Gavin Lilley: Why this renowned Deaf comedian is one to watch

By Rebecca-Anne Withey

Internationally renowned deaf comedian, Gavin Lilley, was over in Derby in early September with two shows for Derby Sign Fest.

Gavin, whose sign name is known in the sci-fi world as the ‘Spock greeting’ (dividing the four fingers of the hand into two) is a self-confessed geek.

Adorning a Trekkie T-shirt, he met me for a cuppa and a chat before he performed his first show that evening so I could find out more about the man behind the jokes.

Originally from Ilford, London, Gavin moved to Finland with his Finnish wife and is now a proud father with baby number three on the way. Despite a busy family life, Gavin boasts a thriving work schedule as he lectures on BSL and provides a sign language training service as well as being a very successful stand up comedian.

Gavin performs at venues across the world, with the most bizarre performance being a private booking for a group of North Koreans where the sense of humour – Gavin admits – was a tricky one to cater for (!)

He confesses that he absolutely loves watching comedians. His all time favourite is Dara O’Briain and he grew up enjoying mainstream comedy with the help of captions on the television.

Looking at deaf comedians, he felt inspired by John Smith who is hugely successful, and this encouraged him to believe that deaf people can carve great comedy careers.

Gavin has a long history of deafness in his family, being 5th generation deaf and his son is now 6th generation. He attended deaf schools growing up which used the oralist approach and as a result he felt repressed and disillusioned.

It was only when he left school and attended college with an interpreter that he started to grow in confidence and his flourishing BSL led him to carving a thriving career as a lecturer in BSL and deaf education.

It was through this work that he realised his natural tendency to make people laugh, teaching through enjoyment and always having fun.

Gavin still runs his own company, offering sign language training and workshops, working for international companies and offering bespoke sessions across Europe in both Finnish and British Sign Language. His knowledge of various deaf cultures worldwide and international signs is a skill that he is able infuse in his shows.

He tells me how his niche is actually creating shows that are mainstream friendly – accessible for both deaf and hearing audiences. His first ever show was at St John’s deaf club in London (Green Lane) for a variety show which went so well he was asked to come back.

He was invited to Deaffest at Wolverhampton and more recently at Reims’ Clin d’Oeil festival in France and since then has performed across the world and earned a reputation as an accomplished and favoured deaf comedian.

More recently you may have noticed a series of videos by Gavin circulating social media, with my personal favourite being the “how deaf people print” sketch. Gavin’s viral videos are so relevant to the deaf community and his use of observational comedy is ingenious. He takes something that is so ‘normal’ for deaf people and highlights it to have us all laughing and nodding along.

So what would his live show contain, I wondered. Would it have the originality of his online videos and the friendliness he emits in person? I went along to watch A Night with Gavin Lilley and I tell you now, it doesn’t disappoint.

Gavin uses no props or videos in his show. It’s just him and the audience, a very intimate setting which would probably terrify a lot of comedians. Yet due to his experience as a BSL storyteller and his professionalism as a comedian, it actually feels like a cosy, but hilarious night out with your mate, Gavin.

The personable style of the show is clear with how Gavin takes time to look at his audience, ask them questions and even get them to hold their hands up if they relate to something. He isn’t an intimidating comedian who makes you want to cower in the corner, he is just plain funny and very likeable.

The audience were a mixture of deaf and hearing people with two interpreters working to provide Gavin’s voiceover as he performs in gorgeously clear BSL. The result was that everyone felt included as both hearing and deaf chuckled, laughed and snorted together.

Whilst I wont go into the nitty gritty detail of Gavin’s jokes and stories (you need to go to his shows yourself!) I will say that the overall observational style is very, very clever and extremely funny.

Gavin’s talent as an actor means his ability to portray various people in different settings is absolutely spot on. He can imitate conversations and incidents between deaf and hearing people and describe deaf communities to the point where you’re howling in agreement, “yes, that’s happened to me!!”

The show itself looked at family life, technology, the use of signs in different countries and many more. Whilst the topics may not have flowed from each other like they usually do by TV comedy stars, I have every faith that as Gavin’s stand up experience continues his show will also develop that natural fluent feel from topic to topic. I actually see huge potential in Gavin to achieve his ultimate dream – to perform at The Apollo at Hammersmith London.

The uniqueness of Gavin’s show lies in its warmth and intimacy and the whole strength comes from his approachable personality and knack of storytelling. Gavin takes collective deaf experiences and portrays them so that we’re laughing until we cry. He somehow turns our struggles and misfortunes into something that we can unite with and therefore feel better about.

Despite how cringingly awkward it can be to be deaf in a hearing world, Gavin manages to use his own embarrassing experiences as material in his show which actually reminds us that we’re actually not alone in our experiences.

There’s a clear element of deaf awareness that underlies the entire show too. So if you want to know more about deaf people, our lives and experiences, go along to see Gavin. I guarantee that you’ll be laughing and learning at the same time too.

Gavin really does put on a gem of a show, which I wholeheartedly recommend you all go and see. So let’s get Gavin a slot on Night at The Apollo, perhaps being introduced by his idol Dara O’Brien? It’s about time the mainstream comedy circuit had a signing deaf star and with his accessible and blooming hysterical show, I absolutely think Gavin could be our man.

Gavin has upcoming shows across Europe and will be back in England (London) early November. Check out his website and follow his social media pages to stay updated www.lilley.biz