Russell Kane: Human Dressage studies the way that individual people have their own ‘dressage’ – the way they move and think and look that makes each of us individual, yet also often makes us part of a group. Performed by Russell Kane in a frantic manner it is a thoughtful, yet occasionally scattergun, comedy monologue.

Supremely self-effacing at every turn, the comedian begins by looking at his own personality and beliefs – shaped largely, he admits, by his right-wing working-class father whose character he railed against. Wanting to be everything his father wasn’t he describes how he read books, attended university and became ever-so-slightly fey, equally helped and hindered by his free-spirited Nan.

It is this education (he has a degree in English) which has allowed him to put together this resolutely intellectual show. He distils the British mentality into a two-step dance move, ‘the passion and the pause’, in an effort to explain the strange mix of Friday night aggression with the work-day constraint. The provocative example he initially uses is a woman in an office who refuses to follow her desires from Monday to Friday, only to drunkenly live them out at the weekend and repress them once more as the new week dawns. The theme extends to include other nationalities, allowing Russell Kane to poke fun at Australians and Americans in a fresh and interesting way, utilising only a couple of hackneyed comedy clichés (Americans are confident, Australians are laid-back - yawn).

Hugely energetic throughout, the performer whirls around the stage, excitably jumping from one idea to the next. Constantly checking and judging himself and his material, he sometimes ties himself up in knots over how others see him – but this is never anything other than entertaining. At several points in the performance, whenever the comedian seems in danger of over-analysis or intellectual snobbery, he pulls himself up on these very points providing an interesting second contextual layer to proceedings.

The changing face of male behaviour is addressed with reference to his paternal projections onto an RAC man. Once again his father, an entertaining yet sad figure, looms large and the man ‘so tense he looks like a rhombus’ makes another welcome appearance. The revelation that he never called his son Russell, preferring the moniker ‘Boy’, tells its own story and yet there is still love in the comedian’s eyes.

His Nan is also a strong theme in this highly-personal show with a long riff on being caught masturbating building up to a cringe worthy climax. This is one of several sections where the jokes are slightly heavy-handedly shoe-horned into the theme but, given his enthusiasm for his subject this is a small criticism of a well thought-out and entertaining show.

A final section on his relationship with his younger brother is the weakest part of the set but the pay-off is very nearly worth the journey as the scatological conclusion hits home with a satisfying thud.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Russell Kane.

Company Credits: Writer: Russell Kane. Company – Avalon Promotions.

END

(c) David Hepburn 2009

reviewed Sunday 30 August 09 / Assembly Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, UK

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com