Russell Kane: Posturing Delivery

COMEDY

Russell Kane has made a habit in the last few years of making acclaimed comedy shows around serious themes. This year he has a show based on his concerns about not being a father, an idea he explores by raising an imaginary child, Ivan, in front of the audience, explaining what qualities he does and does not want inherited from himself and his parents. It is a very sweet idea and he reveals a touching level of detail about his family life, his own insecurities, and the innate complexities of wanting someone to be both like you and better than you.

I am, however, unconvinced that he is funny. There are an awful lot of wank, wee and shit anecdotes whose biggest appeal is shock value, rather than any clever structuring or turn of phrase. Indeed he is becoming predictable: a serious theme, some dirty stories, characters depicted in one of his two go-to voices (in Kane’s world people are either super-posh or super-cockney). Worst of all is his general lack of discernible jokes. It is not really enough to tell stories in funny voices; we need gags.

In short, whilst Kane fans will enjoy more of the same, that ‘same’ has never really been good enough, and it isn’t here.

BB