Double if.comedy Award nominee and host of BBC Radio 2’s Out To Lunch RUSSELL KANE is to embark on his first national tour. Following the sell-out success of his critically acclaimed stand-up show Gaping Flaws - shortlisted for Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s highest accolade this year - and hot on the heels of his BBC ONE Live at the Apollo performance this December, RUSSELL will play 36 dates nationwide from 5th January 2009.

Old teacups, Anthony Trollope, a Nan’s gammy hip: why are British people fond of flaws? Why does love grow in the cracks between cold perfection? Maybe it’s a British thing. We bond through moaning, two negatives do make a positive: how was your day? Cack? How was mine. Cack. Let’s go to the pub. Happiness.

Why is it that the leggy American supermodel may be stereotypically deemed perfect, but to the average British male she can never replace the girl-next-door with the dodgy eye who groped you behind the dog-poo bin. Britannia. Rule but don’t self love? Love your partner, but don’t tell anyone? Be proud of your son, but don’t show it too much? (A bit more would have been nice, Dad.)

Helped by Human PowerPoint SADIE HASLER (soon to be seen in the forthcoming ITV1 Al Murray’s Multiple Personality Disorder), RUSSELL examines what it is that makes Brits love their gaping flaws. So strap in. Love, race, politics and class are all covered. Super-speed sunderings and inconvenient sociology abound in an hour of self-soiling merriment and a show that puts itself down to make a point.

Acclaimed as a stand-up, writer and performer, RUSSELL KANE has firmly established himself as one of the fastest rising comic stars in the UK. The last 12 months has seen him: receive his second if.comedy Award nomination for his third sell-out Edinburgh show; perform his four-hander Fakespeare - by special invitation from the RSC - at Stratford-upon-Avon; join the relaunched Q Radio to present the station’s weekly Sunday show; host series 5 and 6 of Out To Lunch, BBC Radio 2’s innovative comedy show; present an acclaimed week-long residency on Big Brother’s Big Mouth (Channel 4 & E4); and travel across the US filming a series of travelogues and celebrity interviews for five US. He will star in BBC ONE’s Live at the Apollo, due to record this autumn, alongside host AL MURRAY.


ends

What the press has said about Russell Kane:

"Russell Kane is an exceptional comedian, his pace is relentless and his material beautifully observed and exquisitely crafted...This is inspiring and brilliant stand-up…perfect."
Corry Shaw, Chortle

"An ambitious show that achieves a curious beauty…keep your eye on him."
Stephen Armstrong, The Sunday Times

"Well on his way to rock-star status."
Nicholas Barber, The Independent on Sunday


For more information, images and review tickets, please contact: Jo Cross or Dan Lloyd. Tel: 020 7598 7222 or email: joc@avalonuk.com / danl@avalonuk.com


TOUR DATES

January
Monday 5th - CHATHAM Brook Theatre - 01634 338338
Saturday 31st - CLACTON-ON-SEA Princes Theatre - 01255 686633

February
Sunday 1st - SWANSEA Metropolitan University - 01792 655 400
Monday 2nd - CARDIFF St Davids Hall - Bar - 029 2087 8444
Tuesday 3rd - BRISTOL Jesters Comedy Club - 0117 909 6655
Saturday 7th - NEW MILTON Forest Arts Centre - 01425 612393
Sunday 8th - SOUTHAMPTON Nuffield Theatre - Studio - 023 8067 1771
Tuesday 10th - MANCHESTER The Comedy Store - 0844 826 0001
Wednesday 11th - SHEFFIELD Memorial Hall - 0114 2 789 789
Thursday 12th - BIRKENHEAD Pacific Road Art Centre - 0151 647 0752
Friday 13th - WARRINGTON Pyramid Arts Centre - 01925 442 345
Monday 16th - SOUTHEND Palace Theatre - Dixon Studio - 01702 351135
Wednesday 18th - SOUTHEND Palace Theatre - Dixon Studio - 01702 351135
Thursday 19th - DERBY Assembly Rooms - Darwin Suite - 01332 255800
Friday 20th - WOLVERHAMPTON The Little Civic - 0870 320 7000
Sunday 22nd - YORK Hyena Lounge Comedy Club - 0871 704 2054
Monday 23rd - PRESTON Guildhall The Foyer - 01772 258858
Tuesday 24th - LEEDS The Library - 0113 244 0794
Thursday 26th - LONDON Soho Theatre - 020 7478 0100
Friday 27th - LONDON Soho Theatre - 020 7478 0100
Saturday 28th - LONDON Soho Theatre - 020 7478 0100

March
Monday 2nd - RAVENSBOURNE University - tickets sold via the University
Tuesday 3rd - NORTHAMPTON The Picturedrome - 01604 230 777
Wednesday 4th - JERSEY Arts Centre - 01534 700444
Sunday 8th - WEYBRIDGE The Comedy Works - 0871 230 0010
Monday 9th - TELFORD Oakengates Theatre - 01952 382 382
Tuesday 10th - DARLINGTON Hilarity Bites - 01325 362364
Thursday 12th - WARWICK Arts Centre - 024 7652 4524
Friday 13th - KINGS LYNN Arts Centre - 01553 764864
Saturday 14th - TUNBRIDGE WELLS Trinity Theatre - 01892 678 678
Sunday 15th - CHELMSFORD Cramphorn Theatre - 01245 606505
Tuesday 17th - TAUNTON Wellsprings Leisure Centre - 01823 271 271
Wednesday 18th - CHELTENHAM Town Hall - 0844 576 2210
Friday 20th - DUNDEE Abertay Student Centre - 01382 308 950
Saturday 21st - GLASGOW Comedy Festival, The Garage - 0870 013 5464
Sunday 22nd - EDINBURGH The Stand - 0131 558 7272


AVALON PROMOTIONS


Avalon Promotions Limited is best known for its presentation of live comedy. In the last 12 months alone Avalon Promotions Limited has promoted CHRIS ADDISON, JENNY ECLAIR, RICHARD HERRING, RUSSELL HOWARD, LEE MACK, AL MURRAY - THE PUB LANDLORD, FRANK SKINNER, Edinburgh and Beyond, and Grumpy Old Women Live on sell-out tours around the UK, with Grumpy Old Women Live also embarking on a hugely successful tour of Australia. To date, Avalon has promoted five Perrier Award winners, and presented 17 Perrier Award and if.comedy Award nominees.

Avalon also produced and promoted Jerry Springer - The Opera at the National Theatre, at the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End and on national tour. Among many others, Avalon Promotions has staged: HARRY HILL at the Palace and Dominion Theatres in London; Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure at the Sydney Opera House, the Edinburgh Festival, on UK tour and at the Village Theatre, New York (nominated for Drama Desk Award 2004); AL MURRAY’s West End runs of My Gaff My Rules, A Glass of White Wine For the Lady (twice nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment) and …And Another Thing; Richard Herring’s Christ on a Bike, ménage à un at the Arts Theatre London; Are You Dave Gorman? at the Westbeth Theatre, New York (nominated for Drama Desk Award and winner of Time Out’s Best Comedy 2001); Baddiel & Skinner Unplanned at the Shaftesbury Theatre London; Frank Skinner Live at the London Palladium; and Grumpy Old Women Live at the Lyric Theatre. In 1993 Avalon Promotions presented NEWMAN & BADDIEL to a sold-out audience of 12,000 in the first comedy show ever to be staged at Wembley Arena. This was followed by FRANK SKINNER performing to a record-breaking audience of 6,000 at the Battersea Power Station.