Background
Regan grew up in the Dovecot area of Liverpool and attended the Yew Tree Comprehensive School in that area of the city.
Regan grew up in the Dovecot area of Liverpool and attended the Yew Tree Comprehensive School in that area of the city.
He attended Christopher Columbus High School.
His performances are relatively clean as he refrains from profanity and off-color humor. Regan's material typically covers everyday events, such as shipping a package with UPS and a visit to an optometrist. Regan makes frequent references to childhood, including little league baseball, grade school spelling bees, and science projects.
Body language and facial expressions make his stand-up act atypically physical. His clean, off-center humor has been praised by critics and contemporaries alike and Regan enjoys a fan base that crosses age groups. He is respected in the comedy community as a "comedian's comedian".
He is of Irish descent. Regan was always a fan of Steve Martin, The Smothers Brothers and Johnny Carson. Though he attended Heidelberg College in Ohio with plans of being an accountant, a football coach there encouraged him to consider theater and communications.
He played wide receiver on the football team at Heidelberg. During his last semester in 1980, Regan dropped out of school to pursue stand-up comedy (he eventually finished his degree in 1997). Regan released his first CD, Brian Regan Live, in 1997.
In 2004, Regan self-released a DVD of his performance at the Irvine Improv titled I Walked on the Moon and was also a featured comedian in a Comedy Central's animated stand-up series Shorties Watchin' Shorties. In April 2007, Regan signed a deal with Comedy Central to star in two one-hour stand-up specials, release the specials on DVD, develop a show for the network, and headline a theater tour, “Brian Regan in Concert: A Comedy Central Live Event,” which began June 8, 2007. Brian’s first one-hour special Standing Up debuted on Comedy Central on June 10, 2007.
The special was recorded in April at The Barclay Theater in Irvine, CA and a DVD of the performance was released August 14, 2007. His second Comedy Central special, entitled The Epitome of Hyperbole, premiered on September 6, 2008. A DVD of the performance was released September 9, 2008.
Brian's performance, All By Myself, is available via CD, exclusively on his website. Most recently Brian recorded the first ever live special on Comedy Central, "Brian Regan: Live from Radio City Music Hall'.
Brian's brother, Dennis Regan, also makes his living as a stand up comedian.