Exclusive chat with Russell Kane as his first of two Lancashire shows is this weekend

Russell Kane is taking his latest show ‘HyperActive’ back on the road again this Autumn and it includes two stops in Lancashire.

First off, the 49-year-old star of stage and screen will be at the Blackpool Grand Theatre on Sunday, September 14.

He then returns to the Red Rose County for a show at Colne’s Muni Theatre on Saturday, November 1.

Before his arrival in Lancashire, Russell sat down for a chat with our celebrity reporter so see what he had to say below...

How are you feeling about getting back on the road with HyperActive?

“Well, I've never done four legs on a tour ever. I've done three a couple of times, and that felt over the top, but there was just the demand there so I've just carried on going. Obviously, once you put a fourth leg on, and some of the [venues] - for whatever reason, you couldn't get the dates, because you're always holding out for Fridays and Saturdays - sometimes you’ve got your Liverpool and Newcastle right at the end. And a lot of people have travelled to the Sunderland gig or I've done two nights in Chester, did three nights in Manchester, so it's a case of just beating the drum saying, ‘I am eventually coming, I'm coming to Liverpool, prepare for entry’.”

As well as Liverpool and Newcastle, you're coming up to Lancashire twice this autumn, both Blackpool and Colne so how are you feeling about that?

“You know what I'm glad Colne’s happening, because I was supposed to be playing Blackburn, and something went wrong with the theatre. I don't know what, if it was asbestos or something. I was like ‘s***. I've lost my Blackburn date’ and I love going up to that part of the country, because my local knowledge is really good. I'm married to a girl from Manchester, I live in Wilmslow in Cheshire. ‘Your food is empty, your car is leased’. I know I've got the local knowledge so I can do a lot of comedy, all about the accents and things like that. So I'm glad that this theatre, that I've never heard of, in Colne has stepped in, and I've managed to move my audience across. So I'm really excited about that.”

So you've not performed in Colne before, but have you performed in Blackpool?

“Yeah, loads, obviously, absolutely tons. And obviously I'm married to a manc so they talk about Blackpool the way someone from a faith will speak about Mecca or a Middle Eastern place or a temple that they have to go to. So they've got like religious significance up here, they will talk about their childhood in The Dalmeny Hotel… ‘Oh Morecambe as well, don't forget bloody Morecambe Lindsay’. So I've been to Morecambe and Blackpool multiple times for leisure. I've also worked there and gigged there a lot as well… I've gigged in Blackpool Tower! I've obviously worked there on the Strictly project a little bit as well… So, yeah, it's a place I know really well.”

You mentioned northerners viewing Blackpool as a bit of a Mecca but as an entertainer, do you see the town in that way as well?

“Yeah, well, the history is unreal. I mean to perform in the tower, which is where I was last time- I don't know where I am this time, might be the Grand Theatre, something like that -but the Grand was closed last time for refurbishment, and so they said you're going to be in the middle floor of the tower. And just the history of the Strictly dance floor. You know, I had two hours in between my tech and my show, and I was running around on the sprung Blackpool dance floor. And it's not just that, but my mother in law is an ex professional dancer, and she's not just an ex professional dancer, she used to be on Come Dancing when it was hosted by Terry Wogan back in the day, so she spent a lot of her creative life dancing in Blackpool in that very tower. So I do get a lot of brownie points from the northerners just for playing Blackpool. It's like Vegas really innit. It's like the Vegas of England so that's pretty cool playing that.”

What are Lancashire audiences like in your experience?

“Well, because I've got so much local knowledge, they're very receptive. I can do comedy about Bury, Wigan, North Manchester, South Manchester, Wilmslow, I talk about Snake Pass going across to Sheffield like I just know so much about the area. I can do 40 minutes taking the p*** out of each town so they can't believe it, really, because obviously I sound like I sell jellied eels and steal Playstations. So it's just good. Being married to one, they've also always got an argument going on. They're always falling out with each other -even Oasis ‘ah, f*** you, I'm the best brother’- and obviously for comedy purposes, it's brilliant. Any sort of squabbling or drama I can turn into a routine.”

And aside from drama, will you be getting up to anything whilst you visit Lancashire?

“Well, I virtually live in Lancashire, don't I? So we're always out and about, I've got a nine year old, so I'm always looking for things to do. But obviously Blackpool, you get there a bit early, you just gotta have some fish and chips. Last time we made a weekend of it, and I took my daughter. We went on all the rides and things like that, going on the amusements and eating in the restaurants. There’s just a sense of history and you could sort of feel the ghosts of - because that was like Ibiza ‘til about 30 years ago. Let's face it, for most Brits, that was your main holiday. You didn't get on an airplane. If you're working class, you went to Margate or South End if you were from my neck of the woods and if you're a northerner, you went to Blackpool. If you were lucky, you got to do both. So it is our whole tourist industry. You know, the Lancashire Riviera.”

You're obviously coming to the Lancashire Riviera with your new show so can you please describe it to me?

