Russell Kane: “My only job in life is to be funny”

Comedian Russell Kane

In the world of stand-up, acts are expected to turn over a significant amount of material every one or two years.

For some, such an evolutionary burden might prove too much but for Russell Kane this is a challenge he thoroughly relishes.

“I’ll keep changing and I don’t really ever want to stand still,” he says.

“I don’t care if it confuses people about where I’m coming from. I don’t want to be recognisable in five years’ time and that’s what keeps my writing going.

“One day I’m learning Spanish, the next I’m learning survivalism. I might do my maths GCSE next week: who knows?”

Kane is certainly a changed man. For his Right Man, Wrong Age tour, you’ll encounter someone with a new look, fresh perspectives and a different approach to his comedy. “In the last year I’ve been married and had a baby,” he says. “I’ve changed my hair, I’ve changed my look.

“I’ve thrown all my eyeliner in the bin. I literally went to my wardrobe one day and got all my ridiculous clothes and took them to the Sue Ryder shop for some other man having a midlife crisis then bought the four exact same suits in different colours from Topman.

“Then I got my hair as flat as it can go and I thought, ‘that’s it: this is me now’.”

With his image intact, the 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner is heavily focussed on making Right Man, Wrong Age the best show it can possibly be.

His topic explores how we never quite feel the life-stage that we’ve reached, whether that’s 80 or 18.

“When you’re 18, you look in the mirror and think, ‘I know what I want to do in life, so why am I trapped in this 18-year-old body?’ while the 80-year-old is still waltzing and dancing around in her head.

“That’s going to be my jumping-off point and from there I’ll do lots of accessible observations as well as the odd thinky bit.

“But I don’t want to disappear up my own bum with this show, I just want to go on in my suit (like Michael McIntyre or Peter Kay) and just have lots of big laughs.

“My only job in life is to be funny.”