

Ollie the Otter is a character created by Ford in the 1980s originally as a kids club character mascot for holiday camps. Ford went on to produce radio shows and CDs around that time featuring songs and stories from the character. He recently revived the character.

Personal life

Ford was born in Bristol, Exeter. He attended Whipton Barton infants school and became Head Choir Boy at St Boniface Church, Whipton.

Stand-up DVDs

CDs

References

External links

• Official website