Gatis Kandis

Career and style

Kandis first auditioned in the fifth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2011, but did not advance to the next stage. He auditioned the following year in 2012, for the show's sixth series, performing intentionally terrible comedy. Judge David Walliams described his act as "so bad, it's actually brilliant" and show creator Simon Cowell called him the "funniest unfunniest comedian I have ever heard in my life", referring to his jokes as "absolute rubbish" despite making him laugh.

Kandis advanced to the semi-finals, closing his act with "have some fantastic dreams tonight", but did not advance further. He reappeared four years later in 2016 on Britain's Got More Talent, performing a similar style comedy act in the auditions. Kandis was featured on the thirteenth series of the UK version of Big Brother, performing a stand-up routine at the Megalols Cafe for the "No Laughing Matter" challenge, where housemates were tasked with not laughing during his routine.

The following year, he recorded a 90-second audition video for the fourteenth edition of the show but was not selected. In 2018, he toured alongside eighty other comedians in the Eastern European Comedy Festival. At the Camden Comedy Club in 2019, as part of the Never Mind the Backstop event celebrating the UK withdrawal from the European Union, Kandis performed a comedic song about his chicken's birthday. Also in 2019, he performed at the Leicester Square "Not-So-New Comedian of the Year" Award show, winning first prize, which came with a "package prize" of £1,000.

In 2020, he played the role of Hansl on Alice Frick's sitcom What The Frick? for a total of five episodes. On his YouTube channel, Kandis uploads videos centered on his unique style of humour, including comically instructing how to open a gate, reciting sixty-nine female first names in thirty seconds, and demonstrating how to generate electricity using a fleece, then comedically transferring static electricity to his metal bed frame to measure how much electricity he generated, with the ultimate goal being to successfully boil a kettle or power a light bulb.

After performing at the Bloomsbury Theatre as part of the 2015 Musical Comedy Awards Final, his material was described by Bruce Dessau of Beyond The Joke as "dark and less clownish as he played up his creepiness", comparing his accent to Norwegian comedian Daniel Simonsen.

Personal life

Kandis grew up in the Latvian village of Dundaga. Having not enjoyed studying physics in the Latvian capital of Riga, he transferred to the Student Theatre at the University of Latvia to study acting, subsequently travelling to Los Angeles to work in an amusement park. He later moved to the West Hendon area of London, having a preference for the warmer weather of the UK in comparison to Latvia, and took up a job as a carer, supporting individuals with autism. His brother is a musician in Ireland, his father is a welder, and his mother, a baker, disapproves of his humour.