On swearing

From Smokescreens and Castles

More Russell Kane videos

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.

Russell Kane: Manscaping
Live Review

Russell Kane has a way of heading off criticism. By referencing the sort of complaints observers could have about his show, as part of his running commentary, he attempts to own those comments; to defang them.

Indeed, the main problem you could say about this show is that Kane hasn’t really worked out who he is – even after all these years on stage – yet that’s the very point of it. ‘Manscapes’ are the personae he’s adopted like some insecure teenager, as he tries to find an identity that fits and the approval of the world. This particular bout of soul-searching was prompted after falling into a serious funk – medical term – after the collapse of his marriage earlier this year.

For all those personalities, Kane still seems to see the world in a binary way. You are either working class or middle class, salt of the earth or arty and pretentious, a brutal alpha male, or fey, preening and camp. There is no middle ground, although that’s where most people live.

After a very long and largely off-topic diversion about the X- Factor, during which he temporarily abandons the psychological analysis, he declares that either you watch the talent show, or you’re the sort of person who’ll ‘cover yourself in hummus, go into your garden and sing Free Tibet’. He’ll admit he’s lazy to use such clichés – but somehow he can’t stop himself.

Of his own image, he’s well aware that he’s grouped with Messrs Brand and Howard into an archetypal ‘Russell comic’ – bold, cocky, sexy… although off-stage he professes to being none of the above. The second-best anecdote here involves him scoring with a glamour model, and being absolutely petrified about it. He says he felt feminine: pressurised into sex and a passive participant.

Kane’s posturing delivery does little to dispel that stereotype he’s supposed to be. Every five seconds he seems to have urgent business at the opposite end of the stage, so strides purposefully there before stopping for a line, then turning back. From his point of view the audience must look like they are watching a Centre Court rally.

And he dances around the stages more than he ever did when dressed as Beyonce for Comic Relief. Punchlines are often delivered with a pirouette, a physical equivalent of slapping four exclamation marks on the end of a jokey sentence to emphasise the point. Less would definitely be more on this front.

For a four-star review, I’m aware this has all been largely negative so far – and it’s true that Kane can be irritating in his over-dramatic delivery. But at it’s heart this is an interesting slice of navel-gazing, with some good jokes and strong tales, delivered with Kane’s obvious passion for sharing. As always, he’s tried to pack more than possible into an hour (we came in at about 75 minutes in the end), though we could probably have cut back on the X-Factor stuff and dropped the extraneous routine about Mum’s trip to Greece to hit the time.

His best anecdote, about a first-class train passenger’s prejudice against him, is an excellent one, hugely revealing about the class system with which he is perennially preoccupied, and told like a master storyteller.

Elsewhere, his peripatetic style infuses the material, and the result doesn’t, perhaps, have the clarity a strong director could bring out. But there are lots of ideas on show and a great show bursting to get out. Even flawed it’s pretty damn funny.

Skip to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

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

I saw him in Edinburgh this evening, and it was the best live comedy I've ever seen. I belly laughed constantly and have never enjoyed an evening of entertainment more! I feel suitably uplifted and inspired. Genius.

Rhys Jones, August 2009

Skip to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7