“Thou art lazier than Columbo’s eye.”
After last year’s acclaimed debut Edinburgh play, RUSSELL KANE’s Fakespeare is back with a brand new bawdy romp in blank verse. Following a hit three-day run at last year’s Festival and a prestigious performance at the RSC’s main stage in Stratford-Upon-Avon last autumn, the double if.comedy Award nominee returns to present Fakespeare: The Tragickal Saveings of King Nigel.
King Nigel is an Essex banker who has lost everything. No options are left (yes - a banking pun), and thus he must himself do in. But can his secret love and PA - Donna of Billericay - save him from himself? Or will she also be pulled in to his bubbling pit of excremental mental evil and that?
“When is
a burger no longer a burger, and
not even bread. Removéd from my bun,
I am but a limp patty, a meat-head.
A false whopper, lying at mine own feet.
The chips are down, all is lost and gambled.
I, unking’d, am mayonnaised with fat lies.
Whopper in name only, thus shallow fried.”
RUSSELL KANE writes, directs and stars alongside SADIE HASLER (Al Murray’s Multiple Personality Disorder ITV1) in Fakespeare: The Tragickal Saveings of King Nigel: a story of financial loss and unspoken lust - set in a modern-day Essex where everyone speaks in Shakespearean verse.
RUSSELL returns to the Festival Fringe after a prolific twelve months since his 2008 if.comedy Award nomination. This year has included: embarking on his first UK tour, with the acclaimed Gaping Flaws; appearing on the last series of BBC1’s flagship live comedy show Live at the Apollo alongside AL MURRAY; and completing a nine-week tour of Australia, which included a full run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In addition to Fakespeare: The Tragickal Saveings of King Nigel, RUSSELL will also be presenting his brand new stand-up show Human Dressage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Immediately following on from the Festival, RUSSELL will return to the road with his second national tour in six months, performing this show up and down the country.
ends
What the press has said about last year’s three-show Edinburgh run of Russell Kane’s Fakespeare:
"Wonderful play from this very gifted young comedian."
Tim Arthur, Time Out
"The rising star surpasses himself… Clever and funny."
Stephen Armstrong, The Sunday Times
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Venue: Pleasance Cellar
Date: 5th - 31st August 2009 [excluding 17th August]
Time: 14:10
Box Office: 0131 556 6550
For more information and press tickets, please contact: Jo Cross, Ben Nolan, Jenny Stewart or Dan Lloyd. Tel: 08700 70 50 50 [Edinburgh office] or 020 7598 7222 [London office]. Email: joc@avalonuk.com, benn@avalonuk.com, jenny.stewart@avalonuk.com or danl@avalonuk.com
WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT RUSSELL KANE’S:
…Gaping Flaws
"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
"A fierce intelligence with an irreverent streetwise line of patter… Kane's background provides the richest seam of anthropological material and a compassionate context for his more cutting observations. Delivered at a break-neck speed, his set flits easily between the crude and the cerebral and makes telling points with both approaches. Gaping Flaws is one of those rare shows that makes an hour seem a very short time."
Jonathan Trew, The Scotland on Sunday
"‘Gaping Flaws’ marks Russell Kane’s stand-up ascendancy."
Ian Phillips, The National Student
"Much of his rantings and comedy make sense as does the fact that you should try and get a ticket for his show if you can."
one4review
"A streetsmart intellectual, taking the everyday and adding his literate, sideways spin."
Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard
"The kind of gags that make you snort beer out of your nose… An impressive punchline rate."
Mickey Noonan, Metro
"Passionate and relentlessly punchy in his delivery."
Jay Richardson, The Scotsman
"Hip-thrusting his way across the stage, Kane fires out anecdotes and witty asides with machine-gun frequency, his pitch-perfect observations hitting the mark every time… Anecdotes are not simply told, but illustrated with hilariously drawn impressions of the characters that inhabit them, and Kane's gloriously charismatic performance exudes energy and spark."
Hannah Thomas, Fest
"His 60-minute meditation on the flaws of humans has a thumping heart and a burning soul."
Brian Donaldson, The List
"Well on his way to rock-star status… Kane springs and struts around the stage like a boxer, and sounds like a Ben Elton who actually is working class… he's getting better and better."
Nicholas Barber, Independent on Sunday
"There's enough bawdiness in his relentless, energetic material to please the less discerning punter, but it's underpinned by subtly serious points."
Stephanie Merritt, The Guardian
…Easy Cliché and Tired Stereotype
"Jaw-achingly faultless… cements Kane’s status as masterful observational comic."
Alison Lutton, Fest
"The best show we’ve seen."
LBC
"The Perrier nominee is about as smart a young comic as you’re likely to find."
Stephen Armstrong, The Sunday Times
"It's his quick-fire, spur-of-the-moment jokes and comments which prove that the man is genuinely hilarious."
Three Weeks
"Great skill and huge laughs… it’s refreshing to find an hour where the conceit never feels strained."
Mickey Noonan, Metro
"At one point, Kane refers to a loud noise outside as the stars falling off his reviews. Only the one Russell."
Marissa Burgess, The List
…The Theory of Pretension
"Kane is an intelligent, confident comedian who can make us look at ourselves and laugh, regardless of the sometimes unpalatable view. His ferocious, rapid fire delivery and needle sharp observations are accurate and genuinely funny. A proper stand-up comedian; a lot rarer these days than you think."
Drew Tosh, The List
"It’s also hilarious from start-to-finish, as he thrusts about revealing Shakespeare as the rubbish comedian we all knew he was at school, exposing the fallacy of the jobsworth, and explaining how the ultimate antidote to pretentiousness is silliness. Kane has a rambling, hyperactive style, though it’s clearly a very carefully constructed narrative, flexible enough for ad-libbing with the audience and quick-witted brainwaves that leave the audience floored with laughter."
Ally Brown, Skinny Fest
"Few Edinburgh newcomers make performing look this fluid… It looks like his rise to meteoric heights is about to begin."
Sharon Lougher, Metro
"Stand-up Russell Kane is one to watch."
Jonathan Trew, Scotland on Sunday
AVALON PROMOTIONS
Avalon Promotions Limited is one of the leading promoters of live comedy in the UK. Productions include: NEWMAN & BADDIEL in the first comedy show ever to be staged at Wembley Arena; FRANK SKINNER’s record-breaking performance to an audience of 6,000 at the Battersea Power Station; Jerry Springer - The Opera at the National Theatre, at the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End, on national tour and at New York’s Carnegie Hall; HARRY HILL at the Palace and Dominion Theatres in London; and Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure at the Sydney Opera House, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, on national tour and at the Village Theatre, New York (nominated for Drama Desk Award 2004).
The last 12 months has seen Avalon Promotions: present multi-award winning comics JENNY ECLAIR, RICHARD HERRING, RUSSELL HOWARD and FRANK SKINNER on sell-out runs; produce AL MURRAY, THE PUB LANDLORD live at the O2 and RUSSELL HOWARD at Wembley Arena; introduce some of the fastest-rising stars in comedy such as RUSSELL KANE, KRISTEN SCHAAL & KURT BRAUNOHLER and ISY SUTTIE; produce stage shows, such as Frank Skinner’s Credit Crunch Cabaret and Grumpy Old Women Live, which has toured the UK three times and performed a highly successful run in Australia; and present 23 acts at the Edinburgh Festival, where it has promoted a total of five Perrier Award winners and 17 Perrier Award/if.comedy Award nominees in just 20 years.
