Russell's Southend Cocktail: 'Cup of cockles, liberally douse with salt, pepper and vinegar, pour on Sambuca, set light to it!' Served in Yates, apparently!
When you go to the Edinburgh Festival, as I try and do most years sometime in August, you arrive at the Waverley station box office faced by 500 odd acts from as low as three quid that you can go and see that evening. When you only have a few days you have to choose very wisely.
For most it's the stand-ups you want to catch, my first sighting of Al Murray, The Pub Landlord, was in the Scottish capital a decade ago.
There are free titles all over the place offering reviews, you start at five stars and hope they are offering half price tickets. The 'name' acts are usually already sold out; Mark Watson, Frankie Boyle, forget it unless you bought a ticket back in March! Up popped Russell's name.
To be honest he'd slipped below my radar, though he'd been on the circuit for a couple of years, already a show at The Palace Westcliff no less. The German mentioned he was a Southend boy, there was a two for one offer, he had yet to be nominated an If. award, the Oscars of the comedy world, but the vibe was good, this was a seriously funny man. We would be seeing him the first evening we were in the city.
The Sunday Times described him as thus: "Russell doesn't like a lot of things, Americans, his Dad, middle-class people, his Dad, London, his Dad..........but what he does like is flaws, failure and foul-ups. A very British comedian. We wear our flaws with pride he tells us, embracing self-medication, our emotional stuntedness, physical imperfections while having a mistrust of ambition, achievement and beauty."
Having already scored a hit at the festival with a play about a Southend drinking binge delivered in Shakesperian verse there was less doubts about him up here and Kane delivered. This turned out to be the best show of several we saw, including the eventual winner of the coveted If., David O'Doherty. Irish whimsy can't deliver for a whole hour for me, Russell obviously found the inner Essex boy.
Nominated for an If. award, used to be a Perrier. It's good you know.
He's now on another tour, trying out new material for this year's festival, but still continuing after August until the end of the year!
Talking to the London's listing magazine Time Out, pointing out of the window of his souped-up blue VW camper van as they drive along Southend seafront, where they ended up at Old Leigh, Russell said: "I lost a lot of coppers in there. Went in with a bag of two pees and came out a broken man. This whole town is full of run-down amusement arcades, candyfloss and naff caffs. Yet it's still got some weird kind of charm."
Why stand-up?: "I could barely give a PowerPoint presentation at work without having a panic attack. I goggled the word 'comedy' and the first thing that popped up was the Comedy Cafe, so I gave them a ring and they gave me a slot. After that I had all these people coming up to me saying things like that, "Oh my God, so you're so original." The truth was I just didn't know what I was doing. But I was hooked."
On the subject of his family, especially his Dad, who provides so much of his material, Russell continued: "My Mum's a cleaner. My Dad was a sheet-metal worker. My Mum's Mum was an alcoholic jobless nutter. Everyone else was either unemployed or pregnant at 20. We didn't even have any books in the house. I went to a shit school where the focus was mostly where the focus was mostly on how many drugs you could consume. I was 17 before I discovered Charles Dickens or Jane Austin. Before then I would just sit in my room, stare at my walls and wonder why I was there."
Incredibly honest, very funny, if you get the chance go along and see him, even if you have done so before.
"Well worth seeing and also joined us for a beer at the bar afterwards. A lot of improvisation which makes the show for me."
- Chris from Staines (Ents24.com)
Read the full interview by Time Out comedy editor Tim Arthur here:
For full tour dates at present go here:
Finally, get an idea what we've been going on about here: