Essex-born stand-up Russell Kane heads to Yorkshire with new comedy tour

Russell Kane is more than just a stand-up. He’s like a comedy David Attenborough who instead of the animal kingdom, focuses his attention on the way blokes from the south-east behave. Raised in Essex, he was a bookish wallflower in a world of geezers. “I was a weedy boy at school and my dad was a rugby player,” he says.
Russell Kane is in Halifax next week. (Picture: Andy Hollingworth).Russell Kane is in Halifax next week. (Picture: Andy Hollingworth).
Russell Kane is in Halifax next week. (Picture: Andy Hollingworth).

Now the star of TV shows like Stupid Man, Smart Phone and Live At The Electric dissects blokeish behaviour onstage, with always hilarious results. “I find it easy to pick apart a certain kind of masculinity,” he says. The comedian is currently on tour with his latest show The Fast and the Curious which stops off in Yorkshire next week.

Despite being a bit of an oddity growing up, there is a part of Kane’s psyche that is classic Essex. “I love curries, I love pints with the lads, I like BMWs – I’m a weird mess.” It’s all part of the Russell Kane contradiction. That feeds into his fascination with class – not in a ranty political way, but on a more anthropological level. He’s a brilliant chronicler of how British people from different backgrounds look at each other. And he’s amazed by how little class is talked about as a subject, particularly by comedians. “People just don’t want to analyse the prejudice that’s out there,” he says. “And it’s the number one predictor. Doesn’t matter what gender you are or how able-bodied you are. The socio-economic background of your parents is the number one predictor of where you’ll end up in life.”

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Class explains the way some snootier people react to Kane – if he talked like Stephen Fry or Miles Jupp, he’d probably be taken a lot more seriously. But the juxtaposition of big ideas and polysyllabic language with an estuary accent means he can sometimes get wrongly labeled as a show-off or a faker. “If a comedian with my type of accent dares to use a long word, it’s seen as display rather than intrinsic knowledge coming to the surface.” So Kane works hard to make sure he’s not being erudite for the sake of erudition. “Thoughts deep, syntax clear, that’s the way I like to go. There are other comedians who tend to go syntax complex, thoughts shallow. And if you don’t speak posh or middle class, people will just go for you.”

Essex is as much a part of Kane’s comedy as Glasgow is for Kevin Bridges or Wales is for Rhod Gilbert. So it’s funny to hear that he’s now a fish out of water, living up north in leafy Cheshire. But rather than isolating him from his old stamping ground, it’s made him think about it all the more. “It’s really brought into focus how weird, fast-paced, angry and culturally unique the south east of England is,” he explains.

“I’ve been performing a bit about the difference between ordering a coffee in London or Essex, or ordering a coffee up north. In the north there’s someone asking ‘How are the grandkids?’, and down south you’re saying “Just throw an espresso in my face, now when’s my train? Move! Move! Move!”

That’s part of the story behind Kane’s new show – though he’s keen to point out that the main focus of the evening will not be expounding some grand philosophical theory. “I know I can do shows with a clever theme and all that,” he says, “but I just want to do a beltingly funny night in the theatre.”

Russell Kane brings The Fast And The Curious to Square Chapel, Halifax on May 11 and City Varieties, Leeds on June 2.