The East Midlands bricklayers turned TikTok stars who mime songs using building materials

Three bricklayers who mime songs using building materials as instruments have become viral sensations, earning "loads of banter" on the building site where they are known as "the TikTokers". The trio – Jamie Felstead, 25, from Nottingham, and dads of two from Leicester, Jack Dunkley, 38, and Paul Carnall, 37 – started making bricklaying skits on TikTok in 2021 under the handle @brickingit1, and, earlier this year, a video of them belting out Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses hit 3.6 million views.

They decided to take it up a notch and started rocking out with shovels as guitars, buckets as drums, and bricks as DJ decks, all while still in their work gear on the building site. Now they have got more than 600,000 followers, with their biggest hit being a video of them lip-syncing to American Boy by Kanye West and Estelle, using a spirit level as a microphone, which got 33.7 million views.

The trio are even beginning to get recognised when they are out and about, with Jack being "the talk of the staff room" at his children’s school and being recognised by a teacher at parents’ evening. Since their channel has grown, they also claim they’ve been approached by television shows, such as Squid Game: The Challenge, and have begun to earn money through TikTok, but would prefer not to disclose how much.

Jamie told PA Real Life: "Now when we ask for materials and stuff (at work), they’ll say, 'Take that round to the TikTokers' rather than saying our names… we get loads of banter from it. Everyone on site says it even if they haven’t seen us on TikTok – they’ll just know us as that."

Jack and Paul met as apprentices at around aged 18 and became friends with Jamie through work about four years ago. They are all self-employed, but work together for the same subcontractor on a housing site in Leicester.

In 2021, they started posting bricklaying videos on TikTok, later expanding to comedy skits. They also tried lip-syncing videos, which did not gain much traction at first.

"As soon as we started doing videos, and you get the knack for it, we just got addicted to trying to post videos and get more views and get more followers, once you see them start coming in," Jack explained. A few months ago, they posted another lip-sync video of them sitting in the car miming the Sweet Child O’ Mine scene from the Step Brothers movie, which gained 3.6 million views.

They frequently receive messages from viewers saying the videos have brightened their day. Jack said: "It makes you realise just by making someone laugh we can help someone’s mental health – people will always say stuff like 'I was sat at home having a glass of wine and watching your videos for hours having a laugh'."

They have even had interactions with celebrities – when they uploaded a video singing Foundations by Kate Nash in October, she followed them. "It’s crazy really, when you see their names pop up, it’s hard to pinpoint highlights because there’s been so many," Jamie added.

At first, they tried to keep their TikTok a secret from other workers on the building site. Paul said: "I think we tried to hide it, we’d say no one's around, let’s do a quick video and stuff like that.

"And then, the odd person saw our videos and eventually everyone knew, and we just weren’t bothered." The trio tend to film the videos in their breaks, and when their site manager found out, he was "on board with it" as long as they did not include the company’s name or do anything unsafe.

They aim to post one video a day, usually choosing songs based on popularity, trends, or inspiration from singing along to the radio. The trio say they have "high standards" and have even started learning lyrics at home to speed up the process – their videos tend to take anything from 10 minutes to an hour to film.

Despite posting lip-sync videos for a while, they still find it hard to predict which ones will perform best. "You watch yourself and think 'That’s really good' and you’ll laugh your head off at it, but then people won’t have the same reaction," Paul added.

When they are out and about in their work gear, people often recognise them, with Jack even being recognised by a teacher at his children's parents' evening. Jack said: "I walked into parents' evening and she (a teacher) went, "Oh, I don’t recognise you without your microphone – you’re the talk of the staff room'.

"When you make a silly video you don’t realise, even though it’s getting millions of views, you don’t feel like people that know you see it. You get funny looks from people when we're in our work clothes as if they might recognise us but won’t say anything."

Jamie finds it "hilarious" that his niece’s friends frequently repost their videos but she has not told them that he is her uncle. Jack’s daughter is often embarrassed by the videos too, and he added: "She won’t tell her mates it’s her dad in the video!"

Looking to the future, the trio hope to become a verified account and reach one million followers. "Getting to 600,000 followers in the last 12 months, maybe we can hit a million, but we’re sort of taking it as it comes at the minute and seeing," Jamie explained.

To find out more about Bricking It, visit: www.tiktok.com/@brickingit1 and www.instagram.com/brickingit1.