Russell Kane talks to WinkBall about his debut novel 'The Humorist'.
One of the exciting new British comedy acts to come out on the comedy scene in recent years, stand up and presenter Russell Kane has amassed a growing army of fans with his wacky, off the wall and painstaking observational approach to British-ness in his humour. First starting out on the comedy circuit in the UK, playing a series of low key and high profile gigs including the prestigious arts festival Edinburgh fringe, Russell soon made his way into television making appearances on ‘Big Brother’s Big Mouth’, ‘Live at the Apollo’, ‘Mock the Week’ and ‘8 out of 10 cats’. Since then Russell’s career has taken off and he has become one of Britain’s most loved comics with his style likened to fellow Russells, Brand and Howard. Always exploring other projects, Russell has taken his love and talent for comedy and applied it to his debut novel. Titled ‘The Humorist’, it tells the story of Benjamin White, a comedy critic who is a genius of humour and has a perfect perception for the art, but is unable to emotionally experience it as a person. The idea came to Russell when watching a documentary concerning autistic children who were able to draw fantastic pieces of art but were unable to emotionally experience the beauty of art as a subject matter. With this, Russell adapted this concept and thought it would be interesting to look at someone who had a perfect perception of comedy but could not emotionally understand it. With this new book, Russell has been promoting the novel and on Tuesday 15th May 2012, the stand up comedian presented his debut novel to crowds at a book signing at book chain store Waterstones on London’s Finchley Road. WinkBall video reporters Alex and Darryl were down at the store to speak to fans who had come to see Russell and buy his new book.