A “fast, mental, neurotic bastard” is how Russell Kane describes himself – and there’s no sign the 43-year-old will be slowing down any time soon. Yes, he’s moved to Cheshire, fathered a child and is now hobnobbing with Prince Charles – but in this new touring show, his standup is as much of a whirlwind as when he won the Edinburgh comedy award almost a decade ago.
Which is just as well, because there are times in The Fast and the Curious when it’s his hyperactive manner that makes an impression rather than the jokes. His gags about binary personality types, drawing on his opposites-attract relationship with wife Lindsey, rely on strenuous generalisations. The Mallorca holiday routine recycles well-worn Brits-on-the-piss cliches. His contribution to that burgeoning standup sub-genre, the anecdote about going weak-kneed in the presence of royalty, conforms to starstruck convention.
But these lapses in comic quality are seldom keenly felt, because our host works tirelessly to bring the material to over-stimulated life. Characters – including his macho Essex dad, a staple of Kane’s earlier shows – are splayed across the stage like cartoons. Lindsey is a Mancunian accent – and attitude – gone (champagne) supernova. Daughter Mina is a malevolent sprite, whose breath-holding condition wreaks havoc in supermarkets.
Kane’s operatic vomiting routine is revived from his 2016 show, but its pop-eyed, lung-busting body horror justifies a second viewing. Elsewhere, he’s forever clenching his “secret fist” in suppressed fury, at people who take baths, say, or at attention-seekers (himself included) on social media.
The show is bound together only by its cast of recurring characters, the most prominent being Kane himself – an impatient southerner transplanted to the north, a highly strung husband tethered to a carefree wife, and a slave to the cacophonous overthinking going on inside his head. An opening 10 minutes on our EU turmoil – from the “bi-Brexional” perspective of a working-class boy turned liberal elitist – whets the appetite for a show that doesn’t materialise. What we get instead is not Kane’s most ambitious set – but plenty of laughs are won as he brings marriage, early parenthood and the provinces to Looney Tunes life.
Russell Kane is touring until 7 December.
