Russell Kane - Easy Cliché & Tired Stereotype

Russell Kane initially spends a good chunk of this show pandering to his audience, breaking the ice with recently-garnered local humour, and promising the good stuff is still to come. When it does, however, it’s so jaw-achingly faultless that he really needn’t have bothered: Easy Cliché and Tired Stereotype cements Kane’s status as masterful observational comic.

So resolutely uncynical and upbeat is Kane’s performance that it’s easy to forget how often his subject matter – racial and class stereotypes and, perhaps most dubiously, bad comedy itself – is abused by lesser comedians. Whether he’s talking about American faddiness and incomprehension of irony, or impersonating an archetypal Essex wide-boy, Kane manages to keep it fresh. This is thanks in no small part to his impeccable stage manner: despite currently suffering from a back injury, Kane is unwaveringly energetic, the breakneck onslaught of his delivery scattered with blink-and-you’ll-miss-them asides and even the occasional sobering truism.

In the same, all-encompassing way, Kane absolutely refuses to let any member of the audience get away straight-faced. Whether gently goading what he identifies early on as the "intellectual corner", attempting to woo a lucky lady with "fakespearean" prose or just playing to audience members from the countries he discusses, Kane remains biting yet unthreatening. He simply has no need to be: his superfast reactions and natural charisma render stereotypical audience-baiting entirely redundant.

Kane actually goes one better than his self-professed aim to "turn cliché on its head," rejecting the sardonic perspective this would imply and corrupting cliché with his relentless charm. It’s safe to say he’ll have the same effect on any lingering detractors before long.