In the recording studio

With Brett Goldstein

More Brian Gittins videos

The alter-ego of David Earl, Brian Gittins is the owner of a roadside café owner somewhere off the A32. A couple of the café's regulars have said he's 'quite funny', so he's been attempting to make it in the world of comedy.

He supported Ricky Gervais for some of his tour in 2009.

Brian Gittins at Knock2Bag
Live Review
Bar FM

Brian Gittins has a residency at Knock2Bag, giving him the chance to showcase some new material, which has the same appeal and flaws in equal measure as his more practised stuff. He’s Britain’s answer to Neil Hamburger, the awkward anti-comic whose routine is a combination of overly convoluted set-ups, lame payoffs, a few genuinely funny one-liners and distracted non-sequiturs.

His whole ethos is to be a shambles: stumbling with the microphone, laughing nervously to fill uncomfortable silences and grinning inanely at the audience when he seems short of ideas. It’s a mixed bag of the inspired and the inane, often embarrassing but sporadically hilarious; both sides of the acts seeming to need each other to survive.

Tonight, he played down the back story of his character as a roadside café owner trying to break into showbiz – perhaps sensibly now Dan Renton Skinner has become widely known for his similar Angelos Epithemiou character on Shooting Stars – and simply got on with the cheesy, misguided entertainment. As is his wont, he ended with a piece of ridiculous audience participation – a typically twisted scenario involving masks and costumes that’s guaranteed to bring out the laughs.

Saw Brian last night at the Stag in Sevenoaks - unfortunately for him 99% of the audience didn't get it and there was a lot of awkward silences - we loved it though and were in hysterics, partly at him and partly at the audiences response to him - he ended up by shouting abuse at two reluctant members of the audience that he had dragged onto stage. Genius.

Mike, February 2012

I've seen Brian three times now, and each time I have been in pain from trying not to laugh too loud. Yes, I have seen some people simply not get his act at all. However, I am a big fan, and would happily see him stumble through the same awkward silences, awful jokes and haphazard audience participation sections.

Phil Jones, October 2011

Am I missing something? He left the audience at our local comedy club feeling very uncomfortable due to the shambolic nature of his act and the lack of any material or real content. None of the people who I was with enjoyed the experience as it was pretty embarrassing with long silences and hardly any laughter from the audience - except for my son who quite enjoyed seeing people's general discomfiture as they didn't know how on earth to react to him.

Yvie, October 2010

Saw him during a Knock2bag night. Very very weird but hilarious at the same time, highly recommended.

Louise, August 2010

One of the funniest acts on the circuit.

Tom, May 2010

Even though he's anti-comedy, there's plenty to enjoy in this act. Some of his non sequiters are brilliant, up there with the best (e.g. Mitch Hedberg, Steven Wright and Milton Jones). I feel like his act's been robbed by Dan Renton Skinner, though there's no denying that Brian Gittins certainly has the better quality entertainment.

Dave 'The Comedy Man' Cooper, February 2010