BLACKBURN'S Comedy Festival was worse than a bad joke last night when a total of nine people showed up for the evening's stand up.

Steve Day, the UK's only deaf comedian, was on stage in Blakeys to a small but well-spirited crowd who he thanked for staying after the interval.

But he did not seem to mind that the poor showing and took it as an advantage for a "more personal appearance".

The award-winning comedian, who has gone down a storm in other areas of the UK, has an act which details the hilarious goings in the life of deaf man.

His stories included: "A man once said to me. You can't be deaf you're wearing a suit."

And "My mother-in-law tells me the reason why I have five kids is because I can't hear my wife saying no."

But his observational jokes don't all revolve around being not only a deaf man but a deaf comedian in a hearing world.

His best crowd pleasures were a love for Primark: "because the clothes are cheaper than Oxfam plus you are still helping the third world they just have to do a bit of sewing in return."

And this latest act gives you all this to the sound-track of his favourite songs that he misses most from before he went deaf in 1982 aged 18.

His parting joke - and a favourite of the room was: "My wife will ask me tonight when I get home, how did it go?

"And because I can't hear and due to the bright lights on stage I can't that there are only a handful of people either.

"So I'll tell her I stormed it as far as I'm concerned!"