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From BBC Three's Live At The Apollo

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Russell Kane won the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2010, on his third time of being nominated, having scooped best newcomer in 2006.

His career started in 2004, when he won the Laughing Horse new act competition, and the following year he was nominated for best newcomer in the Chortle awards.

Original Review:

But once he’s got it, what he has to say is one-dimensional, unconvincing and narrowly targeted.

He presents himself as an honest but unsophisticated pikey from Middlesex, striking a blow for the common oik against the world of the pretentious, which he defines through culturally elitist cravat-wearing ponces supping chardonnay and feeding an incurable addiction to class-A balsamic vinegar.

But the characterisation is blunt, broad and remarkably old hat. Not to mention slightly rich for someone who is in mortal danger of slipping into a more contemporary stereotype himself – as a quirkily coiffured, high-energy E4 media jockey. He denies this in his act, but the protest doesn’t convince.

Tellingly, though, when he moves away from this uncompromising crusade against the middle-class caricature, there are glimpses of more fertile material, such as his strained relationship with his father, who he portrays as an unabashed racist.

He’s also strong on linguistic quirks and on nostalgia – admittedly an already overcrowded comedy field – with a routine on the Guess Who? game that hits all the right buttons for audiences who remember it.

Kane is still evolving as a comic – this act has little but energy in common with the routine that garnered him attention as a brand-new act a couple of years back – and you’d be a fool to ignore his potential. But he hasn’t discovered his cast-iron winning formula quite yet.

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Saw him at St David's Hall. Extremely energetic, dreadfully funny and his material is embarrassingly true. Pure comedy genius in its finest form.

Sam Pryce, March 2012

Russell at the Ironworks Inverness 16th March,he played to a capacity crowd despite feeling unwell, but like a true professional he just got on with the gig and proved his worth. Audience loved him, despite a few hecklers, he coped reasonably well with them. He certainly makes good use of the stage and engages his audience with ease and the time past quickly, too quickly! Awards received at the Edinburgh Festival are testament to his skill as a comedian and they showed that night.

Douglas Thomson, March 2011

Hilarous, and fit as fuck!

Daisyford, November 2010

Is it just me who thinks Russell Kane and Pete Firman are the same guy?

J, May 2010

He is not funny... at all

Smiler, January 2010

".... the strutting, preening physicality of his stage act serves no comedic purpose...." yeah, like Max Wall, Tommy Cooper and the like. Oh, wait a minute.... Fair enough, you didn't like the guy but maybe you need to be a tad more specific about his *material* for readers to afford this any weight over and above a simple "not for me".

MrC, December 2009

If people find him funny, they find him funny - but comedy genius he ain't. Watching him on Channel 4's Magners Brighton Festival, I thought he was irritating in the extreme. The strutting, preening physicality of his stage act serves no comedic purpose and the machine-gun delivery masks a paucity of material. He's clearly very impressed with himself but he simply doesn't have the observational skills and insight into human behavior that mark out the best comics.

Nigel Lord, October 2009

I think he's copying Russell Howard.

Melina Fiol, August 2009

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