Skip to main content

BUZZ: COMEDY REVIEW: RUSSELL KANE


COMEDY REVIEW: RUSSELL KANE

BY SUSIE WILD ⋅ MAY 27, 2010 ⋅ POST A COMMENT
FILED UNDER  , , , 
Russell Kane
Tues 25 May 2010
The Garage Comedy Club, Uplands, Swansea
****
Hyperactive multi-accented metrosexual Russell Kane prances about the stage like a natural jester playing up to the student element of the audience (drunker, easier to please). He is no beginner at this laughs malarkey; as he writes on his About Me section of his website: ‘I’ve had three of those Perrier nomination thingies, I do national tours – I’ve even written a play which is going to the Soho theatre… and I’m writing a novel.’ Get him. In 2010, in Swansea land, the gifted comic wittily fills stereotypes of Guardian and Daily Mail readers, Welsh vs English, Australians and Americans with absurd observations and personal anecdotes.
The Enfield stand-up has plenty in common with his namesakes Brand and Howard, at least in camp modern man-nerisms and flamboyance, if not Dandy dress sense. Plucking out traumas from his own childhood and puberty he turns pain and embarrassment for tricks – the tough father who only has to look at a shelf to put it up, the gran who catches him full-frontal masturbating after a night out on pupil-dilating substances. Kane skips about the stage with a sing-song Oxford voice, upon heading into non-PC territory (jokes about disability) he asides ‘Must not laugh. Quick, let’s make a cone of protection out of copies of the Guardian.’ At other times he gruffs up as a Gary or Dave, leans back on an imaginary transit van.
At the end he stops his meandering musings to tell a standard-form joke: ‘Philosophically speaking a Scotch egg is the most evil snack imaginable for a vegetarian. Because it has death on the outside, and the potential for life within.’
Kane is well-educated, and not afraid to show it, and yet his whirlwind set has its downfalls: often the humour sinks from silly to basic toilet humour or predictable outcomes feeling at odds with the insightful splices of thoughtful truths – relating to xenophobia, racism and bigotry – and the twisted laughs gained from the darker side of human life. Still he is an endearing performer, fast-paced, wide-eyed and swaggering; all skinny jeans and spot-on comic delivery. I’m certain we’ll be seeing more of him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GIG ALERT: Voicebox Wrexham

Celebrate 11 years... (11 YEARS!) of Voicebox with an absolute class creative cabaret of Wrexham's Arts Scene with the infamous Voicebox Open Mic with your host Natasha Borton! This month we have a very special takeover with Parthian Books. Parthian is an independent publisher based in Cardigan, Wales. Since its foundation in 1993, Parthian has published some of the best-known works of contemporary Welsh literature. Parthian's motto is “A Carnival of Voices in Independent  Publishing”. Monday 11th November at Rough Hands Tap, Wrexham Entry is £5 (£3 concessions) Doors: 7pm Open Mic 7:30 - 8:30 Susie Wild - 8:45 - 9:15 Patrick Jones - 9:15 - 9:45 Penblwydd Hapus Voicebox Headliners: Susie Wild is author of the poetry collections Windfalls and Better Houses, the short story collection The Art of Contraception listed for the Edge Hill Prize, and the novella Arrivals. Her work has featured in many publications including Poetry Wales, Ink Sweat & Tears and The Atlanta Review and...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE STAGE REVIEW | CINDERELLA @THE RIVERFRONT

Cinderella Published  Monday 5 December 2011  at  12:39  by  Susie Wild Even in the year of a Royal Wedding, not every modern girl wants to grow up to be a princess. In Newport, however, Will and Kate fever appears to have taken hold and many women and girls in the audience are dressed up as exactly that, settling down to believe in fairytale dreams. Hiss & Boo’s production keeps the ancient story traditionally soft, sappy and relatively unchanged, and a more contemporary world is instead only hinted at with the Ugly Sisters’ Primark bags and occasional, catty LOLs. The cast of Cinderella at the Riverfront, Newport The romantic leads Nichola Lagan (Cinderella) and Rob Wilshaw (Prince Charming) are suitably saccharine and prove strong on vocals, but the song choices are often weak. Still, it is a saving grace that the show hasn’t suffered too much under the influence of X Factor. Instead, it leans towards the stuff of real magic with a flying horse, firework...
Post a Comment
Read more

BBC Arts Blog: Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifest

Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifest Friday 26 October 2012, 12:04 Laura Chamberlain Share Facebook Twitter COMMENTS Tagged with: arts and culture ,  writing ,  poetry Writing by and for women will be celebrated this weekend as the xx minifest of women’s writing 2012 takes place in Cardiff. This inaugural festival will take residence at Chapter Arts Centre this Saturday, 27 October. It aims to publicise the range and diversity of writing by women from Wales in the English language, and encourages both men and women to attend and take part. This one day minifest will act as a "taster session", as a more extensive literary programme is already being planned for 2013. I put a few questions about the festival to Susie Wild, one of the co-organisers of the xx minifest. Wild is a writer, an editor at Parthian Books and she also organises the  Cardiff Literary Salon , and will be holding a special edition of the literary gatheri...
Post a Comment
Read more