I know my Geordies, Sand Dancers & Mackems: Russell Kane on performing in the North East this Autumn

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

The 49-year-old star of stage and screen may have already brought the show to Sunderland but on Saturday, September 20, he will be at Tyne Theatre in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Before his arrival in Newcastle, 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’.”

How are you feeling about your North East trip?

“I love the Geordies. I worked on Geordie Shore a bit and I did the switch over show so I know all that lot. I know Vicky, I know Charlotte, and it's just a town I know really well. I know all the local jokes. I know how to f****** take the p*** out of people from South Shields versus Sunderland versus Newcastle versus, heaven forbid, North f***** Shields. I know what a Sand Dancer is, I know my Mackems, I know my Smoggies and I know what I'm f***** talking about and I get right f****** to it. One of the one of the best gigs of the tour so far has been Sunderland. I mean, honestly, if we're talking about response, Sunderland’s just got this amazing new venue called The Fire Station. I don't know what it is about the North East but once those guys go out the house, they're like ‘we're gonna f****** have it and we're gonna get mortal on laughter’ and they just don't hold back. For a comedian, the more energy you put in, the more I'm gonna put back and a comedian like me, whose act is energy, that's what I'm about, it really kicks off. So that one in the Tyne Theatre and Opera House, I mean, such an amazing venue, and the thing I like about Geordies is they can really take it. Like some cities you go to, if you're going to Liverpool, you don't take the p*** too much, you gotta show that respect. But Geordies are like ‘f****** do us, do us f******properly–...They can just take the f***** banter”.

Can you please describe your new show

“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.”

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.