Russell Kane

Usually spied just around the corner at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Russell Kane is entering un-charted territory this August; leaving his fellow comics behind and stepping into Charlotte Square Gardens to talk about his debut novel The Humorist. Benjamin Davids White is blessed with the extraordinary ability to understand humour at the deepest level, making him one of the world’s greatest comedy critics. Yet he is also cursed; even in the presence of some of the funniest comedians, Benjamin has never been able to stutter a laugh or crack a smile. So when he discovers the secret formula to the world’s most powerful joke, a joke that has the power to kill, the human race had better watch out… 

Russell Kane was born in Enfield, Essex.  After a brief stint as a shop assistant (following some ‘drug-assisted exam failures’) he decided to give up the day job and head to university, where he achieved a first class degree in English Literature. Following a few name changes (you may have once known Kane as the distinguished ‘Lord Russell Grineau’) and an off-hand suggestion by a work colleague to have a go at stand-up, he is now one of Britain’s most popular comedians and TV presenters; winning the 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show, and hosting countless TV shows including Big Brother’s Big Mouth, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Now, Freak Like Me and Britain Unzipped. He also took part in the Children in Need edition of Mastermind, which he won with the specialist subject ‘The Life and Novels of Evelyn Waugh’.

Kane currently lives in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex with his cats Keith and Wayne. You can visit his website here, or watch him morph into a, rather fetching, Beyonce for Comic Relief here.