“The stupid face, the silly hair, the bracelets, what a repulsive man, take him away and smother him”. Well that’s what someone commented in the Evening Standard when I reviewed Russell Kane’s show Smallness at the Queen Elizabeth Hall earlier this year. I, on the other hand, rather like Kane. He is smart, funny and interested in going into places that stand-up doesn’t often go. Smallness is about the way the English like things to be little. We are repressed, we don't want to make a fuss, that sort of thing. It is a show packed with gags, stories and Kane's HS2-speed train of thought. He is very good at mining his own life, whether it is talking about an awkward experience with a celebrity in a hot tub or describing his loud Mancunian girlfriend who sounds larger than life rather than small. "We'd like to build a picket fence around our sunbed," he says of our little Englander mentality on holiday. It’s a coup getting Kane to do this low-key pub gig in Walthamstow, but then it is, after all, a small venue. Russell Kane is at the Red Imp Comedy Club with host Susan Murray tonight.

Russell Kane is at the Underbelly from August 20 - 22. Tickets here.