Russell Kane Interview By Bruce Dessau

Whirlwind comedian Russell Kane is back with his brand new show Hyperactive. Kane is one of comedy's most high voltage performers, combining livewire wit with physical antics and astute social commentary.

He hosts his Facebook Kaneing videos and fronts the BBC podcast Evil Genius, which was made into a TV series for Sky. He has guested on shows ranging from Live At The Apollo to The Royal Variety Performance.

As a live performer he has won The Edinburgh Comedy Award and The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award. He has written two books: Son Of A Silverback and The Humorist. A third, Pet Selector!, is published on September 4.

Kane spent his formative years in Essex and now lives on the outskirts of Manchester with his wife Lindsey, daughter Mina and numerous animals. At 48 he exudes the same manic energy he has always had, cuddling his pet chihuahua Brian while we chat.

Your latest tour is called Hyperactive, which perfectly sums you up. You only finished your last tour in late 2023.

I'm constantly on the move. I constantly have to be doing or creating something. I'm phoning my manager Danny every day. Bored, bored, bored. I need more. I finished the last tour in November in Australia and I was like a cow that hadn't been milked. I needed more. I'm cursed or blessed, depending on who you ask. That's just the way I've been built. I've got a screw gone in from the wrong angle.

You go off at all sorts of tangents in your shows. Hyperactive is not just about you...

It started more like a capsule title. It describes me and people know what they're going to get with me. Sociological observation, improvisation, stories about my family. And normally some sort of heart or message. It's about how it's really important to try and stop and enjoy each stage of life.

So it’s about living in the moment?

Yes, rather than going ‘I can’t wait for 2025’ and wishing away each year. Before you know it you’re in a nursing home and you’ve wasted your whole life instead of going ‘actually, today’s pretty cool.’ It’s about the things that I’ve done in my life, a few profound experiences and just funny stories about refusing to age and all the stuff that goes wrong when you drink too much vodka.

So you are still a fun-loving intellectual, partying hard but answering questions on Evelyn Waugh on Celebrity Mastermind?

I went on an 18 to 30 holiday once and I took the Henry James novel Portrait Of A Lady and read it by the pool each day. That's just what pleases me. Chris Ramsey called me a walking Venn diagram. I enjoy reading books and watching films, but it's not so much being a party animal. I'm not really a drinker. It's more the dancing I enjoy. I just love dancing.

Do you think the British have a different attitude to dancing to other countries? When I'm abroad it's not linked to drinking. In our culture the idea of getting up and dancing after only one beer, it's like you've got some sort of personality disorder. I dated an Austrian girl once and they would go to a cafe and if a tune would come on everyone would start dancing.

You are one of comedy's most original stand-ups. How did your unique style come about?

It's a combination of accidents. I respect stand-up, don't get me wrong. But I was 28 years old and had never seen live comedy and people kept telling me at the office 'you should try comedy, you're the funniest person I've ever met.'

Those things colliding mean you accidentally look original. I wasn't high energy without punchlines because I was trying to break boundaries. I just didn't know what I was doing. I just spoke to the audience like I would speak to my friends down the pub. I don't even call myself a comic really. I'm just me plus amplification

You've written a new book. Pets Selector! which is a Kane-style guide to choosing pets...

I'm animal mad. I've always have been. Even when I worked in an advertising agency crawling in through the door and then doing gigs I had two cats and a dog. When we were getting a ragdoll cat my daughter asked what's a ragdoll like? I said 'imagine you've got a friend that likes to sit around farting all day.' I had a meeting with a publisher and they loved the idea of a book with descriptions like that, funny, but full of information. It's the book I wished I'd had when I was nine.

Why do you work so hard?

I can't seem to earn my way out of my working-class mindset. I think part of your brain knows that's where you will end, back up. At some point I think I will end up with nothing again. It keeps me hungry. 24-year-olds can't believe how hungry I am when they work with me.

Who is a typical Russell Kane fan?

It's a real mix. My audience has gone from 18 years old to 80. I've got middle-aged black women coming to see me. I've got posh old white guys. I've got teenagers that have seen me on TikTok. But whenever they get me in the bar they're like, 'I bet your job's a nightmare, isn't it? You can't say anything now, can you?' And I thought it would be funny to explore that and that's where the sitcom title comes from.

You changed your surname when you started comedy from Grineau to Kane. Do you sometimes wish you'd changed your first name?

Yes. I was so ignorant about comedy, I had no idea there were two other Russells. I talk about this in Hyperactive, how we get lumped in all the time, like we're a collective...I've literally never met Russell Brand and Russell Howard I've worked with once in my entire life.

What are your flaws?

I can't stop. I cannot switch off unless I'm on holiday, It's a massive flaw. It'll probably kill me one day.

Russell Kane: HyperActive comes to William Aston Hall, Wrexham on 6 March. Click here for more information and to buy tickets.