Russell Kane - Easy Cliche and Tired Stereotype

Published Tuesday 14 August 2007 at 10:55 by William McEvoy

Russell Kane’s new show is a hilarious mix of stand up comedy and short sketches. It pokes fun at cliches of all kinds, from national stereotypes to the division between arty types and scientists, or Guardian and Daily Mail readers.

Laughs come thick and fast as Kane effortlessly wins the audience over. His slightly camp manner, bendy physicality and sheer energy add vigour to a clever script and witty ad-libs. He brings freshness to well-worn jokes about Leith and Morningside, before expanding horizons to take in the US and New Zealand.

The sketches are more hit than miss too, with a rib-tickling parody of Shakespearean language and a real belly laugh of a sketch about a right-on bookshop feminist who’s also a hardcore porn director. The formula helps give the evening variety, although not all the sketches, such as one about an Islamic fundamentalist, are equally strong.

Kane brings the audience on board without intimidating them. His observational comedy is generous, acerbic and intelligent and he performs with an ease and fluidity which many other stand ups would envy.