Kear began his career as a drummer with various bands in the late-1970s and early-1980s, including a stint with the Amazing Bavarian Stompers with whom he performed on an edition of the children's television series Tiswas in 1981.

In the late 1980s, he turned to solo stand-up comedy as the surreally manic 'Charlie Chuck' and, in 1990, he was talent-spotted by the comedian Malcolm Hardee who arranged for him to appear on Jools Holland's The Happening, a Sky TV series produced by Noel Gay Television.

His long-running Charlie Chuck stage act often involved the destruction of a drum kit and was peppered by references to fantasy characters including One Eyed Dog, Cakey Pig and a Donkey.

[1] In 2001, he appeared as his Charlie Chuck character in a series of TV adverts for Cadbury's Double Decker chocolate bars, with music by Lester Barnes.

[2] In 2002 he appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe in a comedy show Charlie Chuck is Scrooge,[3] very remotely based on the Charles Dickens character and, that same year, his company Charlie Chuck Productions also staged Scots comic Ian Watt's one-man Fringe show John Laurie, Frazer & I, which he directed as David Kear.