“High energy, hurt you with laughter from start to finish, tailored for that audience on that night, particularly when I'm in the north west. But also, I wouldn't describe myself as a Chinese meal. A lot of comedy shows are what I call Chinese meal comedy shows, you feel so full of laughter, and then an hour late, you're like, ‘what did he talk about?’, ‘I don't remember’, ‘Oh, I'm hungry again’. Whereas I will talk about Gen Z. Gen Z don't come to the theatre anymore, they don't go and watch stand up. Why is that? So we could just mock them and make fun of them for being sensitive, which, of course, I do at length, so all the old people enjoy it. But then I like to get to what's going on there. Why are they sensitive? What's happening? Why are men down? You know, we can laugh at men for being miserable, porn addicted d******** but why are they? So I do the humour in the why and the beyond, and it all builds to something, there's always an ending to my show.

“I try to move people, but I don't sacrifice even half a percent of my laughs. Not many people do that mixture. The show's either a bit too dry and cerebral or ‘oh look, here’s a fork for a fork draw’ or ‘isn't Easy Jet bad’ - or the other one is making fun of trans people, gay people, disabled people. That seems to be the new humour that everyone wants to do, just find a minority group and rip into them. So I don't do any of that. I do really funny s*** but I'll go into the why. I do talk about everything. I'm not some lefty, liberal p*****, I'm neutral in my politics, everything gets attacked, but we go deep and it's f*****funny. I’m getting a lot of messages from people that are going ‘I know it’s just a show but I've really changed the way I think about X, Y, Z, based on’ or ‘my husband's doing something different now’, or I do a bit about being impulsive so I get lots of couples just flying to Ibiza. So it's got a help element to it, it's got a spiritual dimension to it but that's not w****, it's not unapproachable.”

Why should people get the tickets to see maybe your last HyperActive shows?

“If you want something from comedy, where you're going to laugh ‘til you're hurt, but you'll also be changed and get something positive from it. There's a lot of debate about whether stand up comedy is an art or whether it's just an entertainment, like watching telly or something. We go to see classical music, that's art. If we go to the gallery, that's art. If we watch Shakespeare, that's art. Emmerdale -no one's calling that art. So where is stand up? It’s somewhere in between, but stand up can be something that has artistic merit. And my criterion is, ‘are you changed by what you've seen in a meaningful way’? That's what I seek to do whilst injuring you with laughter. Someone literally had a heart attack and had to come back and watch the show at another venue, at one of the gigs I did. I mean, it really goes off in the first 20 minutes, and then we change gears and we f****** take the p*** out of the stuff that really matters. Like, why aren't we living a full life? Why don't couple’s f*** each other? Why are young people b******* that are offended by everything? You know, why was Greg Wallace cancelled for making a joke at work, was it right? We go there and we explore it.”

If this show has the most legs you've ever done, does that mean it's your best show yet?

“I would say so. Every show a comedian does should be better because they're more mature and you know more things about life. So unless you're experiencing some sort of cognitive decline or performance based decline, there's no excuse for the show's not improving. I'm a massive advocate for continued growth throughout life. There is no statistics anywhere that proves human beings stop growing past any age. It's a complete f***** myth. Do not give in. Continue to grow and change, and you should expect the same from your comedians as well. If your taking money off people in a cost of living crisis, you better deliver a better thing than you did last time.”

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Is there anything else in the pipeline for you once this leg is over that you want to mention?

“The stuff I'm doing while this leg is going is nearly breaking me, but I'm loving it. Evil Genius, I'm now doing 24 episodes a year for that for Radio 4. It's also on TV, if you're lucky enough to have Sky content. We've done Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill - it's been a huge hit for me. My kids book, Pet Selector, biggest surprise ever. I'm touring that and I've got three more kids books to write next year. They've done a three book deal on that. I'm also obviously cropping up on all the usual stuff you would expect, Qi, all the panel shows, and I just started to work on an ITV project, which can't really say much about, but that's quite exciting. And also, my anti aging business that I run with my wife is just [gestures a huge growth]. Obviously, I'm about to turn 50 - I'm off to Ibiza to celebrate that- so the older I get, the more people want to talk about what I'm doing to slow down aging. So that's another world I'm interested in, maybe making a documentary about and exploring.

“But, yeah, I'm just making lots and lots of series for Radio Four. I don't know what it is they see in me, maybe I'm diverse to Radio 4 because I sound like a peasant, I don't know? But I'm doing a lot with them, my little ITV project, lots of writing and if I do take a full year off next year of touring, you'll still be able to catch me at gigs. I really would like to do something a bit different on stage, either perform stand up for children or perform Shakespeare. I will do one of those things, if not both, next year. So watch this space.

Well I look forward to welcoming you to Blackpool when you're doing William Shakespeare!

“Imagine that, live at ‘top of tower, ‘amlet.”. I could see that working in the tower or if do Romeo and Juliet, the tower would be an interesting place to take it. We’ll see!”